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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

News: Adobe releases Lightroom 3 Beta version 2

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi,

I just saw that there is a new version of the beta release of Lightroom 3, read here.

The new features are:
Improved performance throughout the application for faster importing and loading of images

Native tethered shooting support for select Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras

Luminance noise reduction has been added to the previous color noise reduction improvements available in the first public beta for outstanding overall high ISO quality

Support for importing and managing video files from DSLR cameras for better overall photographic workflow control

Improvements to the import experience in the first beta to reflect public feedback

Improved watermarking functionality from the first beta to reflect public feedback

Cheers,
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Thanks for the notice, Cem. I am eager to see the release of LR 3. In my younger days I'd be jumping all over the pre-release product. But I've since learned it's not a productive action. I'd rather stick to business with my completely functional and more-than-adequate LR 2.x and wait until LR 3 is released to take the plunge. Hopefully it will be soon.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi,

I just saw that there is a new version of the beta release of Lightroom 3, read here.

The new features are:


Cheers,

Cem,

If you check it out, then I'd love to know how the experience is compared to Capture One which I know use instead of Adobe Camera Raw. I'm especially interested n someone evaluating tethered control of Canon cameras natively and not via the Eos Utility.

Asher
 
It's my understanding that an upgrade to LR 3 will require that I re-import my entire catalog of photographs. Is that true?

With almost 40K photos in my catalog, I'm not in a hurry to reimport everything, especially if it loses my ranking/flagging/ratings.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
It's my understanding that an upgrade to LR 3 will require that I re-import my entire catalog of photographs. Is that true?

With almost 40K photos in my catalog, I'm not in a hurry to reimport everything, especially if it loses my ranking/flagging/ratings.

Charles,

40,000 pictures is a reasonable number to give some catalogs a headache, a hernia, heartburn and hiccoughs! Certainly Microsoft Expression can crash with that number. So how does Lightroom 2 behave with that amount of files?

Asher
 
Cem,

If you check it out, then I'd love to know how the experience is compared to Capture One which I know use instead of Adobe Camera Raw. I'm especially interested n someone evaluating tethered control of Canon cameras natively and not via the Eos Utility.

From what I've read, tethered control via LR3 is very minimal. No Live view, no setting of camera parameters.

Cheers,
Bart
 

Paul Abbott

New member
I currently use LR2. I will certainly be looking to upgrade to this. Its great to see a Film grain Simulation tool added, i'll love that. :)
 
Charles,

40,000 pictures is a reasonable number to give some catalogs a headache, a hernia, heartburn and hiccoughs! Certainly Microsoft Expression can crash with that number. So how does Lightroom 2 behave with that amount of files?

Asher

Even on my rather old desktop computer (Sony Vaio P4 3.0GHz 3GB RAM 2.5TB Hd) it runs quite quickly unless I ask to see all the pictures in the catalog. In that case it takes an hour to load and render the previews (I choose not to store large previews).

I have heard from a couple of other photographers, notably sports shooters, that LR functions OK with catalogs of more than 100K photos.

I'm not interested in being a Beta tester, so haven't investigated the re-import issue personally.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Even on my rather old desktop computer (Sony Vaio P4 3.0GHz 3GB RAM 2.5TB Hd) it runs quite quickly unless I ask to see all the pictures in the catalog. In that case it takes an hour to load and render the previews (I choose not to store large previews).
I wonder how long it might take if you already had stored previews? I have previews of every picture at 640 x 640 pixels. That way my catalogs can be carried on my laptop without the originals. Any news on the new LR version's behavior with a large catalog would be appreciated.

Asher
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Thanks for the notice, Cem. I am eager to see the release of LR 3. In my younger days I'd be jumping all over the pre-release product. But I've since learned it's not a productive action. I'd rather stick to business with my completely functional and more-than-adequate LR 2.x and wait until LR 3 is released to take the plunge. Hopefully it will be soon.
Hi Ken. I think that we will see the definitive version before summer as the beta 2 will expire by June this year. I don't expect Adobe to release a beta 3 after this one. But this is my own opinion and not based on any facts. I use the LR3 beta for testing purposes only, my production catalog is on LR 2.6 till the RTM version of LR3 will be released.


Cem,

If you check it out, then I'd love to know how the experience is compared to Capture One which I know use instead of Adobe Camera Raw. I'm especially interested n someone evaluating tethered control of Canon cameras natively and not via the Eos Utility.

