aapl.crox wrote:
But just to clarify, is there a difference between the first version (imported from the camera) and the duplicated version?
No, there is not. The "first-born" has no special rank in Aperture-land.
Does it matter which one I delete?
No, it does not.
Someone I always imagine the first version is the "true" original but I suppose it's all the same?
There is no "true" Version. They are all just Versions based on the same Original. ("Original" is what Aperture calls your image files once you import them.) They are all of equal rank within Aperture. None is special.
The first Version created is often a "null Version" -- it contains no instructions for adjustments or metadata changes. If you added adjustments or metadata on import, then your first Versions are not null. Null-ness, however, is just a description that carries some meaning for us: to Aperture they are all just Versions that contain instructions. In the case of a null Version, the instructions are: "Do nothing".
And just to confirm, if I delete both, basically I would lose the entire photo correct?
Yes. When you put the last Version of any Original in the Aperture Trash, and then empty the Aperture Trash, Aperture removes the record of the Original from its database (the Aperture database is called "the Library") and puts the Original in the system trash.
But let me insist on specificity. "Photo" has no fixed meaning to Aperture; its use may cause confusion (and potentially data loss). You import files. On import, Aperture lists your file in its database, creates a Version (this is, in actuality, a text file), and creates an Image, which is the result of the instructions in the Version text file being applied to the file you imported. What you see in the Browser and the Viewer are Images created on-the-fly by applying the instructions in the Version file to the data in the Original. Every Version file corresponds to exactly one Image, but each Original can have as many Versions (and thus Images) as you want. When you put in the Aperture Trash the last remaining Image for an Original, and then empty the Aperture Trash, Aperture deletes the record of that Original from the Library, and puts the Original (unless, in the case of Referenced Originals, you tell it otherwise) in the system trash.
HTH?
--Kirby.