Adobe Lightroom - kind of nice

Adobe Lightroom 1.0 Win/Mac isn't cheap - $300 list. There's a month free trial though, and since I'm kind of disgusted with Aperture I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm not using it to manage photos, for that I use iPhoto '08. I'm using it for my standard heretical workflow:

1. Import JPEG and RAW images from our Canon SD1000 and Digital Rebel XT.
2. Rename files to embed some roll and date info in the file name.
3. Import into Aperture, Adobe Lightroom or iPhoto for post-processing.
4. Export as JPEG 98%
5. Import into iPhoto '08 for archival storage and uploading.
6. Delete the RAW images.
   

So, for this purpose, how does Adobe Lightroom compare to Aperture?

It's better. Much faster for image browsing, a bit faster than Aperture on my slowish PPC iMac for image editing. LR is easier to learn than Aperture, even though I think the Library/Develop division is dumb.

It's even a better Macintosh application! Aperture uses weird GUI elements, LR sticks mostly to the Apple standards. It's the most Mac-like of all Adobe's apps, because it began life on the Mac.

Aperture's theoretical big advantage is that it can import an iPhoto Library -- but it can't handle video, Photo Books, etc. And, of course, Aperture doesn't support editing of image dates - so I can't use it as an image store anyway.

For what I do today, LR is a better solution.

Aperture is not looking very happy these days ...