Pixelated/ Digitized Images

I take it you shot RAW files?

It sounds like Aperture is reading the jpg thumbnail from the RAW file, not the RAW data itself.

If you click on an image, do you get a gray box with "Unsupported Image" in the View or Full screen?

If so, couple of thoughts: ℹ it could be that the DigitalCameraRAW update didn't work. Re-download (search for "Digital Camera Raw") and install, or (ii) try importing from a CF card reader vs. the camera.

G.

The Raw support update is not needed for D70 and D200 support. Check your camera settings. You didn't set your cameras to low resolution JPEG, did you? Or perhaps you set it to RAW+JPEG, and then imported only the JPEGs?

Do you import directly into Aperture from the card? Or do you use some other program to import the files to disk, then to Aperture? In the latter case, whatever you used to import may have extracted/created the low-res files.

Try using the Finder to copy a few NEFs directly from the card to the hard disk. Then open them in Preview or the Nikon software that came with the camera. If that works, there's probably something wrong with Aperture or its settings.

Apple Store may be your best bet.

Have you tried importing some of the images Aperture fails to render into iPhoto? I believe you said you'd tried Preview but not sure it was on the same image(s). Aperture, iPhoto and Preview all use CoreImage to handle RAW conversion, although Aperture uses more elegant settings and fine tuning adjustments. However, at this level, either should show that the image is OK, or point at CoreImage being the culprit.

Other ideas to try to try and narrow the issue down:
Move your Aperture library / rename it.
Open Aperture which will create a new library
Set preferences to import as reference master
Import images (this will leave the images in their existing folder on your drive)
What do you get?

If the above shows pixelated images, then delete the project, reset the Preferences to import to Aperture managed library, and re-import. This will eliminate physical import to the library.

If the images are still pixelated, then go to the next test.

What happens if you import into PS CS2 / ACR and convert to PSD/TIF. Is the image OK?
If so, save as PSD/TIF (ensure Maximize compatibility is set to On or Ask in CS2 Preferences)
Also save a second version as a high quality (12) JPG
Import into Aperture as above, leaving files in their existing folder location.
What do you get?

If the above shows pixelated images as per NEF images, then we eliminate the RAW processing step.


Do you have access to another Mac running 10.4.8? Try the same thing on that computer (using your external HDD for the reference files).

You said your MBP has been playing up over the last few days. How so, and in general or only with Aperture?


G.

No sir, I have never seen anything like that. Are you sure your camera did not shoot TIFF or process RAW to TIFF before output (I shoot Canon so I'm not familiar with Nikon menu settings).

The one thing I'll say for Aperture, it NEVER messes with my master (invariably RAW's plus large TIFF's from scanned images).

Are you using Reference or Managed Library?

If Library, go to Finder, right click on the Library file and select "Show Package Contents". Then, select your weird "TIFF" project, right-click and select "Show Package Contents". Now navigate to a folder containing one of your TIFF'ed images (the folder will have the same file name) and open it. Inside you should see the file Aperture imported from the camera, untouched. You'll also see miscellaneous files for adjustment versions, albums, metadata, indexes etc.

G.