Ars Technica Reviews Aperture

by , 12:40 PM EST, December 5th, 2005

Ars Technica put Apple's new pro-level image editing and management application, Aperture, through its paces, and came back disappointed. Although Aperture has some great features, it comes up lacking in some of the tools that pro users will need.

The review lists several features in Aperture's favor, including a well organized interface, nondestructive edits and versioning that don't waste hard drive space, powerful search features, and powerful red eye, highlight and shadow filers.

It also noted that Apple has a free application that checks to see if your Mac meets the minimum system requirements. It's a good idea to use the Aperture Checker application before purchasing your copy, because it won't install if your Mac doesn't meet the minimum system requirements.

On the down side, Ars Technica was disappointed with the hard to read text in the interface, the inability to edit base EXIF and IPTC data, and poor RAW conversion. Other issues the article pointed out include extremely slow batch metadata processing, inaccurate histograms, no curves adjustment, no per-pixel RGB information, no DNG exporting, and that the application is full of bugs.

The review noted "It saddens me to say that Aperture's innovations are only skin deep. If it could deliver on the promise of being both fast and produce flawless results, it would be the dream package."