Lightroom vs Aperture 2

[jonswan]

I know this might have been done, but how do they compare? Now Aperture 2's been out a while I wonder what people think of it + how it compares to the current Lightroom. Money's not really a problem though the latter is double the price of Aperture 2 - is it worth the difference? I've used both a little and find them very similar.
Thanks

 

[jtblueberry]

personal preference. both are great.

 

[jonswan]

Ah yes, but one's double the price of the other - does it warrant the expense?
To be honest, my preference was for Lightroom, but I'm guessing there are more Aperture people on here, but maybe I'm wrong..

 

[miloblithe]

Does anyone know where to find a point-by-point comparison of the two 2.x versions (although Lightroom is still in early beta). Something like a checklist:

Aperture Lightroom

feature a yes no
feature b no* yes*
feature c 8 7

and so on.

 

[John T]

Why not download trial versions of both and compare for yourself?

That's what I did!

 

[147798]

the differences are subtle, and often come down to how you prefer to work, so really the trial download option is the way to go. Get familiar with the tools, then you could ask specific questions. A general question like "which is better" will only get you vague answers or fanboy rantings.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

here's the way I think of Aperture and lightroom. Lightroom has modes of working and is best to work in that order. Aperture is more flexible. If you want to work through a given process (arguably faster) then pick Lightroom. If you like to go back and forth when working on a project (or multiple) then I would go with Aperture.

another thing to watch for is the plugins. Apertures plugins are destructive, while plugins for lightroom won't be. This means that there will probably be vastly more plugins for aperture, but lightroom will be more flexible when working with plugins.

 

[ChrisA]

Ah yes, but one's double the price of the other - does it warrant the expense?
To be honest, my preference was for Lightroom, but I'm guessing there are more Aperture people on here, but maybe I'm wrong..

The way to get meaningful advice here is to say what you are looking for. What is importent to you and what is not. What volume of shooting you do and what other post processing tools you use. Maybe tell people why you don't want to use iPhoto.

If you just ask "which is best?" you will not get many meaningful replies.

Both offer a free 30 day trial period. Why not download each of them and use them for 30 days? But be warned. I did this and found you will learn nothing unless you really do spend quite a bit of time studying and reading and using the software. One evening will not tell you much. Both of them do have a learning cure. So you need to pick a thousand or two sample photos and spend some real time using the software.

Does anyone know where to find a point-by-point comparison

A list like this would not tell you the major difference between the two. It is how those features are stung together that matters. The user interface. How well it integrates with other programs

And if you are gong to make a feature matrix why not include other software like Adobe's Camera Raw/Bridge como and iPhoto and Nikon's Capture NX.

 

[marioman38]

I use Lightroom, there is a LR 2.0 beta out now which has Multi-Display support, as well as numerous other fixes...