I was in a shop this morning looking at the iMacs and asking about all the things I would need to do to convert from a PC, the cost of photo editing software being a major one. The guy in the shop suggested looking at Aperture as an alternative and I had seen it advertised only that morning on the Apple site. However, it concentrated on the galleries, browing etc rather than editing capabilities.

How does it compare to Photoshop? I am currently using CS3. Does it still work with layers? If I can get around picking up a student version on CS4 using my niece's student ID, there's not a lot of cost difference, but still thought it worth an ask to see who uses Aperture and how it measures up.

Thanks