Evaluation:  
Conclusion: Stop!!
Review: Aperture 1.5 was great, but do yourself a favor and buy 2.0 instead. A much improved work of art and less expensive to boot.
Evaluation:
Conclusion: Managing and Tweaking Photos
Review: Having used both Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture, I have to say that I am more comfortable working in Aperture. It has something to do with not feeling locked into an interface structure that I don't particularly want to come back to time and again. Aperture is open and I can accomplish what I need to do without feeling constrained.
Evaluation:
Conclusion: Aperture 2.0 has been released!
Review: In other words, you should not buy version 1.5. (You will for a while get an upgrade for 9.95 from Apple.) But since the new version is $199... Well, you do the math.
Looks like a ton of new and improved features, so check it out.
Evaluation:
Conclusion: Let's talk candidly!
Review: 5 stars because it is a promissing new program positioned for very strong success due to Apples market position and its use, and availablity on its Mac computers
The good news:
This is a great program for viewing, organizing and performing basic editing using RAW files. The presentation ablilities of this software are magnificent. I will mainly use it to organize, display, present, email, create slideshow or DVD's, and maybe print from my databases on my Mac.
For advanced photo editing features you will have to rely on other methods.
The not so good news:
Aperture 1.5 is the second in the line from Mac for Mac use. Photoshop would be the obvious choice for any type of advanced photo editing or graphics creation softwares. If that is your thing, get Photoshop or one of its dirivatives. Or install vmware fusion or parallels and work windows XP or Vista on your Mac, and use the wide variety of photo processing applications available for windows. You can save the file in RAW, Jpeg, Tiff or whatever, and then open it up in Aperture for any additional presentation commands within your Mac.
Again hopefully this product is in its early development stage. The folks at Aperture must add a slew of editing features to remain relevant as other softwares catch up and exceed the demands placed by the new Dual Core technologies which are emerging.
What it doesn't do:
Take Layering for example, or working with layers. Take one click auto fix commands for contrast, levels, lighting, sharpness, exposure etc.(somewhat,but very archaic) Along with macro adjustments for the same. How about one click Black and white, spehia, antique, negative or other conversions. iPhoto does it. how about a back and forth over changes command for quick do's and undo's.Where is Hue alteration(found it!), Diffuse glow, texture and color, copy, and clone features. Paint, text, edges, and filters. good gracious, where are all the filters? Why cant you cut, copy, duplicate and paste from one pic to another?
I guess it depends on where you have been regarding advanced photo processing features offered by all the variants of photoprocessing softwares. And what you are ultimately trying to create.
This is 90% workflow and organizing software/10% editing.
Again, Hopefully the folks at Aperture plan to expand this products capability before the plethera of available softwares make it irrellevant. It would be nice to have one software for everything. Aperture is just one part of the solution at this point.
Evaluation:
Conclusion: Niche Product Without a Niche
Review: I have Aperture, but I haven't touched it since Apple introduced iPhoto '08.
For organizing your photos--even by the thousands-- nothing beats iPhoto. Better still, iPhoto '08 comes for free on a new Macintosh, or can upgrade to it for eighty bucks with the purchase of Apple's latest iLife suite. For 90% of what I need to do, iPhoto does just fine. For the other 10% of my photo editing needs, the heavy-duty stuff, nothing but full-on Photoshop CS3 will do.
So where does that leave Aperture? In between the cracks of iPhoto and Photoshop.
There's nothing wrong with Aperture. But it's not the organizer that iPhoto '08 is, and it's a much weaker editor than Photoshop. Save yourself the money and don't bother.
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![Apple Aperture 1.5 [Old Version]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VnWjoFjGL._SL160_.jpg)
