Lightroom inSights

LR 4.2 & Camera Raw 7.2 release candidates available

Release candidate versions of Lightroom 4.2 and Camera Raw 7.2 can now be downloaded from Adobe Labs.

LR 4.2 includes a variety of minor bug fixes, plus support for 10 additional camera models. See the Lightroom Journal for the full list of changes. ACR 7.2 adds support for the same cameras, plus support for almost 30 lens, including some of the popular third-party lens for Canon and Nikon DSLRs. The complete bug list for ACR 7.2 is available at the Lightroom Journal.

Both release candidates have been privately beta tested and are quite stable. Adobe traditionally holds off on dubbing them final versions until the wider community of public testers can put them through their paces. 

LR 3.6 and Camera Raw 6.6 updates now out

Adobe has released the latest updates for Lightroom (3.6) and Camera Raw (6.6). Like the release candidates of a few weeks ago, they add support for 10 cameras, including Nikon's new V1 and J1 models. About two dozen lens profiles have been added as well.

Both updates also include about a dozen minor bug fixes. Minor, that is, if they didn't affect you. For complete details, see Tom Hogarty's Lightroom Journal.

LR 3.6 & Camera Raw 6.6 RC versions add Nikon 1 support

Nikon's sleek J1 and V1 models top the list of new cameras supported by the Lightroom 3.6 release candidate. Ditto for the parallel features in Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 6.6 RC. Support also has been added for the Canon PowerShot S100, Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1, and Samsung NX5.

Both RCs add profiles for about two dozen lens and fix a few minor bugs. For complete details, see Tom Hogarty's Lightroom Journal.

Release candidate versions have been poked and prodded by beta testers and represent the step before a final release, which generally happens about two weeks later. While RCs are betas, they're considered stable betas.

Lightroom 3.5 & Camera Raw 6.5 now available

Adobe has updated Lightroom to version 3.5, which is available for immediate download. You'll find a mirror update for Camera Raw 6.5 there as well.

The updates add support for about 20 cameras, 26 more lens profiles, and several minor bug fixes. Added cameras include the Nikon Coolpix P7000, Olympus E-PL3, and Sony SLT-A77. The new lens profiles include four for Nikon, two for Canon, three for Sony, and 14 for Hasselblad.

It also fixes a couple of bugs: one for Mac OS 10.7 (Lion) and some tethered-shooting ones for Mac OS 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard). For all the details, see Tom Hogarty's note on Adobe's Lightroom Journal.

Lightroom 3.4.1/Camera Raw 6.4.1 fix rare JPEG corruption

Thought that headline would catch your eye. Most times, an x.x.1 update might seem not worth bothering with. But if you're using the HP PhotoSmart R607 camera, you ought to grab this one now. Or within Lightroom 3, you can choose Help > Check for Updates; in Photoshop CS5 it's Help > Updates.

The reason: A bug introduced in the April 29 releases of Lightroom 3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4 can corrupt photos shot with the now discontinued R607—at least in a few cases. (Adobe's May 19 alert explains the nitty-gritty.)

If that's not your camera, you can rest easy. If you're using a Canon Rebel T3i, Nikon D5100 or Fuji FinePix X100, the update includes new support for those models. For the rest of us, it's reassuring that Adobe rolled out the fix less than a week after the alert.

Final versions of Lightroom 3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4 released

Adobe's final versions of Lightroom 3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4 are now available. Lightroom 3.4 adds a few extra camera profiles; last month's release-candidate version had added profiles for seven cameras and 13 lens.

More importantly, perhaps, this final version fixes a cluster of bugs that had crept into Lightroom's Publish Services, affecting posts to SmugMug, Facebook and Flickr.

For all the details see Tom Hogarty's complete rundown of the changes. 

LR3.4 and Camera Raw 6.4 RC updates posted

The release candidate (RC) versions of Lightroom 3.4 and Adobe Camera Raw 6.4 are now available at Adobe Labs. RC versions have been poked and prodded by beta testers and represent the step before a final release, generally within about two weeks. They're betas, but stable betas.

The LR3.4 RC adds support for seven cameras, including Canon's Rebel T3 and T3i models. It also adds 13 lens profiles for Canon, Leica and Nikon models.

Among the seven bugs fixed:

• A magenta cast that appeared in some Nikon D7000 images when making multiple exposures in the raw format.
• An occasional metadata problem that appeared after editing a Lightroom image with the Photoshop.com online program.

 

Sticky filters: a persistent issue

One of the features that's changed in Lightroom 3.3 and 3.2 from 3.0 is how the Library Filter works. In version 3, the setting was not "sticky." That is, for each search, you started fresh. In 3.2, however, the filter returned to how it worked in Lightroom 2, where it was sticky.

So now, Lightroom's main window shows the results of a previous search until you enter new search criteria.

If you were used to how this worked in Lightroom 2, you may be happy to hear of its return. If you never used that version and joined the party with the release of Lightroom 3.0, you may be confused about what's going on—and panic when your photos seem to disappear.

Adobe's Tom Hogarty explains the double-switch—and the thinking behind it. Btw, this has been a subject of pretty intense debate among beta testers. If there was a simple, intuitive fix, Adobe would have implemented it long ago. But there's not. Learn why.

LR 3.2 now official

Adobe's now released the official, bug-free update: Lightroom 3.2. Besides adding several camera profiles, it includes more than 120 new lenses profiles. Adobe's Tom Hogarty has a complete list of the profiles added.

LR3.2 also now supports direct export to Facebook and Smugmug. Part of the program's ever-expanding Publish Services feature, they join the Flickr export feature included in version 3. If you haven't used the Publish Services feature, dive in: It makes exporting much easier. My book explains it in detail on pages 244-255.

The final release of Adobe Camera Raw 6.2 is also now available on the same page. And, there's an important bug fix for Adobe Bridge CS5, a program that I assume most Lightroom/Photoshop users depend on as much as I do.

 

Straight to LR 3.2 (no 3.1 update)

Adobe Labs has posted Lightroom 3.2rc. For those of you keeping track, there was no LR 3.1. The number bump is just to keep the "pre dot 0" numbers in tandem between Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw (its 6.2rc is also now available).

That "rc" stands for release candidate, which is Adobe's term for updates that are almost final and that they expect to bump to final release shortly. In other words, the real 3.2 update will be out soon. Why not wait?

Well, if your camera's among those newly supported in 3.2, you probably want to grab the rc right now. Same goes for those using the newly supported lenses. For the rest of us, it makes sense to hold up a bit.

Aside from the newly supported cameras and lenses, naturally the main difference in 3.2 is lots of bug fixes. The Publish Services export feature has added Facebook to the list of sites to which you can publish directly. Similar service for Flickr was included in LR3.