OK another vote for working referenced as opposed to managed. When i did my A3 upgrade i said to hell with my old library and just imported my folder of images to a new Library. Sure i threw away all the adjustments i had made to some of the 24000 images.
on the other hand.. the images that i had adjusted i had already published and if i did go back and have to republish them then i would readjust them with the knowledge and new tools i have gained over the years. With a managed library i would not hav that option
K
I'm Sorry Kevin, but this statement regarding a managed library is incorrect IMO.
Granted, importing an external folder structure would yield a new library of images without any adjustments. But a conversion of an existing library CAN maintain prior adjustments of the old Aperture 2 images by selecting the do not reprocess adjusted images in the conversion options. Your existing processed images will remain intact. One is then free to make a new version from master and create a Aperture 3 version from the master and apply new adjustments with the new tools.
I'm not trying to pick holes in what you're saying, it may appear that way but I just want to mention it for the sake of clarity. Like I said before no matter what storage method one chooses, referenced or managed one has the same level of control or options available.
For anyone who is interested .....
Brief walkthrough managed or referenced aperture libraries.
in a managed aperture library your master raw files are inside the library and always available for editing.
In a referenced aperture library, providing the source image location is on line you have access to the master raw files inside aperture, if not you have access to only a jpg preview.
Access to original untouched raw format images
within the Aperture library(managed) is not available to 3rd party applications. Neither are the flags (pointers) to raw images in a referenced library accessible by 3rd party apps. The useless preview if you're using it is available to all apps once you have the share previews with ilife enabled. But who wants to use a jpg preview? except perhaps for iweb.
In a managed library access to the image raw file can be got via the export master command within Aperture and then by pointing your 3rd party app at your export location. Or alternatively pointing the 3rd party app at one's online master backup or offline backup image store. (everyone should have one of these).
In the referenced library one can do the same, export master and point the 3rd party app at the export location or just point the app at the master image store(source of referenced library). It's much in the same as above.
Editing an image within aperture using a 3rd party app like CS4 with the "Edit With" command will always only allow you work with a PSD or Tiff version of the image which will always remain in & under the control of the Aperture Library after you've finished editing it in the 3rd party app. It makes no difference in this case if the library is managed or referenced it will always be the same. One sets the options on which file type opened in the external editor, PSD or Tiff 8/16bit and dpi in the Aperture preferences.
The obvious consideration when choosing a managed or referenced Aperture library is size. In managed, you'll have at minimum a master raw image, a thumbnail and perhaps a high res jpg preview if you're using previews.
In referenced you'll have a flag pointing to the external master(less size) a thumbnail and a high res preview. Obviously there is a saving to be made in the Aperture library size considering the master raw is elsewhere.
The choice is a personal matter, what ever suits your workflow, managed or referenced. Functionality is almost the same.