Lightroom 4 Beta now available

[Picsfor]

OK, just had a quick play, importing a single 200 image shoot and playing with a single picture.

Without a doubt, this version runs leaner than V3, but then v3 was such a system hog that if they hadn't improved its system efficiency they would lost whole rafts of upgrade sales because people with a maxed out 4gb computer would have had to buy a new computer.

Now, with regards to the geo tagging thing, i don't mind it in its current form. Pretty much most of my shoots are single location shoots, and where the location various, the key wording varies - so to me it is all part of the same workflow.

Organisation seems to be pretty much the same, but the import process is much quicker.

The ability to create a book from within LR and have exported as a PDF to offer up as an eBook, or have published by Blurb Books is a welcome addition. Mrs B certainly likes it, and once i've mastered it so will i!

Some of the tweaks in the develop module are welcome, but where is my square brush tool? It seems as though Adobe are determined not to give LR the one thing that is useful in other packages - an editing tool that is not just round. It doesn't need elliptical, octagonal or star shaped with stripes - just round or square...

Certainly enough to get me upgrading at the moment - but lets see how the final thing pans out.

 

[Canon-F1]

Without a doubt, this version runs leaner than V3, but then v3 was such a system hog that if they hadn't improved its system efficiency they would lost whole rafts of upgrade sales because people with a maxed out 4gb computer would have had to buy a new computer.

in fact the beta runs SLOWER on my system then V3.6.

240 GB VERTEX 3 SSD, i7 2600k@4400GHz, 16 GB ram.
but i think that is because it has debugging code in it.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Currently using combo of Aperture and Photoshop 5 on multiple computers (with multiple copies all over the place , and hoping to get more organized soon. Is it worth my consolidating all my keepers into this new LR ? Is the transition easy? Will it move (or copy) my originals as they are imported?

Its a public beta, I would use it for testing, but be aware that it may change or crash and damage or lose your work. It won't damage your images, it never changes them, but if you do a lot of work in the next few months, it might be lost.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Without a doubt, this version runs leaner than V3, but then v3 was such a system hog that if they hadn't improved its system efficiency they would lost whole rafts of upgrade sales because people with a maxed out 4gb computer would have had to buy a new computer.

in fact the beta runs SLOWER on my system then V3.6.

240 GB VERTEX 3 SSD, i7 2600k@4400GHz, 16 GB ram.
but i think that is because it has debugging code in it.

Yup, it runs slower in v4, no issues with v3. I expect that it will be fine tuned. with the same image open, windows uses slightly more ram, 2.48 gb for v4 versus 2.38 for ver 3.

 

[nikkito]

Does it have rgb curves like photoshop? Thats all I want

Yes! It does!

This is a really good video summarising the new features in the develop area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeieHtruelU&feature=g-u&context=G269593aFUAAAAAAABAA

I'm sure there will be a lot more tools we'll find out about as time goes on.

It isn't a downgrade that is for sure.

This made my day, thanks for your answer

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

For those who print or have images printed, the soft proofing is a huge issue. So far, it does not seem to be working correctly on my pc.

 

[DavidD]

No Windos XP support :-X. OMG, just when they made some great changes.

Hmmm.

Adobe "forgot" to mention that Lightroom version 4 will not Install on XP.

This is as close as they get on the download page --

"* If you are running a 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Windows Vista,
we recommend downloading the 64-bit version of Lightroom.
To find out if your computer is running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows
in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, open System by clicking the Start button,
right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties (under System,
you can view the system type). If your version of Windows is not 64-bit,
or if you are not sure, download the 32-bit version."

I sure didn't get the message from that.

To discover this I had to download the 400 megabyte file,
(tied up my computer for 2 hours) then spent some time
installing it, only to get a message --

"You need a minimum of Vista to run Lightroom"

Goodbye Adobe. You have disappointed me for the last time.

Goodbye Lightroom - just as I was getting persuaded to like
working with you.


Above all else I need a reliable OS.

Sadly IMHO -- XP is the most reliable of the Windows
(But what do I know - I've only been in the OS business
for 25 years. . .) and I'm not giving up reliability.

Yet another set of poor choices by Adobe management.

I really was hoping the Lightroom team could
get Lightroom up to professional standards
- then XP support gets ripped away.

This makes the decision to stay with DXO, Silkypix,
DCraw and RawTherapee easy. They all run on XP
just fine; in my opinion all work better than Lightroom.

 

[Ivar]

Given that some features never made it into LR 3.0 beta that were in the final release of LR 3.0, I wonder what will be in the final release of LR 4.0 that are not in LR 4.0 beta?

I think it is not feature complete yet. I myself hope for cloning tool with movements and whatever there is to make an image even better.

 

[Viggo]

After trying out Lr4 for 30 minutes I already see that this is an incredible leap forward for raw-converting, maan I thought Lr3 was pretty good but this is crazy good. LOVE the new control-sliders and they do so much more! And the NR is quantum-leaps ahead of Lr3 which was already seriously much better than 2,6.

I think the final release just in time for when my 1d X arrives is going to revolutionize my images.

 

[Gothmoth]

i like LR and use it every day.

but one thing i think capture one does better by default are skin tones.
i hope they have improved that.

 

[Picsfor]

Without a doubt, this version runs leaner than V3, but then v3 was such a system hog that if they hadn't improved its system efficiency they would lost whole rafts of upgrade sales because people with a maxed out 4gb computer would have had to buy a new computer.

in fact the beta runs SLOWER on my system then V3.6.

