Apple Aperture in Sierra 10.12.3:

Terence:

Again, I've been wrestling with this dilemma since 2014. Here's my top choices:

• Capture One Pro 10

Happily, C1 has launched a brand new point-version of C1 where at least one reviewer states that it's now significantly faster than LR. C1 has excellent colorimetry, especially for flesh-tones and a strong feature-set. Media Pro SE, it its former incarnations was less glowingly received. Since the DAM component is almost as important as the editing component, Media Pro remains a key consideration. I've tried the C1 demo, but am still far from proficient with the app, and am not looking forward to the learning curve.

• Photo Mechanic + DxO Optics Pro

Ingest and manually catalog using the Finder with Photo Mechanic. One plus is that Photo Mechanic is wicked-fast and is AP-IPTC compliant. And DxO's camera- and lens-specific profiles have produced the best images from my Nikon gear of any RAW developer I've tried. A cityscape shot with a Nikon D3s + AF Nikkor 14mm f/2.8D was transformed by DxO with truly impressive results (though not easily seen in this photo, fine detail in the buildings were greatly improved). Note that the edge-sharpness on the Nikkor 14mm is nothing to write home about to begin with.

Also:

MacRumors reports that Aperture has "limited compatibility" with Sierra. They mention that Aperture 3.6's limitations are listed in the Sierra release notes, "Aperture 3.6 (limitations listed in Sierra release notes)." I cannot find these release notes where Aperture is mentioned. But the fact that Aperture is mentioned in the Sierra release notes at all, many take as a good sign from Apple.

Terrence:

Why do I want to move to a less-capable photo-editor/DAM? Well, I don't, really. But after more than two years of hemming and hawing after Apple's EOL announcement of Aperture, I haven't been too keen on any of my other options. Last night, I did my first edit with Photos, and it actually wasn't that bad. Here's a few of the reasons I'm considering the move to Photos:

• iCloud Drive integration.

• Sierra's SSD-aware "snapshot" support.

• It's most Aperture-like.

• It's fast.

• Clean UI.

• Capture One Pro doesn't accept plug-ins.

• I don't like LR's modal workflow.

• I already own almost every third-party Photos extension available.

• Photos will get better.

Believe me, this was a hard-fought decision. Here's some of the photo apps I also own licenses to (with the exception of C1):

• Lightroom

• Photoshop

• Pixelmator

• Photo Mechanic

• DxO Optics Pro

• Capture One Pro

• Nikon Capture NX-D

Of course, Aperture was my favorite, and Imagenomic's Portraiture for Aperture was my most-used plug-in (I think it's probably the best skin-smoothing software available). Only Aperture (and Capture NX-D) showed the camera's actual focus-point (C1 has its focus-mask, but it's not quite the same thing). Since Apple has decided that Photos is a key part of their product strategy, its tight integration with the OS is likely a plus for speed, stability, and continued development, plus, I assume its feature set will eventually improve.

I mainly also want to simply my life and have decided to commit to Apple's iCloud Drive for primary cloud storage. We own all-macOS desktops, laptops, and iOS devices, so it makes sense. Among the other cloud services I've used/continue to use: I canceled my iDrive account last Xmas. Google Drive reportedly compresses your files. And, although I also currently have unlimited Amazon Prime storage, plus a commercial SmugMug account for client-delivery, I want an OS-integrated cloud solution that my GF (who has limited technical knowledge and only takes iPhone photos) can also use.

All that said, it seems Apple is secretly attempting to maintain some modicum of Aperture compatibility due to the Sierra release notes mention, and as long as it still works in Sierra, I guess I'll keep using it. But of course, I can't count on that forever.

Gosh, it's really annoying there's no edit feature here. I have a typo in my initial post ("a Google searching" should be "a Google search"), plus I spelled your name wrong. Sorry. But, seriously, you type in "Sierra 10.12.3" and "Aperture" in Google, and nothing comes up. A handful older threads do, but they're all several months old, and aren't 10.12.3-specific.

The older threads mention bugs I'm not seeing—which is good I guess—though they were probably due to the pre-Sierra metadata issue (again, I haven't tried opening any pre-Sierra libraries). I did note at least one Aperture user claiming crash-free operation in Sierra. I can't recall what exact action broke Aperture last night, but I've been running Aperture (really just opening and closing the app with a few test photos) for a two days now, with no problems other than that one crash.

Terence wrote: "Photos may get better, but do you really think it will ever get feature parity with Aperture?"

Probably, no. And after almost two years since Photos' initial roll-out as a part of Apple's Yosemite OS upgrade, I'm pretty disappointed by the lack of progress so far. Also, a lot of hope was pinned on extensions' potential for in-app integration of round-tripping to third-party apps without the requisite .TIF intermediate file by former Aperture users. I bought almost every commercial Photos extension available at the time, and a recent trip to the AppStore shows that nothing much new has arrived—mostly just a bunch of filter apps.

But after doing that edit session the other night, I actually have few qualms with Photos (although one of them is a doozy):

• No loupe (and pressing 'Z' twice no longer produces a 100% zoom).

• No user-assignable default setting for cropping aspect ratio (please fix this, Apple!).

• No keyboard short-cut to return to thumbnail view.

• And here's the big one: No traditional file-management tools (e.g., folders) for Photos library.

And that last one is a big one. I can live with the others. But as I said, I'm heavily inclined to stay with Photos for reasons already mentioned, the main ones I'll re-state:

• Tight-integration with the company's OS (which should support increased speed and stability).

• Tight-integration with iCloud Drive (virtually eliminating any management overhead of off-site backup chores).

• Ultra-clean UI.

• Potential for extensions APIs to bring more, needed features.

