Go Lightroom

Adobe on 13 September has announced Photoshop Lightroom 1.2, its professional level digital photography application and also that it has released updated Camera Raw 4.2 software with additional support for digital cameras.

Lightroom 1.2 and the new Camera Raw 4.2 plug-in support 14 additional digital cameras including the Canon EOS 40D; Fuji FinePix IS-1; Leaf Aptus 17, 54s and 75s; Olympus EVOLT E-510; Panasonic DMC-FZ18; Pentax K100D Super; Phase One P 20+, P 21+, P 25+, P 30+ and P 45+; and Sony A700. Both updates also include improved noise reduction for Bayer patterned sensors, providing better image detail at default noise reduction values. The Lightroom update includes corrections to Microsoft Windows Vista grid display errors and XMP auto-write performance.

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The Lightroom 1.1 update has been at last posted.

New features:

• Improved multiple computer workflow with catalog import/export functionality
• Improved noise reduction and sharpening
• Vista Support
• Additional Camera Support (Canon 1D Mk III, Phase One medium format backs and more)

Update Notes:

• I recommend backing up your 1.0 library file(in this release catalog) before upgrading.
• The Lightroom 1.1 Readme File contains a more detailed list of new features and notes. (Who reads these?)
• For those that tried the Lightroom 1.0 trial and did not purchase Lightroom, the 1.1 update resets the clock and provides another opportunity.
• This update will automatically replace your Lightroom 1.0 application (You don’t need to uninstall)
• Not sure if Lightroom is running fast enough for you? Try the Optimize option in the catalog-specific preferences.

More resources:

• Stay tuned for updates from Lightroom-News.
• Sean McCormack posted some very nice articles on his Lightroom blog
• Richard Earney has prepared an excellent version 3 of his Lightroom Develop presets on www.inside-lightroom.com
• Victoria Bampton has posted her own list of “What’s New”
• Jeffrey Friedl has a summary of the Lightroom udpate as well as an ingenious tool for customizing your metadata panel called Jeffrey’s Lightroom Metadata-Viewer Preset Builder

Download:

• http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/

CIPA has today published a draft of their new ‘Specification Guideline for Digital Cameras’. This document is intended to provide guidelines to manufacturers for the publication of specifications and features for digital cameras. It covers a wide range of details such as focal length, effective pixels, sensitivity, signal to noise ratio and even weight, dimensions and volume. Very promising specification is a distinction between mechanical (optical) image stabilization and digital blur reduction, called by some manufacturers digital image stabilization.

Some of CIPA members include Canon, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Sigma and Sony.

Related Links:

• Draft of the ‘Specification Guideline for Digital Cameras’ (PDF)

Tom Hogarty gave some more info about Lightroom 1.1 - what there will be, and what there will be not:

 I can’t comment specifically on future feature timing but one of the key updates already provided in the Camera Raw 4.1 release and the next update of Lightroom is improved noise reduction and sharpening technology. A plug-in API for third party software is very important for Lightroom but will not be included in Lightroom 1.1. - TH

About sRAW support:

…the Camera Raw 4.1 readme indicates that we were unfortunately unable to include SRAW support in this release. Lightroom’s next camera support update will be identical. We will address SRAW support in a future release…

Original post, comments, questions, and answers you can read at: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2007/05/lightroom_and_camera_raw_41_1.html