Aperture vs Lightroom: any head-to-head comparisons/reviews?

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I've spent a good deal of time looking for a head-to-head comparison of Apple's Aperture and Adobe's Lightroom and haven't been able to find anything. Can anyone point to to something?



I'm an amateur photographer who is progressing toward semi-professional (from a hobby standpoint anyway). I've been thinking about "upgrading" from iPhoto to Aperture or Lightroom. I've downloaded the demos of both but at this point I'm a little overwhelmed at figuring out which I like better (I know it's ultimately my decision, but would like to see some sort of comparison of the two). I use Photoshop Elements, but tend to be a bit of an Apple fanboy, so am leaning toward Aperture.



Thanks for your thoughts....

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    You can get a 30 day free trial of Aperture, and I think Lightroom is still a free beta, so why not try both for yourself? No review can fully replace your experience.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    areseearesee Posts: 776member
    Macworld is talking about doing a comparison after they do their formal review of the shipping version of Lightroom. They are not planning to release the review until the week of Feb 19.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    You can get a 30 day free trial of Aperture, and I think Lightroom is still a free beta, so why not try both for yourself? No review can fully replace your experience.



    I just used Aperture in a real-world situation to download RAW files from a DSLR photoshoot and found it to be more useful than I thought I would... considering buying it now (whereas I wasn't before). 8)
  • Reply 4 of 10
    I've got the same problem, well almost. Right now I have iphoto 6.02 and photoshop CS. I was interested in Aperture and went and bought it without looking at it's minimum requirements and it's not compatible with my Dual G4, which sucks big time. Now I found out that Light Room is compatible, but if someone has a demo I can download I would really appreciate it, especially since their beta testing is over, I haven't been able to find it. Anyways do you think it's still worth it if I have Creative Suite Premium CS??
  • Reply 5 of 10
    if you already have creative suite premium cs, you might just want to watch for the whole cs3 bundle. it will probably be included as part of that bundle and it would likely be cheaper than a standalone.



    i got more used to lightroom since i'm using a g4 powerbook and i started shooting raw when i was on vacation, but i've used aperture a bit since then too. i'm not exactly sure which one i prefer yet. aperture seems to organize photos better but lightroom has more controls than aperture does.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by admactanium View Post


    if you already have creative suite premium cs, you might just want to watch for the whole cs3 bundle. it will probably be included as part of that bundle and it would likely be cheaper than a standalone.



    i got more used to lightroom since i'm using a g4 powerbook and i started shooting raw when i was on vacation, but i've used aperture a bit since then too. i'm not exactly sure which one i prefer yet. aperture seems to organize photos better but lightroom has more controls than aperture does.



    Thanks for the input, but I'm in the mood that I don't want to wait and Light Room is $200.00 until mid May, so tomorrow I'm going to order it. And getting a new version of CS Premium I can't afford. I've looked at the Light Room video and it does seam to have more control. But one way or another Aperture 1.5 isn't compatible with my computer.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by admactanium View Post


    if you already have creative suite premium cs, you might just want to watch for the whole cs3 bundle. it will probably be included as part of that bundle and it would likely be cheaper than a standalone.



    Adobe last week said that Lightroom would not be a part of CS3. Don't know why, and it seems like a stupid move to me, but there it is ...
  • Reply 8 of 10
    wow. that's very strange they're not going to include it in the suite. i though they ended up calling it photoshop lightroom. well, that makes defection to aperture more likely for a lot of folks since aperture seems to run faster than lightroom. hmm. now i'm really torn.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Argelius View Post


    I've spent a good deal of time looking for a head-to-head comparison of Apple's Aperture and Adobe's Lightroom and haven't been able to find anything. Can anyone point to to something?



    I'm an amateur photographer who is progressing toward semi-professional (from a hobby standpoint anyway). I've been thinking about "upgrading" from iPhoto to Aperture or Lightroom. I've downloaded the demos of both but at this point I'm a little overwhelmed at figuring out which I like better (I know it's ultimately my decision, but would like to see some sort of comparison of the two). I use Photoshop Elements, but tend to be a bit of an Apple fanboy, so am leaning toward Aperture.



    Thanks for your thoughts....



    What camera are you using? If its a Nikon, the software tools like Nikon View and Nikon Capture that come with it work well. If you have to pay for something, Capture NX is a great tool.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    I've just posted a Blog entry that highlights the best comparisons and also provides a decent summary of the pros to each app.



    http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/20...re_vs_lig.html
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