Interesting poll on DPReview home page right now

[Matt Shelton]

Have you seen the poll on the home page right now re which software do you use for RAW processing? I'm amazed at how soundly Lightroom, Photoshop & Elements are kicking Aperture's butt. Now of course some of that is simply that in the entire universe of DSLR owners, a large majority are on a PC platform, but only 6% for Aperture? Wow. I,ve spent so much time over the past three years learning - and enjoying - Aperture 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0, and it really works very well for me (with the occasional annoying hiccup). I hope thate Apple doesn't ultimately abandon Aperture as it becomes more and more iOS -centric; I would hate to find myself compelled to try LR4 or LR5 in a few years.

Along those lines, here is my wish list for Aperture 3.5 or 4. It's not long at all, as Aperture does almost everything I need really well.

-improved non-destructive noise reduction

-native export integration/syncing with SmugMug, similar to what it's doing right now with Flickr and Facebook
-lens correction options

 

[gaussian blur]

Have you seen the poll on the home page right now re which software do you use for RAW processing? I'm amazed at how soundly Lightroom, Photoshop & Elements are kicking Aperture's butt. Now of course some of that is simply that in the entire universe of DSLR owners, a large majority are on a PC platform, but only 6% for Aperture? Wow. I,ve spent so much time over the past three years learning - and enjoying - Aperture 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0, and it really works very well for me (with the occasional annoying hiccup). I hope thate Apple doesn't ultimately abandon Aperture as it becomes more and more iOS -centric; I would hate to find myself compelled to try LR4 or LR5 in a few years.

It's not surprising. It's been trending that way for a long time.

• In 2007 Lightroom was nearly twice as popular as Aperture
• In 2008 it was nearly three times as popular
• In 2009 it’s approaching four times as popular

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2009/09/lightroom_vs_aperture_09.html

 

[Ecoh]

Consider that Lightroom runs on both PC and Mac, Aperture only runs on Mac. I think Apple computers are less than 10 % of the market. If you don't have a Mac, you would have to go buy one. Aperture would have to be a really fantastic product to make people spend a few thousand more to buy a new computer just to run it.

I love Aperture, but I am a commercial artist and use Mac computers at work and home since 1992. I like the Mac way. A lot of other people here that are gear heads might be into building computers, programming, gaming - pro or as hobby - just use PC.

I wonder what the difference between Aperture and LR would be between pro-graphics/photo/ people only.

Or what is the difference between people that are already Mac users. I think it would be a little closer.

I love Aperture mainly because I like the way it lets me organize the photos, and integrates with all the other programs I use. I could easily switch to LR if I had to, so my preference is mainly one of convenience.

 

[Matt Shelton]

Yeah, but it's interesting to see the data from a source other than Adobe.

 

[Conchita]

I don't understand your surprise. When you consider that the vast majority of the people here are using windows, what would you expect?

 

[theNEOone]

Apple's market share is 5-10%. The poll seems to be right on target...

 

[graybalanced]

Geez you guys, let's be careful with the facts here...

Apple's market share is 5-10%. The poll seems to be right on target...

No, that's Apple's overall market share, including mass corporate installations which are irrelevant to this web site. Among creative users like the typical cross-section of this DPReview photography site, Apple market share is widely thought to be roughly half or more. This is not the general market here. Even outside creative fields, when I go down to the coffee shop, usually half the laptops are Macs.

Consider that Lightroom runs on both PC and Mac, Aperture only runs on Mac...I wonder what the difference between Aperture and LR would be between pro-graphics/photo/ people only. Or what is the difference between people that are already Mac users. I think it would be a little closer.

Again, pay better attention to the numbers. As was pointed out by gaussian blur , Lightroom is kicking Aperture's butt even if you leave PC users out of the numbers. Aperture is still losing by an increasing margin every year even on Apple's home court of Mac users only.

 

[Matt Shelton]

My only counter to that is, sure, amongst the prosumer to professional DSLR owners, those who are on the Mac platform might approach 50%. But a TON of entry level to enthusiast DSLRs (re Canon, i.e. Rebel and XXD owners) have been sold, and many of them are shooting RAW. Amongst that group (which is well represented in DPR forums), I bet the ratio of Mac to PC users there might be more like 20/80. Anyway you slice it, though, Lightroom clearly is preferred by many over Aperture.

 

[Rotlex]

Interesting, yet, not surprising considering many of the reasons stated in this thread, and the heavy windows user base, even on these forums.

