As some of you may know, I was one of the many people who was beta-testing Adobe’s new Photoshop Lightroom application, which expired on February 28, 2007. The application has reached 1.0 status and is currently shipping.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom expiry

Photoshop Lightroom was a pleasure to use. With its beautiful user interface and easy to access photo editing features, it seemed like a simple but powerful product even in its beta stages. Indeed, Photoshop Lightroom is a worthy workflow application for serious photographers.

Many have compared (and continue to compare) the product with Apple Inc.’s Aperture application. In a recent reading of one such comparison, I noticed the reviewer mentioned that Adobe’s offering runs well on most modern hardware, including Apple’s PowerBook computers. I myself was running it on my iBook G4 and I can confirm that it worked pretty well on it. I’ve seen Aperture running on recent Apple machines including the Mac Pro and it seemed very sluggish so I guess I agree with that assessment. There are of course many other aspects suited for comparison but I chose to bring up that point because it’s something I can relate to.

In the end, whether you choose Adobe’s offering or Apple’s, both are fine products. When software developers compete for cutting-edge features, the consumer almost always wins!

By the way, if you have a Mac and would like to try out Aperture, Apple is offering a 30-day trial of it on their website.