Before I spend my money...

That's because mac is the first one with the thunderbolt connection. There will be also a version for windows pc's and then it'll take off.

A lot of storage might come in handy. I have also a lot of storage and it's very welcome. Yes, raid 5 and 6 is very secure...it'll cost you some space but it'll save you in the end when disks start to die on you.

An image of your install might also be a good idea. Some image software can put back complete installs faster then raid 5 or 6 can heal itself! Also goes for backups, of course.

But, we have to wait for mid summer, when the new motherboards and processors are released. Then we should see more thunderbolt like stuff comming to the market.

dresner said:

Actually, the Promise is part of an over all local storage scheme I'm thinking about when I get an iMac sometime this year. I have used RAID boxes before for stooge and I find them to be excellent. I use a Synology 5 bay NAS at my office for many reasons and when 2 of the drives died at the same time, the RAID 6 saved all my data, kept things going while I got the new drives installed and the partition was rebuilt.

I do wish there were other options on the market for Thunderbolt storage, but it seems that everyone is dragging their feet to release devices. Yea, we can all argue up and down why...but I do believe USB3 and TB will compliment each other.

Lets not go off topic This thread has become very interesting!!!

Click to expand...

I am one of the ones who doesn't prefer LR so much. I did the free trial rounds and settled on sagelight editor. I just like the interface and well everything about it seems to speak better to me and how my mind works. Many don't like it for various reasons.

So to make things even harder on you I suggest you give sagelight a run by getting its 30 day trial. Especially if you are like me and don't like LR's interface.

Now sagelight is a more intense editor with more features and capabilities than LR, and not the niffty LR DAM operations... for importing and organizing I use both PMB (sony's free software-as I have a sony a65) and picasa I just picked up and I've found it to be a great viewer and wonderul for the simple importing needs I have. And picasa for free comes with some editting.

But check out the sagelight site, look to the tutorials and mess of other material and give it a go. And especially check out the forum as many features people seem it is lacking are in the works in soon to be released updates.

Might be something that works for you. And might as well try it out on trial. I also had tried LR 3, LR 4, Photoline, Zoner, Aftershot Pro, and one other I believe. Er two others.. esh. I also have and used a little GIMP. GIMP would be my nitty-gritty but I still need to learn it for sure.

Many options out there. Check it! And have fun!

not even remotely close to LR3/4.

Sorry.

Ha, close good, close bad?

Sagelight makes you work them a little more once they are in since it doesn't apply as many of it's own processing before hand. Once you load them in, try moving the contrast slider in quick edit.

I know my RAWs if shot in my house are typically at ISO 1600 and noise can be cumbersome and I really like LR's noise reduction. Look forward to sagelights revamp in the noise reduction arena for sure! LR has niffty noise reduction for sure.

One of many good aspects of Lightroom is that you can use Topaz Denoise which is miles better than LR's own.

Darlene - you made these same inaccurate remarks in another thread. I know you are new to the program, but what you are saying is incorrect and misleading. Somehow, you have to do enough reading and study on Lightroom to understand how it's non-destructive workflow actually works. You don't understand how the Catalog in Lightroom works, no do you understand the various options for managing images in a common folder stack. You do not understand why Lightroom adds the images to it's database. And you do not understand why the program does not need to "save" bunches of intermediate images. The whole thing is way too complicated to "teach" here on a forum. Please watch some tutorials. Please read the manual.

Darlene Goff said:

I am new to LR 3 and correct me if I am wrong, but there is no way to "save" a photo in LR. You make changes and either send it as a PSD or tiff (why not a JPG choice?) to Photoshop if you have it OR you export it to a file you have designated. And then LR keeps track of those changes and is associated with the photo, maybe not directly but it does keep a catalog on your hard drive. Or catalogs. That is what I do not want so I save in PS as a jpeg into the folder I choose. But the tools are fantastic. Why make a database? Or at least why not make it so you can use the program without it. Every free or cheap program that comes with a camera offers a database. I made my own, plus there is one in Windows 7 or Vista. So for me, terrific tools I need saddled down with a very clunky and unintuitive database.

Click to expand...

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}

http://www.dougwigton.com/

If you can afford it, the Promise is AMAZINGLY fast. I'm sure that Thunderbolt devices will start being more available now that Intel has started shipping TB capability in the pre made logic boards. And when that happens, TB will become much cheaper.