240 GB VERTEX 3 SSD, i7 2600k@4400GHz, 16 GB ram.
but i think that is because it has debugging code in it.

Interesting you're running SSD - i wonder if some one has coded for this. I know it's lightning quick compared with HDD, but i wonder if it has the ability to be handbagged by poor coding?
(I'm afraid my knowledge of SSD is too limited to really know, but i put it in the same class as CF, but with faster read/ write speeds - and the variation in how software manages Cf is amazing)

 

[Picsfor]

Currently using combo of Aperture and Photoshop 5 on multiple computers (with multiple copies all over the place , and hoping to get more organized soon. Is it worth my consolidating all my keepers into this new LR ? Is the transition easy? Will it move (or copy) my originals as they are imported?

Its a public beta, I would use it for testing, but be aware that it may change or crash and damage or lose your work. It won't damage your images, it never changes them, but if you do a lot of work in the next few months, it might be lost.

exactly - and it's amazing how many people forget that basic fact. Hence my testing is done using pics from previous shoots that have already been processed so i can make comparisons.

The improvement in the clarity feature of the brush tool have come to the fore at the moment, along with improved noise reduction. Contrary to what some others have said - am liking the maps module, and at some point soon, hope to make use of the Books module.

As long as the final package doesn't hit the system resources like v3 did, then i'm ok for an upgrade, but my iMac is maxed out on RAM and i'm not in a position to upgrade to a new thunderbolt system, as that would require a few new HDD's as well!

 

[Gothmoth]

Interesting you're running SSD - i wonder if some one has coded for this. I know it's lightning quick compared with HDD, but i wonder if it has the ability to be handbagged by poor coding?
(I'm afraid my knowledge of SSD is too limited to really know, but i put it in the same class as CF, but with faster read/ write speeds - and the variation in how software manages Cf is amazing)

SSD are like HDD on steroids. they can´t be compared to CF drives.
the contollers are very different.
access times are very fast what helps for database applications.

so an SSD has nothing to do with the fact that the beta feels a bit sluggish.

 

[pwp]

LR V4.0 better not be such a system hog as V3. It's a shocker in that regard. Early impressions suggest this is a highly meaningful upgrade of an already brilliant piece of software. The LR3 public beta held back a couple of cool features (can't remember which ones) so maybe LR4 final release candidate will deliver even more cool stuff.

SSD? This is the future. You seen the way a Macbook Air powers up instantly? iPad? One day we'll look back at the days when we relied on antique HDD's which had actual moving parts and shake our heads in disbelief. SSD might as well = Speed Stability Durability

I build my own PC's (it's a bit like Lego) and the next build will follow a pattern established by others of having the OS and programs on SSD (two for RAID) and modest 1Tb local storage on HDD (two for RAID). The storage heavy lifting is handled on a 10Tb NAS.

Paul Wright

 

[Viggo]

Although I'm loving the NR-brush, I REALLY wish they would have added a masking-feature to the NR sliders, applying directly to shadow or the opposite from sharpening-function.

 

[Gothmoth]

LR V4.0 better not be such a system hog as V3. It's a shocker in that regard. Early impressions suggest this is a highly meaningful upgrade of an already brilliant piece of software. The LR3 public beta held back a couple of cool features (can't remember which ones) so maybe LR4 final release candidate will deliver even more cool stuff.

SSD? This is the future. You seen the way a Macbook Air powers up instantly? iPad? One day we'll look back at the days when we relied on antique HDD's which had actual moving parts and shake our heads in disbelief. SSD might as well = Speed Stability Durability

I build my own PC's (it's a bit like Lego) and the next build will follow a pattern established by others of having the OS and programs on SSD (two for RAID) and modest 1Tb local storage on HDD (two for RAID). The storage heavy lifting is handled on a 10Tb NAS.

Paul Wright

two of the newest SSD´s in raid will outperform SATA 3 (~600 mb/s) already for seq. read speed. and then it´s mostly "software raid" with onboard controllers people use.

i have build my latest system using a PCIe SSD card, an OCZ RevoDrive.
much better then using software RAID with SATA3.

but you should have a mainboard of the latest generation and win7.
with older hardware such a PCIe card can make problems.
but for a new PC build it´s fantastic.

 

[Lee Jay]

it does not even put the metadata in the fields for city etc. when you have geotagged an image.

Reverse geotagging will be enabled in the final version.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

No Windos XP support :-X. OMG, just when they made some great changes.

Hmmm.

Adobe "forgot" to mention that Lightroom version 4 doesn't run on XP.

Did you try the beta on XP? No XP support means they are not going to spend thousands of hours testing it, it doesn't mean that it won't run.

Try it and let us know.

 

[DavidD]

No Windos XP support :-X. OMG, just when they made some great changes.

Hmmm.

Adobe "forgot" to mention that Lightroom version 4 doesn't run on XP.

Did you try the beta on XP? No XP support means they are not going to spend thousands of hours testing it, it doesn't mean that it won't run.

Try it and let us know.

I did try it. Sorry I didn't make that clear.

The Setup program refuses to install unless you have "at least Vista"

If you know a way to fool the install program - I will try it.

 

[Picsfor]

No Windos XP support :-X. OMG, just when they made some great changes.

Hmmm.

Adobe "forgot" to mention that Lightroom version 4 doesn't run on XP.

Did you try the beta on XP? No XP support means they are not going to spend thousands of hours testing it, it doesn't mean that it won't run.

Try it and let us know.

I did try it. Sorry I didn't make that clear.

The Setup program refuses to install unless you have "at least Vista"

If you know a way to fool the install program - I will try it.

My suggestion would be running the install from a Vista machine and using it to remotely install on an XP machine. You can do some funny things remotely with MS Windows, the fun i've had as part of a support time bypassing the 'restrictions'.