None of my other options can really compete on these particular bullet-points. I'm still considering LR, if only for the fact that it's one of the three apps which Imagenomic's Portraiture plug-in supports (the other two being Photoshop and Aperture). Since my main focus is headshots and portraiture, this app is virtually indispensable.

Thanks for your comments, Terence. I can benefit greatly from Apple's iCloud Drive's sharing feature, and as secondary or tertiary off-site back-up, I think iCloud Drive is a great solution for all-macOS households. Previously, I just never considered Apple's cloud services since they were woefully over-priced. Now that they've slashed their prices in half, it's back in the plan.

As for Photos, I just ingested some images off a CF card into Photos and I love how it identifies files already uploaded from the card. Again, I think Photo's OS-integration is its greatest asset. We'll just have to agree to disagree on the UI—I think it's gorgeous.

Although my back-up set-up is far from perfect, I'm currently setting up my primary storage on an APC-backed, 2TB SSD array, connected to my new, 5K Core i7 iMac. Every new Mac purchase from this point on has been SSD-equipped. I'm about to dump the last magnetic HDD-equipped iMac and replace it with a new Core i5 iMac with a 256GB SSD for GF. She will definitely be set-up for Photos/iCloud Drive so everything is simple as possible for her (she has a separate iCloud account). I'm still considering various NAS-storage devices for local back-up, but SSDs are becoming affordable enough to use them in redundant, mirrored-arrays.

Personal events (e.g., birthdays, Xmas, etc.) get copied to DVD-R media using a stand-alone (no computer required) EZPnP DVD-writer. It accepts multiple media formats (e.g., CF, SD, etc.), supports disc-spanning, and works great. Archive life of polycarbonate media is still in question, but that's what I'm doing for now. Client stuff goes to the SmugMug site, at full-resolution, and with unlimited capacity (SmugMug uses Amazon's enterprise S3 storage). I haven't figured out if I'm going to continue to use my Amazon Prime storage, but at least for now, I think iCloud Drive is a pretty slick solution.

Oh . . . When I said, "And here's the big one: No traditional file-management tools (e.g., folders) for Photos library," and you asked: "What do you mean by this?"

Obviously, I'm still new to Photos and only just figuring out how it works. I'm trying to figure out what Photos-speak terms mean. I suppose "folders" are albums.

• Albums: User-created "folders."

• Memories: AI-created groups of images which share common traits (e.g., faces, geotags, etc.)

• Collections: Not sure what these are.

• Years: I assume a database filter "by year."

However, I just selected 407 images in the Photos browser, clicked "File" -> "New Album," and was asked "add 470 photos to album?" I named th album and clicked "OK." Nothing shows up in the albums tab.

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. For now I've set up a 2TB SSD array for local storage attached to my 5K iMac and I've been contemplating installing a large NAS device since I have 1GbE hardwired throughout the house. I bought a subscription to iDrive last year because they support multiple devices, but never really followed through with its implementation. SD media is now affordable enough that I was even thinking of archiving individual shoots on card-media.

I've never had a formal back-up regime in place, so I promised I would start one this year:

• Local 2TB SSD for Photos libraries.

• 2TB iCloud Drive mirrors local Photos libraries.

• SmugMug account for client-deliverables (i.e., secondary back-up).

• Planned NAS for primary back-ups (probably rotating magnetic HDDs).

• DVD-R for special events (i.e., tertiary back-up.).

So, back to the original topic: I think Aperture does have too many issues with Sierra 10.12.3, even though it runs almost perfectly. After reading the other Aperture/10.12.3 threads here, I am noticing similar issues; e.g., Aperture doesn't load the entire memory card. That alone is enough to switch. And I think I'm switching now. Maybe Photos won't be my final destination, but I'm giving a good run for now.

I just installed the $0.99 External Editors for Photos extension (possibly the best deal ever) from the AppStore, and re-downloaded Google's Nik Collection, for which I had previously owned the for-pay licenses. Works great from within Photos! Photos is no Aperture, and certainly won't compete with full-fledged pro apps like LR or C1, but I have to admit, I'm liking it.

For "serious" work, I'll continue to use DxO Optics Pro as my primary RAW developer, which I've been using for years, and already know how to use. Its body- and lens-specific corrections database is truly unmatched and produces markedly improved images, especially for landscape/architecture work. But I may have to break down and subscribe to a Photoshop CC license to continue to use my Imagenomic Portraiture plug-in for high-end portrait work, but for now, Photos isn't all that bad.

I just bought Serif's Affinity Photo for $49.99 from the AppStore. See PhotoApps.Expert's webisode interview with Serif's managing director—this app is fast. I also bought DxO Optics Pro Photos extensions for $9.99. I just learned that this app enables the same extensive body- and lens-specific corrections database in the Photos extension version of the product—impressive for only $9.99 (I'm also able to upgrade my copy of DxO v10 to the stand-alone version of DxO OpticsPro 11 for half-price).

Affinity is also on record to be planning a DAM component for its flagship Photoshop replacement. If this actually surfaces, this should be an extremely robust replacement for former Aperture users. Combined with Serif's design and layout applications, you could replace the entire Adobe Creative Suite (ie., Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign), with Serif's suite. Serif's real-time image-processing performance is so impressive, I don't have any desire to go back to Adobe Photoshop, ever.

Imagenomic also just issued me a discount to cross-grade to the Photoshop version of their Portraiture plug-in. Though not perfect, it's supposed to work with Affinity Photo as a plug-in. Although Photos isn't the ideal ingest and cataloguing app, at least for now, it can perform as a perfectly functional hub for these other highly capable apps via extensions, or through the excellent and insanely affordable, External Editors for Extensions ($0.99 from the AppStore). The addition of DxO's corrections database as a simple Photos extension is also a significant feather in Photos' cap. Goodbye, Aperture! See ya later, Adobe!