Apple's new photography app feels like 'iPhoto Pro' – is that good or bad?

Aperture 1.5 was great but very slow. Its RAW conversions, while decent weren't as good a Adobe's. It was expensive, too. Aperture 2 has changed all that. The database structure has been redesigned, and now Aperture is extremely fast, even on a MacBook.

Well, the gloves are now off in round two of the fight to dominate the professional digital photography market.  Apple has launched Aperture 2 and has taken the opportunity to drop the price to a more reasonable £129 in order to compete with Adobe's Lightroom.

Apple has added another program to its range of professional digital editing tools, this time aimed at pro digital photographers and their post-production needs. At the heart of Aperture is the ability to handle RAW files swiftly.