Okay, friends. I’ve been interested in Aperture and Lightroom ever since they were first announced. Mainly because iPhoto is sooooo limiting. And also because someday in the distant future, I plan on getting a digital SLR with which I can take RAW photos.
I know that some of you have mentioned Lightroom lately. I’ve tried it and it’s pretty nice. But now’s decision time. I am planning on getting Aperture when I get a new computer. I’d like to invite you all to try and convince me that that is a good/bad decision. What do you think are the advantages to going with Lightroom instead?
Here are the things that are on my mind:
Aperture pros:
- Aperture is available now. I know exactly what the price is.
- Lightroom is a gamble. No one knows how much it will cost and exactly what the final version will be like.
- So much of the Mac’s workflow has support for iPhoto, I can only assume that Aperture will easily replace it. Whereas, Lightroom might not plug in to the OS quite as nicely (importing/exporting to/from other applications and stuff).
Lightroom pros:
- I’ve tried out Lightroom and I like what I’ve seen. It’s fairly lightweight, and it has a lot of nice features.
- It might eventually come with CS. That would be really nice.
- Input from lots of current users can’t hurt the final product.
That’s about all I can think of off the top of my head. Please give me your thoughts. Pros. Cons. Whatever.
Aug 17th, 2006 at 9:56 pm Trey
If Lightroom does what you need, stick with it.
Aug 17th, 2006 at 11:32 pm henry
While I’ve never used Aperture, I really like LR, and have more faith in Adobe making the better product in the longrun. LR will no doubt mesh better with photoshop, and Adobe has stated that it will eventually have an open type of plugin API like PS does, which is a big plus in it’s favor if that proves to be true (already is to some extent, as you can already share development presets).
One thing to keep in mind is that both LR and Aperture are still in beta form. The big difference is that LR is a free beta, and Adobe is building it according to the feedback they get from users.
LR runs damned well on my MacBook too.
Aug 18th, 2006 at 1:13 am Jason
@henry — Interesting. You make good points. I might just have to do LR. I’m just concerned about getting attached to it and then having to buy it for tons of money. The only price reference I’ve read was from someone from Adobe who stated that it would cost somewhere between $99 and $600. That’s a big range.
The other thing, though, is that Aperture’s interface is so slick.