Lightroom 5 beta now available

Yes, those about to pull the plug on 4 may want to hold off
The beta version introduces a more advanced healing/cloning tool, automatic image leveling and perspective correction, a new selective editing tool and the ability to edit files that are offline.
Dave
 
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Well I just hope they (Adobe) give something to those who use there products and not 10% or 25% off for an upgrade more like what our friends at Google did with the NIK software in percentage discount.
Russ
 
Keebsuk said:
Having just purchased LR4 I refuse to be an unpaid BETA tester for Adobe. They have had enough cash off me to employ a full team of qualified analysts to do that job lol! :gag:

Andy
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The point of beta testing is to get some real world feedback. All the lab testing under ideal conditions in the world isn't going to iron out all technical issues.

Every software company that I'm aware of does it.
 
Looking through the whole list of additional features, this has to be the most underwhelming new version to date... With the possible exception of the improved healing brush I can't see anything in there that particularly excites me.
 
Well I thought it was just me that was also dissappointed but there's nothing in the list of new features, so far, that would make me upgrade.

In fact I still run v3.6 because I wasn't overly impressed with the v4 updates either.

I'll reserve full judgement for when the final release of 5 is issued.

For me I'd like to see a better GUI with the possibility to float panels seperately, specifically to another screen; and a better print module with more options for text and border overlays.

Still waiting

Colin
 
Flashman said:
Looking through the whole list of additional features, this has to be the most underwhelming new version to date... With the possible exception of the improved healing brush I can't see anything in there that particularly excites me.
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Same here. I downloaded it yesterday and had a play.

There is greater flexibility with the tool that may suit some but I don't think it is for me. Time will tell I guess.
 
russellsnr said:
Well I just hope they (Adobe) give something to those who use there products and not 10% or 25% off for an upgrade more like what our friends at Google did with the NIK software in percentage discount.
Russ
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Hi, Well I tried to install on a win 7 64bit along side L/R 4 and all I get after 4 attempts is L/R 5 has encountered a problem and needs to close, I am re-downloading to try again.
Also after watching the video on the upright tool am very disappointed that it does not seem to give as much to the manual operation that the Adaptive Wide Angle offers in P/S CS6 and as Lightroom is geared toward photographers(maybe wrong there JMO) Adobe could have gone that extra mile with the upright tool as with the AWA in CS6, you can purchase software that offers a much better option for this requirement at a reasonable cost.
Russ
 
Lightroom expert Jared Platt is in the middle of a three day online Lightroom 101 webinar on Creativelive, and will be looking over the new features of the Lightroom 5 beta towards the end of the course at approximately 10-10.30pm tonight. He seems pretty excited about the new features. Should be interesting, because on paper it doesn't look that amazing. :shrug:
 
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I am also a bit underwhelmed with this one.

The healing looks great, would have been useful a fair few times. Upright looks pretty cool, not a massive issue for me but I can see where it would be great.

I have a feeling AWA isn't in because it's beyond what you can do without a render to pixels. This same thing is probably what is keeping some form of Photomerge (for pano and HDR) out of Lightroom.

I think Lightroom is now getting to the point where there's not a lot they can add and still keep inside the nondestructive editing ethos. I also think they really need apple to come up with Aperture 4 and think of something no else has though of before.
 
I think with Photo Ninja and DX0 (to name just two) coming up with some seriously good RAW processing engines I kind of expected Adobe to be motivated to improve their own. But they've stuck with the same 2012 process which is already starting to look dated when compared to some of the new competition... maybe next time!
 
The things they have upgraded are all things that I would use and I am pleased they have addressed them. However, I think they should just be free upgrades to Lightroom 4. It depends on how much they charge to move from 4 to 5 on whether I make the leap.
 
Remember, this is a beta version, so I would not draw any conclusions regarding speed until the launch of the full version.
 
mask brush is faulty on my machine. When you tick show mask at bottom of screen, the red mask still does not show.
when making selection and then moving sliders it is very laggy.

not impressed thus far
 
Gr8Shot said:
mask brush is faulty on my machine. When you tick show mask at bottom of screen, the red mask still does not show.
when making selection and then moving sliders it is very laggy.

not impressed thus far
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Beta software, innit?
 
I guess it depends what you mean by the basics.

Adobe betas are usually functionally complete (but not always - they flex this a bit) but with non critical bugs. I bet they would appreciate your reporting your finding.

