Apple Aperture 1.5 [Old Version]

This is a review of the newer version of Apeture.
Ok so I purchased this (older) version of Apeture because I do not like spending a lot of money on software and I thought I could learn a bit about this application before upgrading to the latest version of Apeture. What I did not know was this version does not work at all with my iMac. After realizing that, I had not choice but to get the upgrade much sooner then expected. All this is no big deal cause Apeture (the latest version) is an awesome application. I upgraded from iPhoto which I also liked but I wanted something with greater image editing ability. I made the right choice with this program and I wound up saving a few bucks for not having to purchase the full version. Saving money is very cool.

Like a lot of amateur photographers, I was wondering whether to make the leap and use RAW files or not. I decided to try RAW out, and in order to take advantage of RAW formats I got Aperture.

So far, I've found this to be a useful photo-processing program - certainly an improvement over iPhoto. Here are some of the highlights for me:

1) Easy to use adjustment tools. If you've used iPhoto or any basic program, you can probably open Aperture and figure out how to use everything in 10 minutes. I remember years ago struggling with Adobe Photoshop and being confused out of my mind.

2) Good range of color adjustments available. I love being able to change the saturation of individual colors. The range doesn't quite cover the entire rainbow (orange is missing), but it is great when you want to adjust one color and not the others.

3) Aperture allows you to organize similar photos in stacks for easy access. Often, I take a series of photos of the same subject, changing shutter speed or f-stop slightly, to see which composition or exposure I like best. Stacks keeps all of these photos in a group so I can easily compare them later.

Now, for the drawbacks:

1) The magnification tool ("loupe") is not as useful as the magnification in iPhoto or other programs. First of all, it slows down the program quite a bit and every time I use it I have to wait about 20 seconds before I can continue using the program. Second, its minimum magnification is 50x, which isn't always useful (particularly if I want to see how a picture would look if cropped). By contrast, iPhoto simply has a useful sliding bar that allows you to zoom in or out quickly.

2) Aperture, like many advanced photoshop programs, uses a lot of memory on your hard drive (~1 GB) and ram. Using it slows your computer down. It has already crashed twice on me over the course of 24 hours. This certainly isn't a reason not to get it - I would just warn you against getting it and storing it on your computer if you don't expect to seriously use it.

3) No full-screen editing mode.

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.

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.

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.