Personally, I prefer Aperture for a number of reasons, but primarily because it fits my workflow perfectly. I also feel it image management capabilities FAR exceed Lightroom. Frankly, to me, that is the single most important thing I'm looking for. I can manipulate my images with many different software packages. However, keeping 10's of thousands of them organized, is something I find Aperture does very, very well.
--
Steve
http://web.mac.com/rotlex

 

[Edvinas]

Among creative users like the typical cross-section of this DPReview photography site, Apple market share is widely thought to be roughly half or more.

You better start the poll here to base this guess

Even outside creative fields, when I go down to the coffee shop, usually half the laptops are Macs.

This says nothing.

--
Edvinas

 

[graybalanced]

Even outside creative fields, when I go down to the coffee shop, usually half the laptops are Macs.

This says nothing.

I think it certainly does. When people repeat over and over that Mac market share is "5-10%" and yet over and over, it is easy to observe a higher percentage in the field, you have a reason to believe that the context of "5-10% market share" may be irrelevant.

Is anyone willing to denigrate the importance of being an American citizenm, on the basis that we only make up less than 4 percent of the world's population...?

 

[Robin Casady]

It doesn't work with ColorChecker Passport Camera Profiles. For that one factor, I switched to Lightroom 3. If Aperture 3 had a similar system for calibrating color, I'd switch back.
--
Robin Casady
http://www.robincasady.com/Photo/index.html

 

[Edvinas]

I think it certainly does. When people repeat over and over that Mac market share is "5-10%" and yet over and over, it is easy to observe a higher percentage in the field, you have a reason to believe that the context of "5-10% market share" may be irrelevant.

Is anyone willing to denigrate the importance of being an American citizenm, on the basis that we only make up less than 4 percent of the world's population...?

You can't judge even about USA just by looking at your neighbourhood. Not to mention worldwide.

--
Edvinas

 

[theNEOone]

Even outside creative fields, when I go down to the coffee shop, usually half the laptops are Macs.

This says nothing.

I think it certainly does. When people repeat over and over that Mac market share is "5-10%" and yet over and over, it is easy to observe a higher percentage in the field, you have a reason to believe that the context of "5-10% market share" may be irrelevant.

Is anyone willing to denigrate the importance of being an American citizenm, on the basis that we only make up less than 4 percent of the world's population...?

I'm an American, but I'd really like to know what's so "important" about being an American citizen....

 

[BRJR]

And, Apple Aperture, is not likely going to be plat-formed to run on "windows" and other such operating systems.
--
BRJR ....(LOL, some of us are quite satisfied as Hobbyists ..)

 

[BRJR]

Exactly, and no poll or statistics are even necessary to know this. Would need a separate poll for just Mac users, but still using the same parameters.

--
BRJR ....(LOL, some of us are quite satisfied as Hobbyists ..)

I don't understand your surprise. When you consider that the vast majority of the people here are using windows, what would you expect?

 

[graybalanced]

Is anyone willing to denigrate the importance of being an American citizenm, on the basis that we only make up less than 4 percent of the world's population...?

I'm an American, but I'd really like to know what's so "important" about being an American citizen....

Perhaps "important" was the wrong word. It was just an example. Misguided people like to claim that the Mac is not worth dealing with because it's only 5% of the market. I was merely creating an analogy that market share is not equal to significance. I used the analogy of America for two reasons. One is that the degree of American influence (for better or worse) on the world is clear and easy to understand, yet Americans make up a smaller percentage of the world's population than Mac users do of the computing population, yet people who use mice, GUIs, MP3 players, and touchscreen smartphones somehow claim Apple isn't worth bothering with.

I know I shouldn't be dragging out the Mac vs PC thing, I'll stop.

 

[jjmarz]

Is already part of Lightroom 3...

 

[james_the_first]

Its also worth remembering that apple give away an image management tool that does well enough for many users, even enthusiast photogs - iphoto - not part of the poll

so part of the larger question is - what proportion of the mac base is happy with the really very effective freebie compared to the small proportion that want the few % extra security/flexibility/architecture of a proper all in one DAM/tool

if you know what your doing in iphoto it can be argued that aperture has limited extra leverage - if you don't know what you're doing in iphoto then you're not really thinking about the benefits aperture brings and its not relevant

iphoto in its most recent incarnations really is quite close in user appeal to aperture and you have to wonder what apple think they're playing at having a free app that appears to be so similar to a paying one

Intriguingly adobe are moving in the same direction with elements and full photoshop - most non-pro's are likely to be more than happy with the last two releases at their increadibly low prices and will never feel the need to move up to the full apps.

j