Bearded Joe [dot] com

I’ve been using Aperture ever since I bought a DSLR about a year and a half ago. In terms of functionality, I can’t even imagine what post-processing would be like without it.

I can plug in a memory card from any one of dozens of different DSLR’s and Aperture knows exactly how to handle it.

I can save presets for any of the post-processing techniques I use, and apply them to any of the photos that need the same work done. (Note to Apple, being able to apply presets in batch to a set of images would be the best thing ever. If that functionality exists, and I just don’t know about it, someone please enlighten me).

With the Flickr plugin, I can publish my photos in just a few clicks. The built-in gallery publishing feature is also very intuitive and useful.

So I’m sold on the functionality, but there’s a downside. This program gives me more of the dreaded Spinning-beach-balls than I’ve ever seen. I have a 1G Macbook Pro 1.83 Core duo, with maxed out (2GB) RAM. Photoshop CS3 runs like a dream. So does everything else I throw at this machine. Unfortunately, if I open up Aperture and click "Import All" on a card with 50-400 images on it, I can kiss my system responsiveness goodbye for at least 10 minutes.

Granted, I shoot RAW, but I also shoot with a Nikon D2H, which is a mere 4MP, and filesize is about 5MB. If I’m having trouble, how are people using this program with D200’s, D2X’s, or D40X’s.& Not to mention what it’s going to be like when someone plugs in a Canon 1Ds Mk III (Canon’s new 21MP behemoth pro body).

Am I doing something wrong? Or is my barely-a-year-old top-of-the-line laptop already obsolete? If only I’d waited a month to get a Core-2 duo. Though not any faster, I could’ve ran 4GB of RAM.

In searching the web for "Speed up Aperture," I did find a couple tips. The most obvious was to reindex the database. I’ll give it a try, but I think this will really only speed up browsing photos. I just want to be able to start post-processing pictures as they’re being downloaded from the CF card. 

Any tips on speeding up Aperture would be greatly appreciated. I think it’s time Apple says "The functionality is there, lets start optimizing."