It’s finally Here
The next version of Adobe’s popular Lightroom line is now available as a public beta. There are a host of new features, I’m especially excited by the “White balance brush”. That will be a great tool for correcting multiple light source temperature issues.

New Features in Lightroom 4 Beta

• Highlight and shadow recovery brings out all the detail that your camera captures in dark shadows and bright highlights.
• Photo book creation with easy-to-use elegant templates.
• Location-based organization lets you find and group images by location, assign locations to images, and display data from GPS-enabled cameras.
• White balance brush to refine and adjust white balance in specific areas of your images.
• Additional local editing controls let you adjust noise reduction and remove moiré in targeted areas of your images.
• Extended video support for organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to video clips.
• Easy video publishing lets you edit and share video clips on Facebook and Flickr®.
• Soft proofing to preview how an image will look when printed with color-managed printers.
• Email directly from Lightroom using the email account of your choice.

The Lightroom 4 beta program is available to the public. Anyone with an Internet connection can download it and start putting it to the test. You do not need to own (or have tried) a previous version of Lightroom. You can download the beta and use it until the product expires on March 31, 2012.

Download Lightroom 4 Beta from Adobe

cr

Xmas Edition Magic Lantern
So what’s new for users of the APS-C Canon DSLRs using Magic Lantern?

FPS controlEdit

• You can lower the frame rate down to 4 fps at a shutter speed of 1/4 seconds, which gives you extreme low-light capabilities.
• Overcranking doesn’t really work; the 60D hardly gets 35fps in 1080p. On the other hand, 500D and 50D can now record at 24p!

HDR videoEdit

• For high-contrast scenes with not-so-fast moving subjects, you can get great shadow and highlight detail.
• This feature is enabled on all cameras, but older models may have synchronization issues.

We are also posting a free HDR post-processing workflow for advanced users, based on Avisynth with InterFrame plugin, VirtualDub and enfuse. Check this discussion thread for details!

Tip: HDR and FPS control are available in Advanced mode – press the MENU button!

Download & read more here

cr

Native Support added to Windows
The following Canon cameras are covered.

EOS 1000D (EOS Kiss F in Japan and the EOS Rebel XS in North America), EOS 10D, EOS 1D Mk2, EOS 1D Mk3, EOS 1D Mk4, EOS 1D Mk2 N, EOS 1Ds Mk2, EOS 1Ds Mk3, EOS 20D, EOS 300D (the Kiss Digital in Japan and the Digital Rebel in North America) , EOS 30D, EOS 350D (the Canon EOS Kiss Digital N in Japan and EOS Digital Rebel XT in North America), EOS 400D (the Kiss Digital X in Japan and the Digital Rebel XTi in North America), EOS 40D, EOS 450D (EOS Kiss X2 in Japan and the EOS Rebel XSi in North America), EOS 500D (EOS Kiss X3 in Japan and the EOS Rebel T1i in North America), EOS 550D (EOS Kiss X4 in Japan, and as the EOS Rebel T2i in North America), EOS 50D, EOS 5D, EOS 5D Mk2, EOS 7D, EOS D30, EOS D60, G2, G3, G5, G6, G9, G10, G11, Pro1, S90

Download Here 

cr

Most people already knew
You can read about the 4K hoax and see all the trailers on the cr forum.

Read more on the CR Forum

cr

Magic Lantern Firmware
A new firmware from Magic Lantern allows you to record at 66MBps at 24P sustained on the 5D Mark II.

Read More: http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Bit_rate

cr

Get your update on
Adobe has released PS CS5 version 12.0.1.

The most significant fixes in the Photoshop 12.0.1 update include the following:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4732

thanks Edwin

cr

Adobe Lightroom 3 Available for Download
Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3 software helps you bring out the best in your photographs, whether you’re perfecting one image, searching for ten, processing hundreds, or organizing thousands.

Create incredible images that move your audience. Experiment fearlessly with state-of-the-art nondestructive editing tools. Easily manage all your images. And showcase your work in elegant print layouts, slide shows, and web galleries, as well as on popular photo-sharing sites. All from within one fast, intuitive application.

$299 for the full version
$99 for upgrade from 1.x or 2.x

More Info http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/

thanks Gary

cr

Go get it
Adobe has made CS5 available for try and buy on their web site.

Prices of the suite range from a $599 upgrade to $2599 for the full blown suite.

Read More: http://www.adobe.com/

thanks dennis

cr

Adobe updates…
Adobe has updated both Camera Raw and Lightroom.

Some details include:
• Additional camera support for several new camera models including the Canon EOS 550D, Panasonic G2 and Sony A450
• Includes several corrections for issues introduced by previous Lightroom 2 releases

Launch Lightroom and run the update or visit the site directly to download.

Camera RAW was also updated and is available with Lightroom 2.7 below.

Download: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/

Adobe has also updated the DNG converter.

Download: http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/

thanks thepieces

cr

Adobe is inviting the planet to an online launch of Adobe Creative Suite 5.

Read More: http://cs5launch.adobe.com/

More from Adobe
Beta 2 of Lightroom 3 is available for download.

Download Lightroom CS3 b2: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom3/

cr

Get your updates
Adobe has finalized Camera Raw 5.6.

Support for the following cameras has been added from Camera Raw 5.5 to 5.6 and Lightroom 2.5 to 2.6
Canon EOS 1D Mark IV
Canon EOS 7D
Canon PowerShot G11
Canon PowerShot S90
Leaf Aptus-II 5
Mamiya DM22
Mamiya DM28
Mamiya DM33
Mamiya DM56
Mamiya M18
Mamiya M22
Mamiya M31
Nikon D3s
Olympus E-P2
Panasonic DMC-FZ38
Pentax K-x
Sigma DP1s
Sony A500
Sony A550
Sony A850

Download: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html

Joy
Apple’s Aperture can now convert the Canon 7D Raw files.

Update Notes:
This update extends RAW image compatibility for Aperture 2, iPhoto ’08 and iPhoto ’09 for the following cameras: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, Canon EOS 7D, Canon PowerShot G11, Nikon D3S, Nikon D300S, and Nikon D3000.

thanks Rox, Aaron & Comments

cr

From Hudson
Magic Lantern is coming to the Canon 7D — the dev team can produce valid, signed firmware images and run their own code on the camera. The first video shows a 7D booting into a test firmware that draws colors bars and writes the ROM image to the CF card for analysis.

Thanks for all your hard work Hudson, a lot of people appreciate it.

cr

Camera RAW 5.6 Beta vs Camera Raw 5.5
Photoframd has posted some comparison images of various RAW converters for the EOS 7D files.

http://blog.photoframd.com/….

“The First” Feature Length Film….

"Everyone's a critic!"

…. made using the 7D

http://www.theaspectratio.net/….

Disclaimer: I do not fact check “The first” claims.

Darwin Wigget’s 7D Review… the counterpoint
Pro Photo Home has posted a retort to the claims made by Darwin Wigget and his review of the 7D.

Pro Photo Home seems to be doing tests at f/5.6 & f/16. I think the issue with the 7D was in the f/8 to f/11 area. Most seem to be saying that diffraction sets in with larger apertures on the 7D compared to the XSi.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but check it out.

http://www.prophotohome.com/….

Old News, I forgot to post it
Here is Lee’s solution to filtering (some filters) ultra wide angle lenses.

http://www.ephotozine.com/….

The bad news? You still can’t use a polarizer. There is a company working on a solution so you can actually polarize these lenses as well.

thanks James

cr