I'll take a look when they hit the RC.
 
More of a Lightroom 4.5 really. I would like to see a price drop before I order this. The only thing that I am exited about is the ability to include videos in Slideshows.I will still go to PS for cloning/healing for the content-aware ability.

I would pay no more than £50 for this, hopefully the Student + Teacher edition should be around that price.

Cheers,

Sid.
 
So as someone halfway through a 4.4 trial (currently running 3.6) does anyone have any views on whether it's generally cheaper to go 3-4-5 upgrade path or just a straight 3-5 jump? I'm guessing upgrade costs differ depending on how many versions you jump...?

I know there's no pricing for 5 at the moment but wondered if anyone had any experience with older versions.

Ian.
 
Harlequin565 said:
So as someone halfway through a 4.4 trial (currently running 3.6) does anyone have any views on whether it's generally cheaper to go 3-4-5 upgrade path or just a straight 3-5 jump? I'm guessing upgrade costs differ depending on how many versions you jump...?

I know there's no pricing for 5 at the moment but wondered if anyone had any experience with older versions.

Ian.
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I would guess (it's all speculation at present, obviously) that you will be able to upgrade LR3 to LR5 at the same cost as LR3-LR4, so it might be worth holding fire.

Anthony.
 
Harlequin565 said:
So as someone halfway through a 4.4 trial (currently running 3.6) does anyone have any views on whether it's generally cheaper to go 3-4-5 upgrade path or just a straight 3-5 jump? I'm guessing upgrade costs differ depending on how many versions you jump...?

I know there's no pricing for 5 at the moment but wondered if anyone had any experience with older versions.

Ian.
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Currently, it appears to be the same price to upgrade to V4 whether you own 1, 2 or 3 (£60.57 - HERE)... so I guess I'd wait for 5 if I were you!
 
Adobe put the price of the Student version of Photoshop up nearly £50 this year. :shake: So I don't think it is worth speculating on what prices of things may be.

They seem to be pushing people, and especially the Students and Teachers, towards the Creative Cloud subscription option. And I think that will happen more and more, because it makes sense for them. (if not for the actual customer) I think the Student/Teacher discount price will rise above the Cloud version, maybe even by next year, to make the cloud option more attractive. Indeed, there may not be an option for a non cloud option in the future. :shrug:


And Adobe also have a history of changing upgrade options. :(
 
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Sidney said:
More of a Lightroom 4.5 really. I would like to see a price drop before I order this. The only thing that I am exited about is the ability to include videos in Slideshows.I will still go to PS for cloning/healing for the content-aware ability.

I would pay no more than £50 for this, hopefully the Student + Teacher edition should be around that price.

Cheers,

Sid.
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lightroom 4 is lightroom 3.5, so by my maths this must be lightroom 4 :)
 
Gary said:
lightroom 4 is lightroom 3.5, so by my maths this must be lightroom 4 :)
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Haha!

Lightroom 4 was defiantly an upgrade though, the new sliders made Lightroom so much better. This update is very underwhelming, the enforced enthusiasm placed on Adobe employee's is just embarrassing to watch!

Cheers,

Sid.
 
In my opinion Adobe have now reached the point where to add any more major features would take sales away from CS and they would be loath to do this.

Apart from any major breakthrough in Raw processing expect Elements type upgrades, a new one or two watered down CS features and call it a new upgrade.

I'll be doing with LR now what I do with there other software missing a generation or two before upgrading unless there is a major development.:)
 
I still want face recognition in it. It would be fantastic to launch a module or a plugin and tag all the photos in my library. It doesn't even need to be perfect on the first run though, just good enough to do most of the grunt work and then let me tidy up the unknown/difficult cases. Make it add both catalogue tags and something to the EXIF and I'll be very happy!
 
Does anyone know what typically happens to the prices of Adobe software when they release a new one? Will there be discounted retail copies of LR4, do you think? If so, I'll hang on before buying it.
 
There's been offers on and off constantly for LR4. You'll just have to keep checking.
 
Does this beta upgrade LR4 or does is install completely new software?
 
chris-red said:
Does this beta upgrade LR4 or does is install completely new software?
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Completely new software, including insisting upon a new catalogue being created. Worth reading the download website information. And, copying some files into a spare folder to try things out - you don't want to b****r up originals...

Anthony.
 
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