Apple  Announces The End Of Aperture, And I’m Worried.

I have been using and promoting the use of Aperture since purchasing my first digital camera in 2007, looking back its hard to believe that is over 7 years ago. My how time flies.   What originally drew me to Aperture was that at the time it was the easiest and most advanced way of working with RAW Files.  Way back when I used a 35mm Canon EOS, I shot mostly slide film. So to me the decision to use RAW was pretty easy for me.

I have tried several times to switch to Adobe Lightroom, which I will admit has several advantages over Aperture, such as built in lens correction profiles, chromatic aberration correction, and multi touch brushes. What Lightroom does not hold a candle to is the speed of importing photos, the processing and display of slide shows on the fly, photo printing options, and what I think is a superior layout and workflow.

While Apple has promised that the new Photos.app will be fully compatible with my libraries and that it isn’t abandoning it’s pro users. It makes me wonder just how much pain is in store going down this road. Remembering the pain the pro video crowd suffered during the initial days of Final Cut Pro X. How much no frills functionality will I have to sacrifice for form just to please the mainstream consumer crowd?

One other thing that I am sure is weighing heavily on the minds of the real professionals (by real professionals I mean people who make their living with their camera’s and post production suites.), the people who choose an Apple’s product to build their workflow around are once again being forced to adapt to a completely different application. One that from what I saw is being marketed mainly towards consumers. If I’m questioning if I should have bit the bullet and just stuck with lightroom when I was evaluating “switching” I am sure others are as well. At least we would have a stable product pipeline.

Only time will tell, if the announced 6 month wait for the new Photos.app will be what we we’re hoping and waiting for with an update to Aperture, or will it spell the end of Apple’s involvement with professional photography work flow? Is this worth it just for iCloud support?

RIP Aperture –