Another post about my life as an iMac newbie. Today's topic: software dilemmas... What if there are several decent programs available? The hours I spent reading reviews and asking for advice...

You see. I'm not a professional photographer, but I am a serious hobby photographer. I have over 90.000 photos on my PC. And so far I never really took the time to import all of them into a program for editing and viewing. I organized kept trying to organize the folders myself. Note the try bit here... I need a proper program for easy editing and overview.

I did try Lightroom for some editing in the past, and I've heard good thing about it too. But now I also have the choice to get Aperture for Mac. Read below the positive/negative about both and maybe you'll understand my dilemma!

• Lightroom is for both Mac and Windows. I like the idea of having the choice. Aperture is just for Mac.
• Aperture blends in well in the Mac environment. But Lightroom has a dark UI which I really like.
• Aperture is really cheap ($80). Lightroom is not that cheap... ($300). I could afford Aperture right now, whereas Lightroom would have to wait until next year.
• Lightroom has great integration with the Creative Suite programs, which I will be buying somewhere next year. I am waiting for Creative Suite 6. Also has a dark work environment...
• Aperture supposedly is like a more advanced iPhoto. I've looked at iPhoto and although it is fun for a smaller collection, I don't see the Faces feature doing the performance any good with the amount of photos I have. I've read the Faces feature makes it really slow...
• Another thing I don't like about Aperture is that all the photos are saved into one file rather than having all the photos separately on the disk. If the Aperture files get corrupt, I lose everything. I know, backups backups. But I'd rather not take that risk to begin with.
• I am familiar with the wide range of presets and filters for Lightroom. I know there are some similar presets and filters for Aperture, but what about the prices?
• I really want this particular Instagram filters pack for Lightroom. Lol.

I can't think of any other important points I should mention. I don't want to buy Aperture because it's from Apple. If I buy it, it will be because it's the right program for me. So far though, I'm really unsure about this.

I wrote this post to show the thought that goes into choosing certain software... And as you can see, I haven't quite made up my mind yet. Although I think Lightroom is winning here.

I will try both programs soon, both have trial options. Although I have some experience with Lightroom, I'd like to see with my own eyes how it fits on my new iMac. Same goes for Aperture, although the only experience I have with that is iPhoto...

Comments are appreciated, but give good arguments and don't just try to sell one product to me.