I keep going back and forth, granted, but every time I feel like Aperture is going to be my DAM/RAW Editor of choice, I go back to Lightroom. Maybe it’s because I am more familiar and therefore comfortable with Lightroom, or maybe it’s because Lightroom is just an overall better program. I don’t know for sure, but I know that I am generally happier with Lightroom.

Aperture, especially version 2.1, is a great program with several excellent features. I can certainly understand why photographers use it. Even though I am back to using Lightroom, now version 1.4.1, there are some features from Aperture 2.1 that I would love to see in Lightroom:

1. Say I am exporting multiple images to SmugMug. I absolutely love the export plugin window in Aperture because it has the ability to show me thumbnails of the images I am exporting. Lightroom doesn’t do this, and only gives me a drop-down list of images that I am exporting. Aperture’s handling of multiple images during export to SmugMug is infinitely better.
2. Aperture uses standard Mac input boxes, text fields, etc. while Lightroom uses a custom interface that is forced to show the underlying standard fields in certain circumstances. For example, if I want to rename a field in Lightroom, Lightroom has to show a standard text field to accomplish this, which results in a misaligned text field on top of the custom Lightroom interface. This, to me, is just sloppy and really needs to be addressed. I think this might also have something to do with poor performance when tabbing through fields while also using auto-complete. I have never been satisfied with the way Lightroom handles auto-complete, especially when trying to tab to the next field.
3. Aperture can scroll through thumbnails much quicker. More specifically, maybe, is that Aperture feels faster at responding to my input, while Lightroom feels somewhat sluggish responding to the same input. I don’t know if this is fixable or not, but I hope so. I recall reading somewhere, although I don’t know where, that response to user input must be instantaneous, or so nearly instantaneous that it feels connected. Anything less than this feels disconnected.
4. Aperture has very detailed Smart Folder abilities. Lightroom 2 BETA has Smart Folders (called Smart Collections), but the search criteria is somewhat limited in comparison. This might just be a limitation of the BETA, however, but I would still request (and have done so) more robust searching capabilities.

There are a few other bits and pieces that I would like to see carried over from Aperture, but what I listed above is the bulk of it. However, Lightroom 2 BETA looks to be very promising. I can’t wait for it to be released, and I can promise that I will be as close to the front of the digital line to buy it as possible.

I still like Lightroom that much. I anticipate that I will ultimately keep Aperture as a book-making tool, at least until I find something better or Lightroom gets its own book-making capabilities.