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 - Superior ProductI'm a professional photographer, and after extensively testing both Aperture and Lightroom, I'm throwing my hat on the Aperture side. Lightroom, to be honest, is a great application. The layout is easy to understand, and the modules guide a first-time-user. I also find the plugin architecture compelling, allowing me to preview changes before applying filters, and then having the ability to delete and adjust applied filters. Having said that, Lightroom is clunky. It seems to be more of a Photoshop product than a digital image catalogue product. Quite frankly, nothing will replace Photoshop--it is the end all and be all of photo applications. However, I need something to convert RAW files to workable JPEGs, and need an easy way to adjust white balance, exposure, tones, and noise. Although Lightroom makes this process reasonably easy, the module system (though helpful at first) begins to irritate me. I hate the thought of switching between one module and another simply to make one adjustment. I also don't like to follow a structured format--that is, I don't want to first view my files and select them, THEN move on to the editing module to apply changes, THEN work on web development. To me, that's too structured. Aperture, on the other hand, allows me to do everything at once. I can browse my RAW files and rate them; if I find one I like but needs exposure control, I can bring up the transparent HUD, make my adjustments, and skip to the next file...all without being forced to switch between modules. Aperture 2 is a superior product, much better than the first version. It is much faster than Lightroom (I'm running a Mac Pro with dual core 2.66ghz, 9gb RAM). Importing files is a lot easier--hell, I can even start browsing photos before they're all downloaded. The interface is nice and clean (although, I must admit Lightroom's interface is more attractive to me). Aperture 2 also has multi-display support--something Lightroom lacks. And the Loupe tool comes in handy every single time I use the application. In short, Apple has done an incredible job building upon Aperture 1, and updating this fantastic application. As a professional photographer, Aperture is absolutely essential, no less so than Photoshop. Rating:  - Not as good as Picassa, which is free!Apple is selling what should have been a free update to iPhoto. Worse, it confuses iPhoto into creating multiple copies of each photo, and has a schizo stacking algorithm. The omissions are glaring. No duplicate finder, no layers, weak cropping and poor output controls. They have, however, jumped on the "pug-in" train to up-sell even more "features" which ought to come with a program like this. No where near as good as even Photoshop Elements, and even slower, even on fast hardware. Apple should go back to photography school. Rating: - Outstanding RAW Workflow ManagerIf you shoot in RAW and manage large numbers of photos, you need to give very serious consideration to Aperture 2. The program provides truly outstanding RAW conversion tools - greatly superior to Adobe's free Digital Negative Converter. It provides very flexible, easy-to-use tools to compare and rate photos, including stacks, ratings and comparison tools. The library management tools are truly outstanding, giving you multiple levels of keywords, a variety of tools for organizing your shots, and a hierarchical system for organization. And it links tightly to the photo editing application(s) of your choice. Batch processing is well-supported, both on import and on photo selections. Essentially all data associated with the photos - both image details and EXIF - can be handled individually or at a batch level. Famously, Aperture makes its edits to photos by linked mathematical formulas; the RAW photo itself is not touched. So manipulations can always be reversed. This also keeps the photo database from growing through duplicate files; there's just one file, and a series of small files representing the edits. Aperture isn't perfect. While it is adequate for simple edits to photos, you'll still need a tool like Photoshop of Elements to perform serious adjustments to your photos. Aperture does a fine job of working with those photo editors. And Apple can be slow - sometimes, seriously slow - supporting the RAW formats of newly released cameras. In the case of the Olympus E-3, the camera was released for five months before Aperture could import its RAW format. There are always worksarounds - Adobe DNG if nothing else - and in fairness to Apple, its Aperture RAW converters are outstanding, but be prepared for a wait if you have new model camera. And Aperture demands significant resources: at least G5 (an Intel chip is better), at least 2 GB RAM (4GB _much_ better), an approved video card, hard rive space adequate to your projected ibrary and a backup or removable drive to hold a backup (a "vault"). Perhaps best of all, Aperture lets you define your own workflow. Adobe Lightroom, by contrast, pretty much imposes its workflow structure on you. You can do things in the order you want, not the order some programmer wants. If you are new to Aperture, I recommend the Classroom in a Book tutorial, Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture 2 (Apple Pro Training Series). I could not be happier with this program. I have some 25,000 shots, and add 1,000-2,000 per month. It has been flawless. And I've never lost a photo. My highest recommendation. Rating: - Excellent for photographersI was an iPhoto user before, but I'm very happy with the expanded capabilities in Aperature. The only drawback I've seen is that I can't figure out how to convert/save a picture into black & white or sepia. But I can always use iPhoto to do that. I also love the custom books part - all the pages are customizable (you can change the layout, fonts, sizes, etc on each page), which you can't do in iPhoto's custom books. Overall, I'm very happy with Aperature 2 and would recommend it to anyone that's serious about photography! Rating:  - Avoid Apple Aperture 2.0 I strongly advise anyone considering buying this product to save your money and buy Adobe Photoshop CS3, Lightroom, Corel or Nikon Capture NX. I had used Aperture 1.5 and upgraded to Aperture 2.0 and then 2.1. I run a G5 MAC with the Leopard OS. The Aperture program crashes repeatedly, loses projects and will corrupt your images. I used it to process upwards of a thousand photos at a time for sports professionally and had constant problems. Despite submitting over 2 Dz. crash reports and over 1 Dz feedback reports I received no response. Apple's published policy is they will not respond to these reports. They also do not provide any direct email support or phone support for this product. They will advise you to join the Aperture forum for submission of questions, tips and answers by other users. I highly advise you to read the forum entries before buying. They are filled with other dissatisfied users like myself that have faulty bug ridden Aperture software and problems that are not being solved by Apple! And beware any advise given on how to resolve problems does not come from Apple trained and software certified professionals! Anyone can claim to be an expert and submit solutions that may cause your system more damage that Apple will not assume any liability for! I now rely on Adobe and Nikon software because these companies care about you, the consumer. They will answer your questions and they make available email and phone numbers for questions and inquires. Nikon even ran my images and files through their lab to resolve an issue with their software and gave me prompt and accurate responses!
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