Side by Side: Apple Aperture and Adobe Lightroom in S.F.

You really are fooling yourself if you think that is the case. Once you are used to LR's shortcuts, switching between Library and Develop is no more onerous than switching to full screen view and back. Use Quick Develop and Develop's Auto Sync mode, and it's simultaneous adjustment of all selected items versus the Lift and Stamp two step. Throw in background processing of multiple exports, and it ain't no wash. 😟

I have just returned from the side by side presentations. Both Tom Hogardy and Joe Schorr, the product managers of the two programs got to speak for 30 minutes each. After that there was a question and answer period. Both presented overviews on their products and both did a good job. I got to chat with Joe after the answer period and I enjoyed that very much. It was obvious that both programs had a lot in common. Tom gave a lame excuse that you really didn't need two monitors with Lightroom, but later mentioned it might be available in the future. Neither had an answer for a one button solution to synch a second computer. Aperture's work around of exporting Project was the best of the two solutions. Joe played with the loupe and demonstrated three and compare configurations, as well as the ability to cusrtomise the Aperture dersktop. Tom showed how you could set develop presets rthat covered the entire or any portion of the development process. I got the feeling that Aperture was a much more mature program than Lightroom at this time, but I did like Lightroom's capability to import, rename files and create a backup with the same modified names all during the import process. After thast two professional photographers demonstrated hoew they ahve integrated the respective programs into their workflow. It was obvious to me that Aperture was far superior in file management and the GUI was easier to work with. I'm tired so I'll say good night.
Jeff

The fact you have to switch at all was annoyance enough for me, even with the quick keys. I find simply making adjustments when and where I need them to be a lot simpler than having to go to a mode to edit.

And, there is nothng like the loupe in Lightroom (they have what they call a loupe but it's just zoom and pan).

Equally, it's an annoyance to have to keep switching into Full Screen view. But annoyance doesn't equate to losing time. I think the module thing really comes down to how focused you are - if you like to flit around and adjust images when you're trying to get out your web contact sheet, then Aperture's marginally more convenient (just hit D in LR) and LR's separate boxes "feel" rigid, but they work better if your way of working is a more structured process. The modular layout is an obvious point of difference, but a spurious reason to favour one or the other - certainly not in terms of time saving.

I agree with you about the Loupe - though it's mainly touted as being for critical focus, it is sexy and great for client PR, and its combination of full screen image and 100% or more is wonderful for watching sensitive areas while adjusting the rest of the image. The other area where I think you can really favour Aperture in comparison to LR is the smart album feature. Its absence makes the LR feel very dumbed down and inflexible for the power user, and is unforgivable in a database-driven environment.

Wait a minute, here. So Joe Schorr goes public in an event organized with the sole purpose of comparing the two products while any thread doing the same thing here gets deleted?

Did anyone asked about the unsupported cameras in Aperture?

oh, Stephane...

you appear to be blessed with a peculiarly single-tracked mind. Keep it up.

Cheers,
k.

Joe mentioned the new 10.49 release and pointed out that 7 medium forma cameras and or backs were now being supported along with Pentax models, Nikon 40D and a Leica model ( not the 8D ). He also pointed out that new cameras would be supported independent of new operating system releases in the future. There was no point publicly challenging him in front of photographers who are in a decision making mode and his competition. I considered myself very lucky to meet and chat with him. He's read this very post and knows there are frustrated customers that are looking for support. he is emotionally comitted to Aperture and I beleive there is more to come shortly.
Jeff

These are good news. They do need to speed up the process.

Apple Insider wrote that Apple has a good sized booth at WPPI and plans to make an Aperture announcement before the show starts for customer download. It starts March 24th. Your guess is as good as mine, but hopefully there is good news coming. Of course even if they announce a major upgrade 2.0 product some will complain that it's not free. Anyway, I'm anxious and as always hopeful.
Jeff

Aperture is RAW based. Its TIFF and JPEG capabilities are there to support legacy. Given that simple fact, the lack of RAW support is THE issue remaining. There are many possible improvements but the program is great as it is already. RAW support is a big problem when you have an unsupported camera because it makes Aperture useless. Also, the delay to solve it seems completely out of the reasonable and, yes, I keep banging on it. I bang only on that because it is the very first issue I want corrected. I go by priority . I think issuing a list of 20 wanted improvement is much less useful. It might be useless, it might be tiring for some, but no-one is forced to read. A lot of my interventions are deleted anyway.

It's not tiring for me (or indeed others) who are still waiting for Leica D-LUX2 support. Keep up the good work.

Regards

Stephane,

from what I understand, Apple is very, very careful with their RAW converter, and they do a lot of meticulous testing and tweaking of each camera's parameters. Maybe it just takes them longer to provide support for new cameras because they put more energy into the development process.

Keep banging, that is definitely a good thing. Others might have other priorities which they bang about; adjustment speed is an issue that comes to mind here. Ole Joe needs to sort the requirements out (and explain his decisions to his bosses) - I don't envy him (except he gets to play with the Aperture 2.0 beta).

As to your interventions being deleted, maybe you could tone down a bit, sometimes your statements are a tad, shall we say, forceful.

Cheers,
k.

from what I understand, Apple is very, very careful
with their RAW converter, and they do a lot of
meticulous testing and tweaking of each camera's
parameters.

It certainly seems to show.

Maybe it just takes them longer to
provide support for new cameras because they put more
energy into the development process.

Understood. Then they could issue a plan with camera types and dates. That alone would be a huge improvement on the present situation by allowing people to take informed decisions. It would take about a day to put that list together.

As to your interventions being deleted, maybe you
could tone down a bit, sometimes your statements are
a tad, shall we say, forceful.

I know. I am often too assertive, bordering on getting aggressive. The frustration is that I am not that at all, just quite incompetent at expressing myself in English. My first language is French (don't be rude please! 😉 ).

Cheers,
k.

Switching is disruptive if one has to go back and forth several times - in both apps.

That said, at least Ap can connect and use the second monitor as the full display and another for browsing views (which is how I use Ap). LR does not support second monitor currently. I've read that some people stretch the app window across 2 monitors so that they get a mostly full image on one and the control panel on the other. Sounds bit silly but it might work for some people, who has exact same resolution monitors.

LR team has sort of said V2, maybe. I used to be LR B4 user before changing to Ap for superior file management and ability to support 2 monitors.

Cheers.

Aaah... French... I regret that I cannot speak or write that language well. It is much more pleasant sounding than my native tongue, German.

Cheers,
k.