It looks like Adobe is working on a competitor to Apple's Aperture, called Lightroom. Aperture is a new software package which has tried to do a lot when it comes to the use and sorting RAW photography, but has been getting bad reviews from the online community as a whole. I don't blame Apple for any of this — Aperture is 1.0 version software that's in many ways the first of its class. Adobe seems to be watching Apple closely, both scrambling to keep up (its Bridge software lacks the functionality to compete) and learning from some of Apple's problems.

The public beta is only for Macs now, but there seems to be a Windows version coming. I can't wait to try it out. In the mean time, the preview video looks very promising. The import options alone are much more robust and useful than anything else I've seen. Pro RAW software is a new and rapidly growing market segment. Just a year ago, there was really nothing here — you had to squint at JPEG previews in whatever gallery software you used, then adjust your RAW files manually in Photoshop or whatever software shipped with your camera. Apple woke a lot of people up to what was possible with Aperture, Adobe's running forward with Lightroom, and even old favorite ACDSee is jumping into the mix soon.

In other news, I've come to the realization that the kit lens for the D70, while fantastic, isn't fast enough for someone who shoots in the dark as much as me. Almost all the photography I do involves shooting quickly in darkened rooms. ISO 1600 is noisy as hell, and the bottom line is that I need to be able to open wider than 3.5-4.5f. But man, fast lenses are pricey, especially for a workless recent college graduate. Guess it's time to get one of those job things.