Printing on HP c7180 with Aperture 1.5

Recently bought the c7180, a compact and nifty All-in-One printer.
Now, the task is to make it work with Aperture. So far, the printing results are dismal.
The colors are muddled (yes a bit like a good military camouflage), not the clean and crisp photos shown in Aperture.
Has anybody worked with this combination of printer and Aperture, and would be interested to share experience on the way to good results?
Looking forward to pool experience!
BR,
plq
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

A few different things to try. Once you use the
Print command (Command+P) hit the "Printer Settings"
button. Chose your printer and in the third drop
down (the one under "presets" make sure that you turn
colour management off. For my printer, (Epson) there
is an option labelled just that - it may be different
for others, but check every box.
Yes, I have done that. The choice in my case is labeled 'Application managed',
meaning color profile is managed by Aperture, and not by the printer color
profile. It does not produce any significant improvement.
Once that's been done, back to the Aperture print
dialogue and press "ColorSync Profile" Chose the
paper type that matches what's in the printer from
the "Output Type" selection. Then print and see if
that's any better.
Again, I found this in the Aperture print dialogue. I selected
the printer/paper type, "HP PS ... C7100 - Premium Paper".
No significant improvement, sorry to say.
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Similar Messages

Commercial printing of pictures processed with Aperture

I first processed my pictures with Iphoto, and now Aperture 2.1.1. - when my pictures are ready for printing, I transfer them to a folder on my desktop, burn a CD or a DVD depending on how many I have and take them to a photo processing place to have them printed (I have tried kodak, and Fuji). My pictures always come back several shades darker than what I see on my LCD screen (please don't tell me that I have to adjust the color on my screen)
I used to have the same problem with my home printer and after reading several forum recommendations I resolved this issue by selecting the "colorsync profile" of my printer in Aperture, and setting the "color handling profile" in photoshop Elements to "printer manages color".
Do you have any suggestions of what can be done to obtain correctly exposed Aperture prints from a commercial printer ( After getting some very awful prints, I now specify that prints modified in Aperture be printed as they are). I suspect that this problem has to do with different colorsync profiles but, I do not know how to resolve it and it is getting quite expensive and time consuming to print hundreds of pictures at home. Your suggestions will be appreciated.

A few different things to try. Once you use the
Print command (Command+P) hit the "Printer Settings"
button. Chose your printer and in the third drop
down (the one under "presets" make sure that you turn
colour management off. For my printer, (Epson) there
is an option labelled just that - it may be different
for others, but check every box.
Yes, I have done that. The choice in my case is labeled 'Application managed',
meaning color profile is managed by Aperture, and not by the printer color
profile. It does not produce any significant improvement.
Once that's been done, back to the Aperture print
dialogue and press "ColorSync Profile" Chose the
paper type that matches what's in the printer from
the "Output Type" selection. Then print and see if
that's any better.
Again, I found this in the Aperture print dialogue. I selected
the printer/paper type, "HP PS ... C7100 - Premium Paper".
No significant improvement, sorry to say.
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Printing Success with Aperture 1.5.2 and HP Photosmart Pro B9180

With so many "hit-and-miss" posts regarding printing, I thought I'd post my result with Aperture 1.5.2 and my newly-acquired HP Photosmart Pro B9180.
Firstly, I have my monitor calibrated using ColorVision's Spyder Express. It's a cost-effective solution to monitor calibration and what I see on the screen is what I'm seeing in the print. I calibrate weekly.
Secondly, I'm using HP's Advanced Photo Glossy Paper for prints. HP provides the ICC profiles for their papers (and thus far, they seem to be dead-on accurate).
Thirdly, and I believe this is where issues can occur, is to set, via the Print Driver, color management as Application Managed. This bypasses the default of allowing the printer to manage color for you. This allows Aperture to use the ICC profile of the printer and calculate the proper color "conversion".
Finally, via the Apple's support article on optiziming print (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302821) save the customized printer setup for a specified print size, paper, etc.
I have made 20 prints thus far and all have come out satisfactory. The only "tip" I'd make is that I noticed the gamma setting in the print dialogue is ideally set at 1.15. Otherwise, the print seems to be a bit dark.
PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9) 4 Gigs RAM, CalDigit S2VR Duo 1TB

I just got a B9180 too so thought I would try printing from Aperture. As you suggested I set Gamma to 1.15 - but I still feel the prints are a bit dark. Tried 1.20 but that looked identical to 1.15!

