I'll definitely be giving it a run at home. It sure puts me in a lousy spot @ work, though. I use a 5D tethered to an XP laptop and I capture directly into Lr for microscopy work. I can't update the laptop to Win7 64-bit because there are no 64-bit WIA drivers for the 5D. But if I can't run Lr 4 under WinXP, that leaves me running Lr3. Ah well, at some point I have to update the camera anyway.
Just a quick post to add that I now have it installed and running on my desktop system at home. I ran an "import from current location" on about 15,000 images on my local hdd, and it took about 15 minutes to catalog and generate previews.
One thing I did notice was that I could more easily work with an image in the Develop Module while the background task of creating the catalog was still running. The application remained responsive to controls, even though the system was working hard on the cataloging.
I did have one app crash during a one-hour session playing with it. I also found one disappointment (for me). I was truly hoping that Lr 4 would bring curves adjustment into line with how Ps does it. Not the case. Still works pretty much the same as Lr 3
The integration with google maps & gps is nice... but having a camera that does not capture that = useless :-(
I hear a couple of reports of been EVEN slower then lr3... god I hope that's just the beta code base....
Why useless? Granted, its not as beneficial as them automatically being added, but you can drag images from the filmstrip onto the map and it automatically add GPS coordinates to the EXIF. A bit like keyword painting, but by dropping on a map.
Simms, where did you notice the "slower" nature most? I felt LR3 was a little laggy when opening folders and generating previews, especially after a new import. Would you consider this beta to be worse?
Simms, where did you notice the "slower" nature most? I felt LR3 was a little laggy when opening folders and generating previews, especially after a new import. Would you consider this beta to be worse?
Speed issues are with both Library and more noticeably the Develop module - with LR3 all adjustments are impressively fast and realtime, with this I seem to be moving the sliders and waiting for the image to catch up - no fluidity - wouldn't use this in a production environment at this speed, uh uh, no way.
Odd, I'm not noticing the lack of fluidity at all. In fact, the one thing I have been most impressed with was that the controls remained pretty responsive, even while it was hammering out a catalog of over 15k images.
I'm on a Win7 64-bit system with an i7 2600K processor running at 3.45GHz. 8GB of RAM (dual channel DDR3-1333). I don't know if it is using the GPU at all. I know that Lr3 did not, unlike Ps.
Odd, I'm not noticing the lack of fluidity at all. In fact, the one thing I have been most impressed with was that the controls remained pretty responsive, even while it was hammering out a catalog of over 15k images.
I'm on a Win7 64-bit system with an i7 2600K processor running at 3.45GHz. 8GB of RAM (dual channel DDR3-1333). I don't know if it is using the GPU at all. I know that Lr3 did not, unlike Ps.
ETA:
- I found the answer on GPU acceleration. Lr 4 will apparently not use the GPU :-(
- I'll add that curves *has* improved in Lr 4; you can now adjust per channel like in Ps, however adjustment of the shape of the curve is not as intuitive; you can't just click to add control points and shove them around as you please. At least not apparently. I have a total of 1 hour of experience at this point.
Will try the new Beta tonight when I test tonight on my new Phenom II X4 @4.0Ghz, 16GB Ram (DDR3-1666) platform. Suitably impressed by the new features, but slower speed would be a deal breaker for me.
I just watched some of the videos for the new LR4 beta and I have to say that I like some of the new features but MAN OH MAN do they really need to work on the video section.
I really like that they added video to it but there is so much room for improvement there it's not even funny.
Overall, I think I will wait for LR4.x or even LR5 before I waste more money on it. There just isn't enough there for me to buy the upgrade yet.
Any word on the highlight/shadow recovery? Is it that dramatically improved?
Actually yes it is. I like what they did with it.
I agree. One thing to note. If, as I did, you import some of your old work, the default "process" in the develop pane will be "2010." Select Settings>Process>2012 to make sure that you are using the latest interface.
Once I selected the 2012 process, I now have the curves behavior I thought I should be there (ability to adjust point curve individually for R, G and B). Now we really have all the functionality that Curves in Ps has! Woohoo! This alone will be reason for me to upgrade to Lr4.
