Steve,
I am a Mac/Apple evangelist. A certified, grade A Mac zealot – and a photographer. Your marketing materials for Aperture had me so excited for yet another groundbreaking product from the greatest minds in the computer industry.
So far I have been reasonably satisfied with the output from Adobe Creative Suite 2, Bridge and the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) format.
I really tried my best to make Aperture sing but the quirks, pauses, US$400 to upgrade my video card, and twice-a-day crashes drove me nuts. However, the output is where the rubber meets the road. Only one word can describe the output from Aperture: Atrocious.
You be the judge…
Read More for John’s images that back up his claim…

Steve,
I am a Mac/Apple evangelist. A certified, grade A Mac zealot – and a photographer. Your marketing materials for Aperture had me so excited for yet another groundbreaking product from the greatest minds in the computer industry.
So far I have been reasonably satisfied with the output from Adobe Creative Suite 2, Bridge and the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) format.
I really tried my best to make Aperture sing but the quirks, pauses, US$400 to upgrade my video card, and twice-a-day crashes drove me nuts. However, the output is where the rubber meets the road. Only one word can describe the output from Aperture: Atrocious.
You be the judge:
I took one of the D2X wedding sample NEFs from the Aperture install disk:
http://homepage.mac.com/john.rayl/.Pictures/CHW_7533.NEF
I then took it into Aperture and applied .5 sharpening (default) and exported it:
http://homepage.mac.com/john.rayl/.Pictures/wedding-sample-aperture.jpg
Then I took the same NEF into Bridge/ACR, here is the side car file of adjustments I made in a few keystrokes:
http://homepage.mac.com/john.rayl/.Pictures/CHW_7533.xmp
The resulting image not only saved 4 times faster than Aperture, but looks 4 times better:
http://homepage.mac.com/john.rayl/.Pictures/wedding-sample-acr.jpg
I will stick with Aperture if anyone can get output from Aperture that looks as good or better than what I get from Bridge/ACR. Otherwise I have a Radeon X800 XT to return and my first Apple software application to post on eBay.
Thanks for trying, but my two weeks on the Aperture beta team is over.
Sincere Regards,
-John Rayl