Help with Aperture 3 printing to Epson R1800 please

No I haven't got the wrong forum, I think I will get the best answer here. I am a fully paid up member of the Lightroom 2 club and like to use both as I am sure others here do.
I cannot get a good print from Aperture 3, there is always a slight magenta colour cast. Prints from Lightroom and CS4 are perfect! And yes all settings are correct, I am not a beginer at this. This is with custom Permajet paper profiles and with Colormunki profiles. And as I have said prints from Lightroom and CS4 using a digital dog test print are spot on.
I remember back in earlier versions of Lightroom printing to the R1800 was problematic and the only way to get round this was to go into the ColorSync Utility and and under Devices and then the default Epson Media type, change the Current Profile to the paper profile that you wished to use. It now seems that this is also the only solution for A3. Doing this will give me an identical print to LR and CS4.
Now was this a problem with Lightroom or the R1800 driver? I am using the latest driver V6.23. Also I am using Aperture 3.0.2 and OSX 10.6.3.
I would be grateful for any help.

Hi Ian,
I am glad to hear you're getting good prints from LR and CS4. I am not aware of any outstanding issues with print color management in Lightroom (the print path is pretty solid and conforms to the OS requirements, and will perform correctly as long as the driver also conforms to the OS requirements; many recent drivers do, some older ones do not).
FYI, I understand you feel that there are forum participants here who may be able to help answer your question with Aperture. Though that may indeed be the case, that does not make it an appropriate use of this forum. (As an analogy, many forum participants here are also well-qualified to answer Photoshop questions, but Photoshop questions should be directed to the Photoshop forum, instead of here.)
Eric

About printing with Aperture

When I print with PS or any other application (e.i.: Pages) always appears the presets that I have calibrated for printing with my three favorites papers, but with Aperture these presets do not appears and the dialogue of the printer is complety different.
Does anybody knows how can I solve this?

Hi
I found this article on the apple website to be super helpful. I now get the most accurate prints from Aperture, noticeably superior to anything other program I've tried printing from..
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2026

When using printer Epson R1900 with Aperture 3 and if I mistakenly choose the wrong paper such as, epson's luster instead of glossy, does that change the exposure? Like make it too dark one or two stops!

When using printer Epson R1900 with Aperture 3 and if I mistakenly choose the wrong paper such as, epson's luster instead of glossy, does that change the exposure? Like make it too dark one or two stops!

Hi,
If you choose the incorrect settings for printing, yes - the print quality will be affected.
Different papers absorb the ink differently, so you can end up with prints that are too light, too dark, or have a colour cast if you make incorrect choices in your Aperture or printer settings.

Best Large Format Printer with Aperture 3.1 & 10.6.5??

I have an Epson R1800 and am not pleased with my print results. Prints are too dark and generally lack "pop". I have read through threads here and other places and tried a lot of suggestions ... all to no real improvement.
Simple question -- which larger format printer (13") are you using that works very well with Aperture?
Thanks.
Ken

Hi,
I use the Epson R1900 with very good results. I never expect what prints well to look good either on my monitor, or on Slideshows transfered to video usage. If it looks good on my monitor, that is what I want the settings and adjustments to be locked into for my files. I think my monitor is very true -- some proof of this is evidenced by prints I have made via the print services I have available to me via SmugMug. Those prints (either Bay Photo or EZPrints per my choice) look just like what is on my monitor when shipped to me, and that is super! The print process fundamentally must compensate in some manner to achieve the backlit look of a monitor. I get very close to that in the prints from Aperture now, by using the Brightness and other controls in the Print Dialogue.
Ernie

