In the middle of last year Apple made the surprise announcement that it was no longer developing Aperture. I was one of those who had stuck with Aperture over many years but I was always frustrated by the glacial upgrade programme and the constant lateness of RAW upgrades for new cameras.
At the time we were told that there would be a new universal Photos application to replace both iPhoto and Aperture. This hybrid has now been released to beta testers who are less than enthusiastic. As I suspected, Aperture has been dumbed down to the point where Photos will almost certainly not be the natural choice for keen photographers. I am now glad I subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud and am beginning to expand my knowledge of Lightroom, Photoshop and Bridge.
In some ways Apple’s decision was logical. Photo storage and management is a specialised operation that is probably best left to specialist developers. It’s a pity, but the impending release of Photos in the Spring will do nothing to win back enthusiast users.