Aperture 1.5 - complete package

I tested Aperture on a tricked-out octocore (two quad-core, 2.66GHz Intel Xeon CPUs) system equipped with an ATI X1900 XT card, 2GB of RAM, and many hundreds of gigabytes free hard disk space.You'd think there would be hitch-free operation, and to a large extent, there was. Surprisingly, though, there always seemed to be a small pause when initially loading the loupe. Moreover, speed is relative. A typical export task--converting 123 files with various associated transformations to JPEG, compressed at 60 percent quality, and constrained to a maximum dimension of 500 pixels--took Aperture twice as long as Lightroom (6 minutes, 20 seconds vs. 3 minutes, 10 seconds).

Running a similar operation simultaneously with Apple's Activity Monitor showed that Aperture was using CPU bandwidth much differently than Lightroom does. Both applications used at least seven of the eight cores at a time, but Aperture tended to use a similar percentage for each at the same time, and while Aperture chugged away, the OS used a higher percentage of CPU cycles than did Lightroom. Neither exceeded a half-gig of memory use for the same tasks. Since Adobe has had years to optimize its imaging engine and tweak its threading model, its superior efficiency--at least for that particular task--doesn't surprise me. Furthermore, Aperture is best viewed on at least one 30-inch Cinema Display: Aperture's icons and typeface can be very small and difficult to read.

Open the Aperture box, and you'll find a Getting Started Guide, which will get you up and running, but it won't tell you about some of the application's finer points. The better option is to watch the video that's bundled with the software. Aperture has a reasonably large user community, with books, groups, and conventions popping up all the time, and an extensive knowledgebase on Apple's site. That's good, because you have only two support choices after the 90-day complimentary tech support expires: $49 pay-per-incident or $2,800 unlimited AppleCare. Ouch. At least Adobe offers a few more options in the middle.

Despite appearances, Adobe and Apple aren't the only game in raw town. Last year, Adobe digested Pixmantec for the nutrients in its RawShooter software line, but veteran competitors such as LightZone and Bibble Pro still survive and thrive. The latter even has a Linux version. (Unfortunately, we don't have the resources to cover all the players in this arena, but you can find some excellent coverage at Digital Outback Photo.)

If you work on a Windows system, the choice between Lightroom and Aperture is easy; since there's no Windows version of Aperture, your choice is made for you. On a PowerPC G5 or G4-based Mac, Lightroom's less demanding system requirements make it the more attractive alternative. But what if you have all the horsepower a tower chassis can contain? The answer is still the more-efficient Lightroom. That said, Apple Aperture still ranks as a very practical, powerful tool for working with digital camera raw files and can certainly bring efficiency into the life of any photographer willing to accede to the program's demands.