Printing problems with Aperture

I just switched from Windows (long story, many years) to an Intel iMac 20, with Aperture pre-installed. I had a Canon PIXMA iP 6000D printer; all prints had a yellow cast. I bought an HP Photosmart 7160; all prints have a yellow cast. I have done a format and re-install of OS X and all software. I have installed my Aperture software on another iMac 20 at the store; with my printer and the store's printer the prints had a yellow cast. I took my computer to the store and printed on their printer; all prints had a yellow cast. I get the same results printing from Photoshop CS2 for Mac or from Preview. I have tried several USB cables. My monitor is calibrated with a SpyderPro 2. Prints directly from a memory chip in the printer are fine. I've tried all the adustments in the print setup; no help. I'm working on the sliders now, but with seven sliders with 100 possible settings on each I think that's seven to the 100th power possible settings. Both printers work fine with my Windows computers.
I've exhausted all the available Apple support. Anyone have any ideas?
Arthur
iMac 20 Mac OS X (10.4.8)
iMac 20 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Well, to reiterate, I am using the HP printer as there is only room for one printer on my desktop. I am using HP paper, the "Advanced" type which is bar coded so that the printer recognizes the paper type and sets the appropriate defaults. I have also tried other HP papers, and selected them from the printer dialog. I have tried setting the paper type manually with the "Advanced" paper. I have tried printing with all the defaults left alone.
When I said that I had tried every print option in the printer dialog sequence, I meant that in the printer dialog I had tried each of the paper types, each of the color options, each option under HP Colorsmart, several types of HP printer paper with the proper option selected. Under ColorSync, there are only two options here. One is "Standard" and the other is "in Printer" which is greyed out.
Go down the print dialog. I have tried every option. Under "Paper Type, Quality" I have tried every option for paper type, quality, and color. I have done this systematically, using all available combinations.
I don't know how else to describe the process Apple and I have tried to use to try to repair my problem. Name an option--I have printed using it.
I tried the "sliders" as a possible way of altering the output from the computer to the printer, as I had exhausted all other possibilities, and if I could find the magic combination I could set it as the default and all my prints would be
affected by those settings and print correctly. They appear in the printer dialog from Aperture. My photos print correctly if I copy the file to a Compact Flash chip and place it into the printer slot and print directly.
Pardon me if I seemed snappish. I bought the iMac specifically for photographic work, have had it for a couple of months, have made several hundred prints, have exhausted support from Apple, and am grasping at straws. I have 8 GB of photos from my last trip which remain unprinted. Shortly before the trip I did two wedding shoots which were quite successful, printed from Photoshop CS2 under Windows. All my current photos print acceptably on this printer from my Windows computer. They are not acceptable printed from Adobe CS2 for Mac.
Can I be more specific in what I have tried? Do you have a suggestion for something for me to try? Apple and I are grasping at straws, and would appreciate any help you can give.
Arthur

Printing issues with Aperture 3 - color management

I just made three prints of the same images, two with Aperture 3 that turned out very dark and off color, almost as it they were printed without color management or double profiles. I then printed the third by exporting the image to CS4 and printing with the same settings (rendering intend, printer settings and custom printer profile) and that print looks fine. Has anyone else run into similar problems with A#? I did not have this issue with Aperture 2.
Thanks,
Message was edited by: pcalvin

I print on an Epson 2880 with Lyson inks and custom profiles. In Aperture 2 it worked perfectly, with exactly the same settings as for printing Photoshop - using the laboratory prescribed settings:perceptual and no black point compensation in Photoshop, and Adobe RGB Gamma 2.2 in the Print settings.
Using the same profile and settings with Aperture 3, the colours are way, way off - exactly as described.
I then tried with Aperture 3 turning off the Adobe RGB setting, so there was no colour space adjustment in the Print setting. This gave a slightly better result, but rather dead and slightly blue.
I ran some tests with the GretagMacbeth colour chart used in preparing the profiles, which confirmed the above but also shows a lack of sharpness when printing from Aperture 3, and a blue border on three sides of the image - even though the border was set to 0.00. I have checked the printer head adjustments and run the test chart through Photoshop again to verify these are Aperture 3 artefacts.
Unless this is resolved, it renders Aperture completely useless! (I have tried reinstalling printer drivers, to no effect).

