What features do you want? No offense, but one of my pet peeves is people saying "We need a new version/system/product!" without saying why. Is there a specific problem you want fixed, a certain feature you want that Aperture 3 doesn't have, or just a change for the sake of change?
-Real, meaningful support for raw formats on newer standards (Please, please, please add support for the X-Pro1/X-E1's X-Trans sensor as it has amazing RAW recovery)
-Like Adobe work with individual manufacturers to get solid 'out of the box' raw conversion
-Built-in support for correcting lens distortion (including automated pre-sets)
-Native HDR support (Really, Apple?)
-Panoramic "stitching" functions
-Provide more fine-tuned controls for "edge detection" brushes
-Better Noise Reduction (compared to every plugin on the market Aperture "scrubs" too hard)
-Film grain emulation (as a "prosumer" product, I'm pretty surprised this was never added)
-Additional post-processing functionality when exporting to the web (e.g add sharpening)
-Significantly decrease processing time (See LR4)
-Beef up highlight and shadow recovery (See LR4)
-Add "Clarity"-like filter (See LR4)
-Add meaningful video support (See LR4)
-Don't change workflow because IMHO, it's the only thing keeping me from jumping ship.
I could keep going but honestly, that's what I got off the cuff. We have nothing to show from Apple in the last two years in terms of significant upgrades. Aperture used to be the program that kept Adobe execs awake at night and was truly a disruptive piece of technology. LR4 in
almost every way is now superior since Apple has left Aperture to languish.
In general, the majority of Aperture folks are looking for something that offers at least parity with LR4.3. I think that's all we can expect from Apple at this point.
It's sad when the guy who has written THE BOOK on Aperture is looking to jump ship...
I'm not ready yet, but if I don't see anything from Apple in 2013 I am moving on with a heavy heart. The last three cameras I've had Apple never even added native RAW support for...
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I would be very happy when Apple would upgrade the UI of Aperture.
I mean, that grey depressive UI Aperture has isn't very beautiful. Do you guys?
It's neutral on purpose so that photographers can focus on making
their photos beautiful.