Lightroom 3

[picsfor]

Your points are valid, and i think that are amongst Adobes reasons for giving such a public beta testing.

I have only just settled into using LR 2.5 and also just made my technological upgrade to a 5D MkII. That is my body upgrade for quite some time (FF, 21mp,25600 iso, don't need high FR)
I still have a couple of extra lenses i'd like to get and maybe a second flash gun.
I am fortunate that i currently have enough time to run them side by side. I have also made a commitment to using LR 2.5 as my main tool of choice, but experiment with LR3.

I think with LR3 i am mainly look at the newer processing features - as these can be exported as a jpg etc which can be read by LR 2.5.

My real concern, and reservation, is that LR3 is a Beta and the final release may be different - so any settings, keywords, profiles could all be lost - hence my refusal to hand over to it big time.

[picsfor]

OK, update.

I've now had to uninstall LR3 as it is killing my Mac. No doubt abut it. Ever since it was installed my Mac has been trying to impersonate and under specced Windows PC.
I've made reports to the LR3 Beta forum and this does not seem to be a unique problem. Seems to happen with Windows as well as Mac. And at this point no real idea as to what set computer set up is causing it.

My Mac is now returning to normal operating speed, for what i've got used to, and LR 2.5 is working extremely quickly again. I'll give it another go in the new year when they should have a newer beta version floating about to play with - but for now, i'll advise of my actions when the LR3 forum is up again (it's down at the time of writing) and leave it at that.

From a user point of view - there are some nice touches, the improved B&W tools in develop are a real improvement as are the export to web and print options. The publish feature has potential as is the new back up menu that allows you to choose when to back up your catalogue instead of suffering it on opening the program. Down side for me is the import dialogue which i find to be badly thought out or implemented along with the new side bar directory menu in library mode. Way to busy and too easy to navigate round if you're working with multiple folders.

[chris@seary.com]

but your saying you do all this testing for them and they they don't then give you a copy?

Will i pay for the upgrade? Only if the new features offer something that really makes a difference to the finished product (the published photo), saves me time in my processing or allow me greater options to process an image how i want.

I agree with your reasoning to a point. The problem (well not really a problem but you know what I mean) is that being a DAM application it sort of induces you to a commitment. You painstakingly append keywords, edits and goodness knows what, which are all saved to the database. Everything goes fine - you settle into a workflow and after much trial and error have finally got control over your images and know exactly how best to find any particular one. Your also happy with the current version and also the camera(s) that you have. Now here comes the crunch - at some point in the future you upgrade your camera to the latest and greatest only to discover that the current version of any DAM application (plus others i.e. ACR) doesn't support your new purchase.  So in a way your saying that you will only pay for the upgrade if the new features offer something that really makes a difference to the finished product is only part of the story. What really makes a difference is whether the application supports your future camera purchase so in this respect a lot of the choice is taken out of our hands and we are obliged to upgrade.

Two alternatives:
-shoot jpeg. I do. Quite happy with it
-convert your files to DNG format using the free Adobe tool. I do this on the rare occasions that I shoot RAW and have to use my version of Elements

I have to agree with Forseti when he bemoans the fact that support for new cameras is dropped by the older Adobe versions. Most software vendors will support their software fully for a couple of years, keep it usable with updates for five years, and provide limited support for ten.

Adobe manages 18 months or so.

Well, It's a good thing that their products are not massively overpriced, otherwise we'd be really angry..............

[chris@seary.com]

I've now had to uninstall LR3 as it is killing my Mac. No doubt abut it. Ever since it was installed my Mac has been trying to impersonate and under specced Windows PC.
I've made reports to the LR3 Beta forum and this does not seem to be a unique problem. Seems to happen with Windows as well as Mac. And at this point no real idea as to what set computer set up is causing it.

My Mac is now returning to normal operating speed, for what i've got used to, and LR 2.5 is working extremely quickly again. I'll give it another go in the new year when they should have a newer beta version floating about to play with - but for now, i'll advise of my actions when the LR3 forum is up again (it's down at the time of writing) and leave it at that.

Beta versions always run slowly - as Jonathan said, lots of debug code may be in there, which slows things down.

I generally pop beta versions in a virtual machine to run, as they can sometimes be a little untidy during uninstall/removal, and leave artefacts (file changes, security changes etc) that haven't been restored properly.

[picsfor]

Lightroom 3 is now available for download via trial download and online license purchase. £80 inc delivery of disk...

This is the full retail product NOT Beta 2...

https://store2.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-UK&event=displayProduct&categoryPath=/Applications/PhotoshopLightroom&distributionMethod=FULL

Oh, and did i mention the sh*t off a shovel speed increase?

[Treehugga]

Jesus £233 for me 

And I was enjoying the beta soooo much. Though it was going to be around the £150 mark.

[picsfor]

Yes, it has increased over the previous version. But for me it is much less of an outlay having paid my £200 for the v2 edition.

I wasn't going to upgrade to this version - but there are enough Brucie's to make it worth the while - that and the increase in speed...

[Jonathan]

How's this for a customer loyalty bonus....?

If you buy LR3 and PSCS5 (either full version or upgrade) together, you get 30% off LR.

However, if you are a loyal Adobe customer and bought CS5 upgrade a few weeks ago and now want to buy LR3 then....no discount for you!

Fortunately after 30 mins on the phone they saw it my way.

[picsfor]

nicely done - though your point is valid.

Don't know why they didn't release them together - would probably have had a greater uptake on the offer and increases new customers...

[Jonathan]

Woah.

If you have LR3 and like Flickr then read this - http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/flickr/publish

A bit techie but very interesting.  I thought the publish services were just an easy way to upload to Flickr.  They are more.....

[Jonathan]

Just finished editing my first full editing in LR3.  Stuck to what I know rather than playing with the new toys but it's definitely faster plus the files look very nice indeed.

New NR is very good.  It was a dark wedding with lots of shots at 3,200 and the NR saved me round tripping several files to PS for Imagenomic.  Probably shaved half an hour off the edit with that alone.

[picsfor]

Probably shaved half an hour off the edit with that alone.

So, upgrade paid for itself already then 

[anglefire]

I've not looked at it, because I don't have LR3 (I prefer bridge and CS5 as it happens), but I've found this link http://www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom3

[Jonathan]

I've not looked at it, because I don't have LR3 (I prefer bridge and CS5 as it happens), but I've found this link http://www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom3

I'd pay good money if they promised I didn't have to listen to Scott Kelby....

[deetus]

I'd pay good money if they promised I didn't have to listen to Scott Kelby....

I quite like Scott Kelby and I have a few of his books. I think he's an aquired taste but I like his sense of humour and the light hearted way he gets things across.