Printing with Aperture and HP B9100

I am new to Aperture. I just purchased the new 24" iMac and have installed Aperture and a new HP B9100 Pro Printer. I have been making test prints directly from Aperture with photos taken on a Nikon D80. None of the prints have come out anywhere near close to how good things look on my monitor. The prints are darker and lack the vividness and detail I see on my screen.
I got better prints from iPhoto and my Canon MP780.
Any suggestions? I apologize for being so green about this stuff.
Thanks.
Roger
24" iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)
24" iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I have the HP D7160 (uses six inks). I had the same problem, until I spent countless hours testing different parameters.
I had problems with Aperture printing too muddy/dark until I did the following:
On an HP Photosmart D7160:
In Aperture, I have the "system management" as my Color Sync preference. Printer gamma set to 1.25 Black comp "on"
In my printer dialog, there is a dropdown menu when you select "print". Under the printer presets, I select "Paper type/quality". In this dropdown, there is a selection for Paper: Color:- I select "Color Sync" (not the printer selected "ColorSmart/RGB")
I also go to the "Color Options" tab and decrease my magenta output to -5.
I saved this as a "HP D7160" preset, so whenever I print, it automatically changes these for me.
Works like a charm now, after a lot of trial and error.

Another problem printing with Aperture and Epson 2400.

Hi -
I posted this on photo.net a while ago and nobody could seem to figure this out. I've searched through here with no help either. Here is the original photo.net post presenting my problem:
I've been having a problem with my print workflow that started about 6 months ago but has only now gotten to the point that I really need to fix it.
My equipment: Epson R2400 with stock inks, Aperture (latest version), iMac 2.33Ghz fully loaded and updated. I typically print on Epson Premium Luster or Enhanced Matte (I change K cartridge accordingly).
Once upon a time, I had this workflow working perfectly. Prints were coming out exactly as I wanted them to, really better than expected. Then something changed, but it wasn't hardware. Somewhere along the line, I'm guessing in a software update, all my profiles changed. I typically do all my adjustments in Aperture, then in the print dialogs do the following:
+In the 2400 settings, I turn color management off, and in the Print Settings, I select my paper, switch to Advanced, and typically choose Best Photo or whatever quality I'm needing.+
+Then in the Aperture print settings I choose the ColorSync profile that matches the paper and quality I selected in the above Print Settings window, keep Black Point Compression checked, and I'm off. As I said - this has worked flawlessly up until recently.+
The one thing I noticed that has changed is the available profiles in Aperture's ColorSync Profile pulldown menu. It used to only show paper profiles specific to each paper and quality, ie. "SPR2400 PremLuster BstPhoto.icc". Now, it shows not only those specific profiles, but also more generic paper profiles, such as "SPR2400 PremiumLuster", with no quality specification.
The problem is this: When I now select the paper/quality-specific profile, as I used to do, the prints come out all washed-out and flat. It even shows this in the preview window. It's slightly better when I select these new generic paper profiles, but still not like what I had. This is true with both types of paper I use.
I've attempted all the usual fixes, such as trashing all my profiles and re-loading new ones from Epson, re-installing Aperture and Epson software, and trashing prefs. Heck, I've reloaded all software that even remotely related to photography so many times, I can't even count any more. Nothing - just washed-out, dead-looking prints every time. And it all changed when I noticed those new generic profiles mentioned above.
I did make one hardware change after I first started experiencing these problems. I went from a PPC Dual 2.8Ghz G5 to the iMac, but as I said, these problems first occurred on the G5 and continued with the new iMac.
Any thoughts?