Asher
Hi Asher. As Bart wrote previously, the tethering functionality is far from complete right now. I use the EOS Utility of Canon which is the best s/w for Canon tethering out there and it is free.


It's my understanding that an upgrade to LR 3 will require that I re-import my entire catalog of photographs. Is that true?

With almost 40K photos in my catalog, I'm not in a hurry to reimport everything, especially if it loses my ranking/flagging/ratings.
Hi Chas. The beta version does not import LR 2.6 catalogs, one has to import images again into LR3 beta v1/2. But hopefully the final version of LR3 will have the missing functionality to convert a LR2.6 catalog. If you save the LR adjustments to your pictures from your LR 2.6, the adjustments will be recorded in the sidecars for the raw files (and in the tif and jpg files themselves). When you rebuild a catalog in LR 3, all these adjustments and meta data will be carried over including ranking/flagging/ratings. So the only inconvenience of the beta is to having to rebuild a catalaog right now.


Charles,

40,000 pictures is a reasonable number to give some catalogs a headache, a hernia, heartburn and hiccoughs! Certainly Microsoft Expression can crash with that number. So how does Lightroom 2 behave with that amount of files?

Asher
Hi Asher. My LR 2.6 catalog has 100K+ images and it behaves very well. I think it is a matter of having the right specs for your computer: a lot of memory, a 64-bit OS, fast hard disks does it nicely. I never have any crashes, but I re-optimize the catalog every fortnigh or so.


Even on my rather old desktop computer (Sony Vaio P4 3.0GHz 3GB RAM 2.5TB Hd) it runs quite quickly unless I ask to see all the pictures in the catalog. In that case it takes an hour to load and render the previews (I choose not to store large previews).

I have heard from a couple of other photographers, notably sports shooters, that LR functions OK with catalogs of more than 100K photos.

I'm not interested in being a Beta tester, so haven't investigated the re-import issue personally.
Chas, as I wrote above I can confirm that 100K+ images in LR 2.6 is rather feasible.


I wonder how long it might take if you already had stored previews? I have previews of every picture at 640 x 640 pixels. That way my catalogs can be carried on my laptop without the originals. Any news on the new LR version's behavior with a large catalog would be appreciated.

Asher
Again, a large catalog is not a problem. If you want to make it portable though, you should not make it fully portable. Just export a subset of your catalog to take it with you on a laptop instead.

Cheers,
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
In the meantime, I have been testing the beta 2 extensively in the areas of noise reduction, de-mosaicing (ie raw conversion) quality and sharpening. I have been comparing the noise reduction and sharpening in particular to DxO 6, which to my mind is the most successful raw converter in those areas as well as C1 which has a very good overall IQ. The preliminary results indicate that LR 3 beta 3 (now including the luminosity noise reduction) delivers almost as good results as DxO 6 and is definitely on par with C1. The differences in IQ seem to be minimal. This is extremely encouraging news, as not everybody has the luxury of having access to multiple raw converters like myself. I suspect that LR 3 will become a very successful release after all. To be continued....

Cheers
 

janet Smith

pro member
In the meantime, I have been testing the beta 2 extensively in the areas of noise reduction, de-mosaicing (ie raw conversion) quality and sharpening. I have been comparing the noise reduction and sharpening in particular to DxO 6, which to my mind is the most successful raw converter in those areas as well as C1 which has a very good overall IQ. The preliminary results indicate that LR 3 beta 3 (now including the luminosity noise reduction) delivers almost as good results as DxO 6 and is definitely on par with C1

Hi Cem

This is all good news, I've just downloaded the trial version and had my first try with it, having never used LR before I've found it easy to use, everything so far has been obvious/easy to follow, could end up saving me some money on C1 or DxO with a bit of luck, will test out my Lake District shots that were affected by CA and see how it handles them....

Jan
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
From this brief dpreview look, it appears that LR 3 will give about an extra stop of usability in low light settings due to improvements in handling chroma noise.

If confirmed it's impressive indeed.

The tethered shooting limitations of not being able to change camera settings is rather short sighted. The idea that settings are easy to change on a camera is plainly directed at most cases where one does not need tethered shooting in the first place. However, if your camera is high on a stand, then tethered shooting must include tethered controls. Pity this was not addressed this time!

Asher
 
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