Aperture Card Importer


Importing images from camera cards can be a time-consuming process. And while Aperture's card import setup makes it easy to retrieve the images from a camera card while automatically creating destination folders and tagging the imported photos with IPTC data, many photographers don't have the time to manage the process of inserting a single card, importing, ejecting the card, and repeating the process with other cards. Instead, they prefer to connect multiple card-readers to the computer to import groups of cards in batch, freeing them to turn their attention to other issues (like sleep).

The Aperture Card Importer application is a tool for managing the import process of up to eight camera cards simultaneously. Note that Aperture still imports one card at-a-time, but this application allows you to setup the import parameters individually for multiple cards and walk away -- the application will import the contents of each card into Aperture in sequence until all cards have been processed.



Processing Camera Cards

The Aperture Card Importer works like this:

  1. You drag a single camera card icon onto the application. In the forthcoming Import Setup Window, input and select the various import and metadata options, and click the Process button to begin the import. One of eight input modules will then process the card. Each module has a numbered version of the application icon.
  2. The application module will create a folder in the location you specified in the setup window, and will copy the image files from the camera card into the newly created folder.
  3. Assuming you're using Aperture 1.5 or higher, the image files in the destination folder will be imported into the Aperture project, chosen in the Import Setup Window, as managed images, that is, the image files will not be physically added to the Aperture library but will be managed by Aperture in their current location.
  4. The IPTC tags entered in the Import Setup Window will be used to tag each of the imported Aperture image versions.
  5. Optionally, the card cards can be erased and ejected automatically by the application.

To process multiple cards, drag another camera card onto the application after you've started the import process for the previous card.



Caveats

This application assumes the current user has permission to write to the chosen disk locations -- no authentication dialogs will appear.

If you're going to import multiple cards, make sure you have adequate computer power. Mac Pro towers work good as do MacBook Pro laptops. In any case the more RAM, the better. But you already know this, right?

Use the Auto-Erase option at your own risk. Test this application numerous times before enabling this option. We are not responsible for lost photos.



Setting Application Preferences

The Aperture Card Importer application has preferences that can be accessed by double-clicking its icon in the Finder to summon its user controls dialog.

Clicking the Set Prefs button in this dialog will allow you to set the following preferences:

  1. Auto-eject the card after the processing has completed.
  2. Auto-erase the card before ejecting. Cannot be undone. This setting also applies when the Eject button is clicked in the completion dialog.
  3. Aperture will display its import card screen even if its card hot-plug preferences are set to No Application. Enabling this action will disable Aperture's response by setting a placebo application as the default hot-plug handler application..


The Import Setup Window

The following is a description of the elements of the Import Setup Window that appears when you drag a camera card onto the Aperture Card Importer icon.

  1. IPTC metadata section. Input controls for a standard sub-set of the official IPTC specification.
  2. Folder info section. The name and optional date suffix for the folder that will be created to hold the extracted image files.
  3. Destination info section. The folder in which the new folder containing the extracted images files will be placed.
  4. Controls section.
  5. The FN checkbox. Selecting this checkbox will use the original image filename as the value for the IPTC Transmission Reference tag. This will be used in place of any value in the adjacent text input field.
  6. Click the Project button to choose or create an Aperture project that will contain the imported images.
  7. Click the Save button to save all of the current settings in a preference file stored in the Application Support folder in the user's Library folder.
  8. Click the Load button to read and apply the settings from a stored preference file.
  9. Click the Clear button to reset all the fields and controls.
  10. Click the Process button to begin the import process.

Note that the date and time created controls are for the IPTC date tags, not the EXIF information from the camera itself.