Well, you could dump Aperture only to find that a 2.0 came along with OS 10.5 and fixed your problem, who knows.
And I wouldn't call 6 months of not being able to print anything at all from Aperture jumping to conclusions. When I press Apple P in any other application I get prints that even unprofiled will come out better than Aperture. It's serious. Not just sorta bad. The ocean looks like sewage water- not just mildly unappealing- sewage.
The solution for us, I suppose, is to buy calibrator hardware. I guess anyone who is professional should have one of these (and I do not) but I didn't buy Aperture to export for printing.
As far as how to get Apple to acnowledge this... I don't know. It seems as though they are tired of hearing me talk about this. This is the first post of recent about this that hasn't been deleted by an admin. Who knows? I'm just tired of having to buy all the hardware and all the software that is all supposed to work together and then once you pay, you find that you're up the creek for prints.
Don't get me started, or I'll start talking about how they don't support my camera make yet (or ever).... (Sigma). As you can imagine, I'm already IMPORTING 16 bit tiffs from my raw converter. I guess I need 3 copies of the same shot to do business in Aperture for now. I need some mylanta.
Otherwise, love ya Apple!
P.S. If you are looking for someone with the same hardware and problem as I, it's easy. Check out the print proofing podcast page on O'reilly "Inside Aperture". There's one there in the comments part (that I replied to). Others can be found on this forum.

Using Photoshop Elements as external editor with Aperture 3: What are issues with requiring 8-bit image?

While I would do most of my photo edits with Aperture there may be times I would like to do special effects that a PSE might offer with layers. I am considering purchasing PSE 10 and was concerned with having to lose information by saving as an 8-bit image. Can anyone enlighten me of the circumstances when this would be of concern?
Thanks.

Can anyone enlighten me of the circumstances when this would be of concern?
If you had to do high quality printing larger than 8x10.
Before buying PSE trial Pixelmator and try GIMP. Note that GIMP (now v2.6) will have 16-bit per channel with v3.0.
-Allen

Question about setting up a workstation with Aperture 2

hello, I hope I will get some help from here.
I guess first I should list the things I have, this will make it easier. I have a Macbook Pro with 10.5.6, a Samsung 24" monitor, Aperture 2, Photoshop CS4, CANON Pro9000 Printer, and Pantone Huey Screen calibrator.
So I already have both my screen (macbook Pro's and Samsung's) calibrated. My question is about how to correctly set up my printer.
I went on Canon's website and try to download the driver for the CANON printer, But I see there is 3 different version for the driver, i am not sure which one to choose. One is for 10.3.9 and above, one is for OSX CUP (which i donno what it means).
and do I need to install any of the canon software or plug-ins? I thought the printer color profile is in the driver as well. and aperture should pick that up fine. but for max quality printing, am i better off with the canon software? if so which one should i USE? Easy Photo Printing EX or Easy Photo Printing PRO?
last... I guess it will be nice if someone can point me the right steps to make a print after I have done everything I want to in Aperture. if you guys can give me a step by step guides for printing from Aperture 2 to Canon Pro9000 with Canon Photo Paper Pro II. and is photoshop is must have in the printing process? I really would love to stick with Aperture as much as possible. but again, quality go first...
Thank you for reading my post, and thank you even more for replying.

Challenging, yes, here is a link to a podcast on the O'Reilly website, hope this helps, I found it very useful. I actually subscribe to the podcast (via itunes) and find that there are some great topics.
http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2007/02/13/insideaperturepodcast-9.html?page=last&x-maxdepth=0
Joe Schorr on Color Management in Aperture
Inside Aperture Podcast 9
by Derrick Story
02/13/2007
Joe Schorr, Apple Senior Product Manager for Aperture, covers color management in Aperture 1.5.2. He discusses the three basic areas that photographers must address in order to have consistent color throughout the workflow: Screen calibration, correct settings in the print dialog box, and adding profiles to exported images. There are some nice tips in this chat, including how to use on-screen proofing in Aperture. Derrick Story interviews Joe in this exclusive O'Reilly Media podcast. (Inside Aperture, Feb. 13, 2007: 18 minutes, 18 seconds).

