| OK, I've been using Aperture 2.1 for about 1.5 months now, so here's an update:
The more I use it, the more I like it. I can't make full use of the tethered mode, but it's easy enough to transfer from the card to a laptop if I want to see something a little bigger on location.
When I loaded my iPhoto library into Aperture everything came across perfectly. It has definitely cleaned up my workflow - it takes a fraction of the time it used to for me to go from shooting to burning the images to a CD to ship off, and has made my recordkeeping and image-tagging a lot easier, too, by letting me pre-select a set of keywords and EXIF data to tag the images with. You can search and sort on pretty much anything - it made putting together a set of photos for a mini 'gallery display' that I have hanging now very easy.
It's a big, complex program with a lot of power, but the ease of use makes it seem like it's a lesser program than it really is. The highlight recovery is amazing - in an image with blown-out highlights you can run a slider to bring back some detail. I have been very pleased with the results I have been getting using the various functions.
I have done NO spot-retouching or any other manipulation other than making sure the white balance, color, and exposures are right. It is amazingly fast (after working with Photoshop Elements in the past). From talking to others who have used Aperture 1.5, 2.0 (now 2.1) is a VERY good upgrade, much faster, and the new features alone were worth the price of the upgrade to them.
As I said above, they do have a 30-day free trial, so if you have a Mac give it a shot!
(Since I haven't used Lightroom I'm not voting in the poll as to which is 'better', as I have nothing to make a valid comparison... but I *really* like Aperture!) |