Aperture or Lightroom for Mac

[joutlaw]

My wife has a mid-2011 MacBook Air 13" model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB SSD. We have a Canon XSi and need an easier way to organize and batch edit photos.

With Aperture ~$80 in Mac App Store and Lightroom ~$70, I am having a hard time choosing which product to buy. I have heard of poor performance with Aperture and OS X Lion, but the reviews seem hit or miss.

Anyone have a suggestions?

 

[JohnnyRebel]

download free trial versions and test for yourself.

 

[Gooberlx2]

From comparisons that I've read, Aperture has a few more "fun" features, like face tagging. Integrates better with OSX and iPhoto, as one would expect. Lightroom seems to produce better results for some features, especially noise reduction, and generally operates faster.

UI, cataloging and workflow is totally going to be personal preference.

You could also use the Lightroom 4 beta until the final is released.

This looks like a nice comparison between the two, and a few others.

 

[swanysto]

I have been using the beta 4 version of Lightroom and really enjoy it. It has a pretty good amount of power. Pros and such will say Photoshop, but I think Lightroom is a really good product for the price. Especially if you shoot in RAW format.

Haven't used Aperture cause so far Lightroom has done everything I need.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Pros and such will say Photoshop, but I think Lightroom is a really good product for the price.

I think Pros would say Photoshop + Lightroom. Though there may be some overlap, Lightroom and Photoshop don't really compete with each other, imo. Lightroom for adjustments, Photoshop for manipulation.