Image Artifacts with Aperture, not ACR or Capture One?

I generally use Capture One, but for the first time I’m using Aperture to process a series of photos from a just-completed trip to northern Arizona/southern Utah. I’ve been very impressed with Aperture’s workflow, and would very much like to make Aperture my primary tool for managing my photos.
However, tonight I discovered some very unsettling artifacts in the prints that I made in Photoshop using files that Aperture converted from RAW. Upon closer inspection, the artifacts also appear in Aperture, when I zoom in. But interestingly, neither Capture One nor Adobe Camera Raw shows these artifacts to nearly the same degree. Scroll down for examples of the artifact as seen in Aperture, Adobe Camera Raw, Capture One, and Photoshop.
For completeness, here are the specifics of my configuration:
Canon 1Ds RAW images
PowerMac G5 dual 2.5 GHz
OSX 10.4.7
Aperture 1.1.2
Photoshop CS
Capture One Pro 3.7.4
Here is the photo in which I first discovered the artifacts, which are visible in the full-sized image and on the print, but not in this small jpeg:
The artifacts I’m referring to are regularly-spaced train track-looking things in certain sections of the sandstone. The issue can be seen on 100% crops taken from the left side, about 1/3 of the way down from the top. Here is the area as it appears in Aperture using View > Zoom to actual size:
And here are the Aperture adjustments that I made:
Okay, I used Open With External Editor, to load the image into Photoshop – at its original size. Here is the same area, viewed at 100%, and the artifacts are plainly visible:
Notice that the artifacts appear in much the same way they did in Aperture. Just as a test, I used Aperture to “Export” the image as a 16-bit TIFF format, and then opened in Photoshop. Same artifacts as before:
For comparison I opened the same RAW file in Capture One. The artifacts are barely discernable! :
And here are the Capture One settings I used:
And here is the Capture One conversion as it appears in Photoshop, viewed at 100%. Again, the artifacts are essentially absent:
The image dimensions are almost exactly (but not quite) the same as the image that Aperture converted.
And, although it’s not part of my usual workflow, I converted the image using Adobe Camera Raw. The results show that, like Capture One, ACR doesn’t exhibit these artifacts (although it does show a bit more chromatic aberration):
Just to be clear, these artifacts ARE visible in my 16 x 24” print.
It’s a bit discouraging that, on my first serious attempt at using Aperture, I discovered these artifacts. It may be that this is a rare event with Aperture – or maybe not.
Has anyone else seen this sort of thing? Are there other discussions of the issue? And last but not least, can anyone suggest a way that I might avoid this in the future?
Thanks!
-- Jim
G5 Dual 2.5 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Here is another example of this effect, but with a different type of subject matter: a ball. The original is a raw file from a Canon 350D/Digital Rebel.
In Aperture's Zoom mode there is a pattern on the ball that looks like Maze Craze:
The pattern is maintained to a lesser degree as the image is sized down:
Exported as Original Size png:
Exported as Half Size png:
Now, as pointed out in the earlier post, the real problem is that other apps do not have this problem. The following is from ACR:
Aside from the pattern, Aperture does look better, but the pattern is nasty and almost makes the image unusable.
Will
Dual Core 2.3GHz PowerMac G5, 2GB RAM, GeForce 6600 Mac OS X (10.4.6) Canon Digital Rebel XT, Edirol UA-5
Dual Core 2.3GHz PowerMac G5, 2GB RAM, GeForce 6600 Mac OS X (10.4.6) Canon Digital Rebel XT, Edirol UA-5
Dual Core 2.3GHz PowerMac G5, 2GB RAM, GeForce 6600 Mac OS X (10.4.6) Canon Digital Rebel XT, Edirol UA-5

