Aperture Review

I've been using Aperture for almost a week now and I have found it to be a truly excellent application. I'm not a professional photographer—more of a prosumer—and I'm only just getting into RAW. That said, as a workflow application, Aperture replaces iPhoto, 75-85% of Photoshop and one or two other things for me. I have found only one or two things to be disappointed in with the software and they are incredibly minor. I look forward to 1.0.x or 1.x, but what we have now is pretty good.
 
gwynarion, what camera (brand/model) are your RAW files coming from?
 
I started this thread and for the price they are getting for it. I think it should be a all around programs for photo's no just handling raw format. I think I would better off getting cs3.
 
Well: It's certainly not seen as a competition to Photoshop CS2 (if that is what you mean by 'cs3'), it's seen as an extension. I hear good things about Aperture. The main 'beef' people have with it is the RAW support. - Although in a semi-pro environment, this might even not be as bad.
 
hawki18 said:
I started this thread and for the price they are getting for it. I think it should be a all around programs for photo's no just handling raw format. I think I would better off getting cs3.
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It is an all around program for photos, more so than Photoshop is. RAW support is one of the touted features, but it handles any formats a digital camera can take. If you're expecting it to be a replacement for Photoshop stop. Photoshop is a graphics design program, despite what its name contains, which incorporates photo tools in with its overall set of features. Aperture is a digital photography workflow application, which puts it in a different group of software. Think of it as the photographic version of Final Cut or as iPhoto all grown up.
 
Then again, if I'm thinking "iPhoto grown up", then I'm thinking 99 or 199 USD. ;) But I'm not a pro photographer, anyway.
 
I guess it just depends on how grown up it is :) You could say that Final Cut is just an improved iMovie, in the same way that Aperture is an improved iPhoto. It all depends on scale. I think that it's really a matter of how much you think the software will be worth to you. Aperture is easily worth its $499 USD price tag, whereas Final Cut Express is in no way worth the $299 USD to me.
 
Over 500 usd is to much for me. I like taking photo and testing all the features with the programs. But mac just charges too much for the programs. I use cs2 got it discount for 300 usd and if you do not need all the features of photo shop there is all elements and around a 100 bucks. So there is no way apple can make me believe that Aperture is wortth the price.
 
Not sure where you got the belief about the charging too much for the other apps—you might want to compare AVID Studio HD ($2500) with Final Cut Studio ($1300).
 
this thread is talking about photo software not video and for the price of Aperture I will take phot shop any day
 
hawki18 said:
this thread is talking about photo software not video and for the price of Aperture I will take phot shop any day
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I seem to remember reading somewhere that Aperture is designed as a complement to Photoshop, not a replacement.
 
If what you _want_ is Photoshop and you get it at a nice price and you think Aperture does not cover your needs as a photographer, then YES: Aperture's too expensive for you. Clearly. BUT Aperture covers the needs for many photographers, it seems. Only: It's not quite there yet. But to lower the price would be wrong. Rather, they should (and quite probably will) be working on the next version, so that the outstanding bugs can be fixed and the reviewers can appreciate that, so that in the _future_ the price doesn't seem too much. This way, they can continue to ask 500 USD for it, instead of having to lower the price. (To go up with the price later often proves more difficult, i.e. you lose more customers than you've won with lowering the price...)
 
Aperture is clearly aimed at professional photographers with very specific needs. If you watch the demo videos, that's a world that most of us (even in the creative industry) simply don't live in.

Aperture is very different from Photoshop, though I still stand by my initial claim that Photoshop, Exposé and Bridge do a LOT of what Aperture does, and according to this review, does it "better" in terms of quality.

Aperture seems geared toward a very specific workflow and presumably is very good at catering to that model. Since most of us are not professional photographers, it really doesn't matter what we think, it only matters what they think. $500 could be a bargain paid for in half a day if it streamlines their workflow enough. Or it could be a ripoff if the RAW format gets compromised as is implied.
 
hawki18 said:
Over 500 usd is to much for me. I like taking photo and testing all the features with the programs. But mac just charges too much for the programs. I use cs2 got it discount for 300 usd and if you do not need all the features of photo shop there is all elements and around a 100 bucks. So there is no way apple can make me believe that Aperture is wortth the price.
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Aperture is $499 USD while Photoshop is $649 USD. The fact that you go Photoshop for less is really pretty meaningless except to say that you can get discounts on Aperture too, provided you are an educational buyer. But the real point is that if you don't feel that Aperture is worth either amount you have the excellent recourse of not buying it. Carping over how much you think it costs and how it doesn't seem worth it to you hardly seems to be contributing to this thread in a meaningful way.
 
I know Aperture is suppose to be a work along for photoshop but I am not paying $500.00 for a add on for photoshop
 
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