Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Aperture vs Lightroom vs Photo Mechanic
- Thread starter ammon
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
ammon said:
Which to get depends on what you want to do with the images and a little but on which camera you have.
You will likely want an image editor too. Something like Photoshop or Gimp and which of these yu get might influence the above three.
I'm guessing the Adobe just might include Lightroom in CS3 when it comes out some time in 2007. But right now Gimp run native on Intel while PS needs Roseta.
Before anyone can help you make a selection you need to tell us why you don't like iPhoto. Yes you might have good reason not to like it but knowing why wuld be informative.
I have the Canon Rebel XT and Photoshop CS2. I don't really care for iPhoto because it doesn't do what I need it to do with RAW files.
When I do a shot it is nice to group similar pictures together and switch back and forth between a few of them to pick which one I like best.
When I do a shot it is nice to group similar pictures together and switch back and forth between a few of them to pick which one I like best.
I will preface this by saying that I drink the Apple koolaid. But, I absolutely love Aperture. It runs really well on my intel imac. Nice and speedy and zero crashes of any kind.
I have a friend that prefers Lightroom though. Different strokes for different folks.
I have a friend that prefers Lightroom though. Different strokes for different folks.
Big thumbs up for Aperture, but only if you have the hardware. You need at least a G5 or an intel Mac. It won't run on less than 1GB of RAM either.
I currently use Aperture and like it. Need to play with it more though. Hoping Lightroom includes dual screen support very soon though. I want to like lightroom since it feels sooo much quicker than Aperture and is a lot more apeasing. Also I'm sure Adobe will make Lightroom as seamless with PS as it humanly possible which is always a plus. Only time will tell though. If Lightroom delivers i have no probs owning 2 raw apps.
I was using apeture and liked it a lot. but now i have a macbook and a g5. Apeture will not run on a macbook due to resolution. This is the stupidest thing i think i've ever heard of, because now i'll be switching to lightroom, because i want to use one, not two programs. Essentially their own product, causes you to switch to a competitors software, for ease of use. go figure.
carletonmusic said:
Not true. I have it running on my 1.5ghz core solo mini with 2x256. It does show a box when it starts up saying "You don't have the requirements met" or something like that. I click "OK" and it just loads up as normal.
ammon said:
If you don't like iPhoto's treatment of RAW files then remeber that the RAW to JPG conersion is handled by Core Image which is distributed with Mac OSX. In other words iPhoto and Aperture share the same RAW conversion software. Of course the user interfaces are not the same but under the hood it's the same engine.
So now you have to decides what about iPhoto's handling of RAW you don't like. If it is the quality of the result or the user controls.
If you said you used Nikon then I'd refer you to "NX" which really appears to be a great application (Or will be once they make a UB version) but if you don't like Apple's RAW conversions then you would want to go with Adobe
Apparently it's been around for a long time, but I have never heard of anyone using Photo Mechanic (besides the OP, obviously). Does anyone? What is it good for?
Since no one answers You properly.
Buy PhotoMechanic.
This thing is the bomb.
Super ,super superfast.
Doesn´t create it´s own library.
Absolutely self explanatory.
Since they put their money into developement instead of loudspeaking,
almost no one except some pros and big image banks know of it.
Buy PhotoMechanic.
This thing is the bomb.
Super ,super superfast.
Doesn´t create it´s own library.
Absolutely self explanatory.
Since they put their money into developement instead of loudspeaking,
almost no one except some pros and big image banks know of it.
Can someone please enlighten me about Lighroom. I downloaded the beta version, and I'm confused what the purpose of this software is. It seems that everything lightroom does, I can do with photoshop or am I missing something here?
You are missing something here.HD303 said:
Spend more than 30 seconds with Lightroom and you will begin to understand its purpose.
Super Macho Man said:You are missing something here.
Spend more than 30 seconds with Lightroom and you will begin to understand its purpose.
So you don't understand the program either?