If you asked me yesterday what is the best workflow app out there for photographers, I’d point you to the download link of Adobe’s Lightroom 3 beta. The Aperture 2 was a pain, and LR in contrast was fantastic.

So I wasn’t expecting much when I downloaded Aperture 3 Trial, which was made available just hours ago. Having used it for just a few hours, I have concluded that this IS the Lightroom killer. I have never seen anything like it.

The app is fast – noticeably faster than Lightroom on my Quad Core iMac. The workflow shows a great deal of flexibility, in a good way. Projects and libraries can be sorted or arranged whichever way I want. The user interface is simply amazing. Your screen is occupied by the photo, and nothing else. All the right tools and boxes just come to you when you need them, and only when you need them. Apple must have locked up some of the best photographers and UI designers in a room, fed them caviar, and asked them to come up with the definitive UI for photographers. The best of all is that finally there is a solution for people like me who take their Macbooks out and edit on the road. Libraries can be merged with your desktop over the network as soon as you get back to the base. The new and enhanced brushes work like a charm, and they work even better in full screen mode. Apple also throw in face detection and GPS support, which can be useful to portrait and landscape photographers.

With an increasing number of pro DSLRs supporting HD video, Aperture 3’s built-in video editing is extremely useful for multimedia projects such as weddings and concerts.

We have all heard about Apple’s war against Adobe’s dated Flash technology, and it’s plan to kill it by not supporting it in any of its mobile devices. Who’s the winner in this standoff remains to be seen. But in the Aperture vs. Lightroom battle, a winner has clearly emerged.

(Image copyrights: www.apple.com)