Lightroom 2 beta out

[Aszental]

Well the beta is out.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

Atm im not sure how you can sign up if your not an exisiting customer.
If anyone has an invite (i think you can do this) please pm me.

thanks!

[beej]

Thanks for the heads up.

I can't wait to play with this, there are some fantastic improvements in store for us!

For a good list of changes, have a looksie here: http://www.victoriabampton.com/lightroo ... atsnew.htm

The improvements that caught my eye were:

Dual monitor support
Collections Overhaul
A heap of new corrections tools... mainly.... Masks!!! Yes, non-destructive masks to work on exposure, saturation, etc...
Export sharpening overhall
Print-to-JPEG option

Cheers

[jdear]

I have 5 email addresses I can send out invites for the extended 2 beta (Im a licensed 1.x user)\

reply in here / send me a PM and Ill send you an invite.

Jonathan

[MATT]

I want them to add network/shared lightroom database. So I can make changes on one PC and see the changes when I open it on another.. But I dont hold much hope.

jdear I'd love an invite ,pm on the way.

regards
MATT

[johnd]

I'd be interested to know if the beta can handle the D3, D300 NEFs properly?

Rant on
Everything I've read suggests that only Capture NX can handle the new NEFs properly, particularly CA, noise and true colours. It has been suggested that no Adobe products can handle the new NEFs well because Nikon keep their internals secret, forcing you to use Capture NX, which they give away with the cameras. I really see no reason for Nikon doing this. Why not collaborate with Adobe? What's the benefit from forcing your customers to use something you give away. Maybe some marketting people can answer that, but it doesn't make sense to me. I'd much prefer to stay entirely in the Adobe camp, but it seems I have no choice but to use Capture NX.
Rant off

Cheers
John

[ATJ]

John,

I agree with you but I doubt anything will happen. And I don't think it is just D3 and D300 NEFs. My D70 NEFs also look like crap. I now shoot raw+fine and do my initial work in Lightroom with the JPEG. I try to make the NEF look like the JPEG but if I can't, I use my trick to edit the NEF in CaptureNX and save the TIFF to Lightroom.

Lightroom: Externally editing a raw file

[PiroStitch]

wooo finally multiple monitor support!!! saves me from buying a new monitor then

[jdear]

Aszental
surenj

I still need your email addresses to send you out an invite.
Thanks!

[DVEous]

... Obsolete ...

[mickeyjuice]

If Capture NX had the functionality of LR, then it would be one awesome piece of software for Nikon shooters.
Conversely, if LR could render NEFs properly like NX, then, funnily enough, it too would be an awesome piece of software for Nikon shooters.

Yeah, Nikon seem very happy with themselves for buggering people around as much as they do. Very strange.

[Hybrid]

@VK4CP, ATJ, John:

I had these same issues with Lightoom/ACR and that kept me using Nikon Capture until recently. I tried all sorts of calibrations but could never get the colours the way I wanted them to look and it all seemed like a lot of hassle when the Nikon default was right. I think part of the problem is that Lightroom has different defaults to NC and it also ignores (or can't read) some of the other camera specific settings. The other thing to remember is that a RAW file is something that needs to be interpreted to be displayed and interpretations differ. I wish Adobe's handling of NEFs was better out of the box but I'm sure there are good reasons why it's not... This is actually partly covered in the LR FAQ: http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc3d55a

Anyway, for the last few months, I've been using Lightroom for all my edits (D200 and D70). How? Presets: http://www.onethirdstop.com/ - these particular ones are for the D200 but they work fine on D70 NEFs too. D300 might be ok also but specific presets are coming for that soon. When I import my NEFs into lightroom, I tell it to use the D200 NX preset by default and now all my colours look much better. Then it's just a matter of whizzing through the images and fixing exposure/WB and I'm finished.

For anyone who is unhappy with LR colours, give it another go with the NX presets linked above - you might be pleasantly surprised

Hope that helps someone,

Stephen

[whitey]

Atm im not sure how you can sign up if your not an exisiting customer.
If anyone has an invite (i think you can do this) please pm me.

thanks!

I would love an invite if anyone has one free as well to test this out properly before buying it, looks good so far.

Does anyone know why LR changes the image the first time I select it after an import - the preview looks nice (straight out of the camera) but when I open in LR after about a second it adjusts the image! I prefer teh image the way it came out of the camera! Can I stop LR doing this?

[ATJ]

Does anyone know why LR changes the image the first time I select it after an import - the preview looks nice (straight out of the camera) but when I open in LR after about a second it adjusts the image! I prefer teh image the way it came out of the camera! Can I stop LR doing this?

Already discussed above in this thread. And, no, you can't stop it.

[whitey]

Already discussed above in this thread. And, no, you can't stop it.

Sorry, must read thread before posting.

[ATJ]

I installed the beta last night.

None of the bugs I have raised to Adobe have been fixed:
* Mishandling of times due to DST - I am told it is being worked on
* Backup on import from device creates an unwanted directory - I haven't asked about this one, yet
* "Use Unique Names" on batch export screws up and overwrites files - No reply on this one

The one bug that I didn't raise yet to Adobe is "fixed" because the whole function has been removed. In 1.31 I could filter the images in the catalog by a custom date/time range. It was clunky and buggy, but at least it was there. Now you can't specify a date range - just select dates - and you can't specify time at all. I am told that filter by time MIGHT get added back in, or it might not.