Nikon D2Xs NEF not working with Aperture

This is so shocking. I should have researched more..... but I cannot believe that Nikon and Apple do not have it together on Aperture??
I just switched from the Canon 1DS, which worked like a charm with Aperture, to the Nikon D2Xs and Apertrue will not support NEF files from the camera. Frankly. I am pretty stunned. What's the deal? I find a lot of chatter in the forums about other Nikon model NEFs that are not working.
Since there are only 2 serious top of the line pro-digital SLR manufacturers out there, I would have thought that they would both be supported fully.
Nikon Tech support said that their plug-in developer kit has been available for a long time, it is up to Apple to take advantage of it.
Am I out of line here - ranting on..
Does anyone know of a solution to this issue, other than dumping Aperture and moving to Nikon's Capture NX (when they get to finally release it) and Photoshop?
Many thanks for you help in advance,
NIck

So you switched from Canon to Nikon. I decided to do
the switch vice versa. What were your reasons to pick
Nikon?
The EOS and the D2x are both very excellent cameras. Some things I find better with the D2x:
Image quality.
First off, as far as I know prints from Canon's best and Nikon's best are similarly excellent. In spite of the EOS's ~50% higher cost and additional pixels it does not provide significantly better prints. Nikon worked some pretty good engineering to achieve that.
Price.
Most photography involves price tradeoffs with faster/better lenses, etc. costing more. In the case of the D2x the arguably equal and in some ways better camera actually costs $thousands less.
Speed.
The D2x shoots RAW at 5 to 8 fps versus the EOS 4 fps. When you are trying to capture the "perfect" instant of a rapidly changing scene higher frame rates increase the likelihood of catching the perfect moment. Or if you are auto-bracketing, faster speed captures your bracketed images before the scene changes. The concept of shooting a burst of 5-20 frames just to catch the very best pic is new to most photogs, because with film it was impractical. With cameras like these DSLRs new photo workflows may evolve. [Edit: My workflow has evolved. I now shoot almost all dynamic shots and many group shots as a burst of 2-5 pix at 2-5 fps.]
8 fps Crop Mode.
The D2x will shoot 6 megapixel images taken from the center of the frame at 8 fps. So if one wants to shoot tele action shots like sports it is ideal.
Buffer capacity.
IMO a much bigger issue than fast frame rate is the buffer capacity at that fast frame rate. The D2x captures about twice as many pix (~22) as the EOS does before the buffer fills.
Card capacity.
Canon built a slower camera with 30% more pixels and that leads to less images per card, slower file transfers, etc.
LCD size.
The D2x LCD is more than 50% larger than the EOS. The larger LCD changes everything as far as the ergonomics of DSLR workflow are concerned. Just try a D2x side-by-side against the much smaller EOS LCD.
Exposure Compensation (used constantly in DSLR workflows).
+/- 5 EV for the Nikon versus +/- 3 EV for the Canon.
Weight.
Being a 200# male with large hands I don't worry about size and weight too much. The Canon does weigh almost a pound more. Dimensions are pretty similar, with the Nikon a few mm larger. If size/weight are issues the Nikon D70s and Canon 20D are much smaller but sacrifice pro features like good viewfinders.
Self-timer.
Nikon has choice of 2/5/10/20 seconds whereas Canon is only 2 or 20 seconds. I find 2 seconds is sometimes not enough to let the camera settle down on the tripod if it is extended, so typically I use 5 seconds. Using 20 seconds as a cable shutter release substitute would drive me crazy. Often this is moot because I almost always have a cable shutter release with me.
Framing.
Some folks prefer a DSLR to be the same lens factor as 35mm film. Other folks do not. Quality superwide lenses are achieved at a $500-$1500 cost while supertelephoto is a $5000-$15000 cost; personally I prefer the 1.5 factor since it extends the expensive telephoto range. However, 1:1 versus 1:1.5 is a matter of personal preference rather than one being "better" unless print quality were to suffer.
The high end EOS does beat the Nikon D2x hands down in lower noise at ISOs of 800 and above. I am not familar with the high ISO performance of the D2xs, however.
-Allen Wicks

Printing on HP c7180 with Aperture 1.5

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