As to your question about Aperture vs. Lightroom, if you do some searching on here you will find rabid proponents for either. I use and teach both at the Art Institute. Both are fine programs, and by hook or crook you can accomplish much the same in either. Lightroom 3 is going to be replaced by Lightroom 4 in about a month or two. There is a public Beta of LR4 available right now. Good till the end of March. Why buy 3 now and pay the upgrade in a month? Also, Aperture 3 is very long in the tooth. It has been two years since it has been updated. There are some strong rumors that Aperture 4 will be out before the end of March. I would wait to see what that brings. Outside of the lack of lens correction (I use the excellent PTlens plugin for those that really need lens corrections), and not quite so good noise correction (I use Noise Ninja plugin for that), Aperture is a great program. I especially like the non-modal interface, the easy customization of the interface, the much stronger and more intuitive organization tools, the true Full Screen editing mode, the Book creation tool that allows complete free form page layout and customization with plugins for professional album printers, and the unique slideshow creation tool that allows both video clips and stills mixed together on a true "timeline" with advanced transitions, pan and zoom, text overlays, Titles, and a multi-track sound track with possible voiceovers and multiple music selections per slideshow. Heck, even if I was using Lightroom as my primary tool, I'd buy Aperture for $79 just to use the Book and Slideshow modules!

Lightroom has placed most of it's emphasis on image adjustment. And it has excellent tools for this. Arguably, at this point, somewhat better than AP3. However, I dislike the modal interface that has you running back and forth constantly between the various modules. I dislike the sort of medium grey on dark grey interface. My old eyes have difficulty with the small text with low contrast. It lacks a "true" full screen mode (yes, I know you can use "shift-tab" followed by "L,L" to get something that kind of looks full screen, but it really isn't). Even the new book module in LR4 is really lame. You are limited to only the book sizes and page sizes and layout templates provided by Blurb, and the books are quite expensive for what they are. They have not done anything to improve the very lame slideshow module (only one song for the whole slideshow?, only one transition type?). Even though they allow you to store video clips in the Library, and sort of play them and trim the ends, you can't "use" them in a slideshow!

So, all of that said, I'd wait for a month or so to see what shakes out. Perhaps AP4 will have so much new stuff it will make your decision easy, or it won't, and Adobe will add some better stuff to the shipping version of LR4.

And, I would also think heavily about adding Photoshop to your arsenal as well. There are times when neither program can do everything you want. (By the way, CS6 is coming out this summer, so don't buy CS5 just now - and see about how you could qualify for the student/teacher discount).

dresner said:

Actually, the Promise is part of an over all local storage scheme I'm thinking about when I get an iMac sometime this year. I have used RAID boxes before for stooge and I find them to be excellent. I use a Synology 5 bay NAS at my office for many reasons and when 2 of the drives died at the same time, the RAID 6 saved all my data, kept things going while I got the new drives installed and the partition was rebuilt.

I do wish there were other options on the market for Thunderbolt storage, but it seems that everyone is dragging their feet to release devices. Yea, we can all argue up and down why...but I do believe USB3 and TB will compliment each other.

Lets not go off topic This thread has become very interesting!!!

Click to expand...

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}

http://www.dougwigton.com/

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Capture One. Believe me, I have run more head to head comparisons with LR and Aperture than I care to mention, and C1 almost always produces more pleasing images with a 3D, lifelike quality. I would advise the OP to download a trial version before making a final decision.

Rob

I think you are right about the quality of the conversion in C1. They bought iView Media Pro from Microsoft this last year. If they could cleverly integrate the two into a single workflow program, and add in some of the other features of Aperture or Lightroom, I think they would have a very competitive program. Also, I don't think anyone should count out After Shot Pro.
--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}

http://www.dougwigton.com/

Wow. I was busy writing the second piece linked below as this thread was going on, and somehow I missed most of it. Really interesting and generally well-informed and informative dialog.

These are treatments I did on Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Lightroom, and AfterShot Pro just as they relate to my particular workflow, with varying amounts of hit-and-run commentary on a few of the other products mentioned here. I use a PC, so I have no experience with Aperture.

Reading these will take you a little longer than a quick training video on YouTube and by now you will have heard much of what they have to say (including this thread), but maybe they'll be of some use.

http://www.bluedonkeyphotography.com/A_Modest_Exercise.pdf

http://www.bluedonkeyphotography.com/A_Modest_Exercise_Part_Two.pdf

Be patient with Part Two - it's a big file.

Good luck in any event.

DJB

Alpha Doug said:

I think you are right about the quality of the conversion in C1. They bought iView Media Pro from Microsoft this last year. If they could cleverly integrate the two into a single workflow program, and add in some of the other features of Aperture or Lightroom, I think they would have a very competitive program. Also, I don't think anyone should count out After Shot Pro.
--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}

http://www.dougwigton.com/

Click to expand...

I truly think that Capture One gives the best results of all the major commercial raw convertors, although I have not yet compared it to Lightroom 4. Still, for those who want the very best, there is Raw Photo Processor (RPP), which is a bare bones, Mac only program that produces more detail and better tonality than anything else that I have ever tried. RPP contains no browser and requires a secondary editor, such as Photoshop, to apply the finishing touches. Because of these workflow issues, I save it for my best images. Unquestionably, it is worth the additional time and effort.

Rob

Nice write ups Dale. Thanks.

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}

http://www.dougwigton.com/