Time to make a no bullsh*t list of photgrapher’s apps that work on Lion to see if you should upgrade.
Ok, with the release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) a lot of things have changed. Officially Apple stopped Rosetta for example. The application that allowed you to run PPC binaries still. Also a lot fo the OS now runs 64bit and some features and enhancements have been added. Since we have had ample time to get the applications ready, let’s see what actually works in the final retail.
I have complied a list and I will continously update this list. I wil make it simple with Application name, Version number and native work or path as well as if there is a speed increase or decrease. I will also omit any of the integrated applications like iPhoto and iTunes, sorry.
I have a dual boot system and I am installing the same apps on both systems and see the difference. slight speed increase means that you might notice it but it’s not worth measuring. Mcuh speed increase means that it is a totally different ball game and speed drop means a noticable slow down.
Basically anything that worked on 10.6 Snow leopard should work on 10.7 Lion.
Photography and Utility Applications (sorry, no games etc.)
- Parallels 6 : works with latest version , no problems ;slight speed increase
- Adobe Photoshop CS 4 : works with latest version, no real problem, no speed difference
- Adobe Photoshop CS 5 : works even first RTM version, slight speed increase
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 8: works with latest version, no speed difference
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 9: works with latest version, slightly faster
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 Editor: works with latest version, MUCH faster on Lion than on Snow Leopard
- Apple Aperture 3: works with version 3 and latest update, slight speed increase if you clean your caches
- Adobe Lightroom 3: works from version 3 RTM, MUCH faster on Lion than on Snow Leopard
- Capture One Pro 6: works with latest version, MUCH faster on Lion than on Snow Leopard
- Colomunki Photo: works with latest version and updates, no speed difference
- DataColor Spyder 3 Pro / Elite: works but the utilitiy only works with a binary update found HERE, no speed difference
- Nikon Capture NX : works with latest version, no speed difference
- Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 :works with latest version, no speed difference
- Pixelmator 1.6 : works with latest update, much speed increase
- PT Lens 1.5: 64 bit version works with no problems, slight speed increase
- Microsoft Office 2011: works with latest updates, speed not changed
- Marsedit 3: works with latest update, MUCH faster on Lion than on Snow Leopard
- CyberDuck 4.1: works with latest update, MUCH faster on Lion than on Snow Leopard
- Skype 5.1 : works with latest update, no speed difference
- VLC 1.19: 64 bit works , no speed difference
Photoshop and Aperture Plugins
- Nik Software – Color Efex Pro v3: 64 bit works with no problems, no speed difference
- Nik Software – Dfine v2: 64 bit works with no problems, no speed difference
- Nik Software – HDR Efex Pro v1: 64 bit works with no problems, no speed difference
- Nik Software – Sharpener Pro v3: 64 bit works with no problems, MUCH faster on Lion than on Snow Leopard
- Nik Software – Silver Efex Pro v2: 64 bit works with no problems, MUCH faster on Lion than on Snow Leopard
- Nik Software – Viveza v2: 64 bit works with no problems, no speed difference
- Topaz Labs – Adjust 4: works with no problems, no speed difference
- Topaz Labs – Clean 3: works with no problems, no speed difference
- Topaz Labs – Denoise 5: works with no problems, no speed difference
- Topaz Labs – Infocus : works with no problems, no speed difference
- Imagenomic Portrature 2: 64 bit works with no problems, no speed difference
- Hydra HDR : works with latest version, no speed difference
- OnOne Plugins: All work with the latest updates, no speed difference
- BurntoDisk: works with the latest version, no speed difference
- ImageArchiver: works with the latest version, no speed difference
As mentioned, this list will be updated continously. Hope it helps to make the decision to upgrade. Lion is great and to be honest, it works evetremely well.
If you have additional Software or versions that work, please drop me a line or comment.
I have read reports that the upgrade causes issues on iMacs and other systems and that the real potential of speed is not achieved. When I did a clean install I noticed a HUGE speed bump across ALL applications and plugins. This is confirmed by numerous reports online. When you have the time, I suggest you do a clean install of Lion. The upgrade path might also cause slowness of some functionality like the flickr export of Aperture. It works better when it was a clean install of Lion. Again these are subjective observations only!
Update 1: added additional Software to the listing
UPDATE 2:added more Software to the listing, added setup information
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First update. Datacolor Spyder addition
Hi,
I emailed DataColor about the utility crashing and they pointed me to an update they already have available. It’s the Spyder3 Utility binary as a standalone which has to be copied over the old one. It’s not updating automatically from the Auto-update mechanism they have in the Spyder3 Express but at least they have something.
The update can be found here:
http://support.datacolor.com/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=183&nav=0
I tested it and it works fine on Lion.
Cheers!
Anyone using an Epson R2880 with Lion? Any problems?
Thanks,
Bill
yes. can’t print from lightroom a size 13×19 with all printer settings correct.
Not me but according to this: http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Printers-and-All-in-Ones/Epson-Stylus-Photo-R2880/Drivers-Support?target=article&extn=.html&articleId=4894 it depends on your model and some are actually natively or through Epson Software supported.
All of my OnOne plugins work fine with Lion
Colormunki Photo seems to work fine. Monitor profiles look accurate so far.
Need to do a test with Photo Mechanic, although Camera Bits says it works normally except for a possible crash when using the slideshow feature.
Also – you have a typo in the Capture One Pro 6 listing. You have it listed as Capture “Once”
Thank you. A lot of Google bandwidth can be wasted trying to find out about this update.
BurnToDisc and ImageArchiver are fully functional in Aperture when running on Lion.
When using the Flickr export it is extremely slow and if I do multiple exports during the same session Aperture 3.1.3 crashes which did not happen on Snow Leopard.
Had massive problems with Nikon’s Camera Control. Software didn’t start before I went back to 10.6. Nasty crap …
I cant get Camera Control 2 to work with Lion. Has anyone else figured out how to get it to work or do we just have to wait for Nikon to update the software?
You have a small typo.
“Adobe Lightroom 3: works from version 3 RTM, MUCH faster on Lion than on Snow Leopard”
should read
Adobe Lightroom 3: works from version 3 RTM, infinitely slower on Lion than on Snow Leopard”
Sufficiently so to downgrade 3 MacPros. Is it possible nobody tested it in real life scenarios?
Yeah, sad isn’t it? We are close to SIX MONTHS of CCPro2 having been incompatible. If only Nikon had some idea beforehand that Apple was releasing an update to their system software…[/sarcasm].
Really, Nikon?
Un-freaking-believable.