After a long eight month public beta process, the official release of Adobe Lightroom 3 is now finally available. Key features include better performance, native 64-bit support, profile-based lens correction, improved noise reduction, tethered shooting, Flickr integration, and support for video files. In this quick review, we’ll look at the various improvements Lightroom 3 offer over Lightroom 2, and whether it is worth your money to upgrade.

Performance & 64-bit support

Upgrading a catalog of 24,000 photos took just a couple of minutes. The first impression from zipping around folder to folder is that Lightroom 3 loads photos noticeably faster, especially for photos without any previews generated. Generating 1:1 previews are noticeably faster too.

Profile-based lens correction

This feature looks like it is going to be extremely handy for processing a large set of photos, easily correcting vignetting, distortion, and chromatic aberration problems. But it turns out that the number of supported lenses are too few for now (click here for the list of supported lenses). Out of the four lenses tested, only the Nikon 50mm f1.8 was automatically detected. The Nikon 20mm f2.8, 85mm f1.8, and Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 Nikon Mount were all not supported.

Improved noise reduction

Comparing between LR2 and LR3, a slight improvement can indeed be observed. The new algorithm results in better details at the same amount of reduction (both luminance and color are set at 75 for the 200% crop sample photos below).

Lightroom 3

Lightroom 2

Tethered shooting

Tethered shooting within LR3 is a welcomed addition. It allows you to select a Develop Preset to automatically be applied to each photo – a great time-saver indeed. It can also trigger your camera’s shutter when you click on the big silver button.

Support for video files

Video files support is pretty straightforward. It basically allows you to import video files into LR3 and take advantage its tagging system to better manage and organize your videos.

Kinks

In LR2, you could filter photos differently on a per-folder basis. But in LR3, Adobe made an intentional choice to remove this sticky filter feature. It can be a pain for many of us who’ve gotten so used to it, but according to Adobe forums, Adobe knows about this and is deciding on how to put this feature back into LR3 via an update.

Final words

As an upgrade, LR3 is only US$99. The performance speed boost alone makes it a worthy upgrade for people who would use the software heavily. For new buyers, the US$299 price tag is the same as when Lightroom 2 was new.

Official Press Release

SAN JOSE, Calif., – June 8, 2010 – Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe(r) Photoshop(r) Lightroom(r) 3 software for Windows(r) and Macintosh, the essential digital photography workflow solution that allows photographers to quickly organize, enhance and showcase their images from one application. First released as a public beta in October 2009, the final version of Lightroom 3 introduces a completely redesigned performance architecture that better handles growing image libraries and provides an unrivaled raw processing engine with noise reduction and sharpening tools to achieve the highest image quality. The 64-bit capable Lightroom 3 includes new features that optimize workflows and allow images to be shared in creative ways, including support for DSLR video files and tethered shooting on select cameras.    

“There have been over 600,000 downloads of the Lightroom 3 public beta, which has supplied us with a huge amount of valuable feedback from a passionate community of professional and advanced amateur photographers,” said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Digital Imaging at Adobe. “The open dialog we have with our customers allows us to further improve Lightroom and provide the best tools they need to produce high-quality images.  We’re happy to see that so many people are anxiously anticipating the final release, so they can start taking advantage of all the new features they had a hand in developing.” 

Public Beta Process Perfects Lightroom 3 New Features
Re-built from its core to be lightening fast and responsive, Lightroom 3 adds power throughout the application to provide a fluid experience for photographers. Images load almost instantaneously, and the import experience has been redesigned to be more intuitive, with added previews and default selections that give users quick access to sort through and find images. Helping streamline and adapt to photographers’ changing workflows, Lightroom 3 now allows users to import and manage DSLR video files, as well as take advantage of tethered shooting for select Nikon and Canon cameras.

New state-of-the-art photographic tools help photographers bring out the best in their images. Unrivaled Luminance and Color Noise Reduction tools help produce a clearer picture from high ISO or underexposed images while still preserving details. The highly-requested Automatic Lens Correction feature can dramatically improve the results possible with any lens by allowing users to apply profiles that correct for undesirable geometric distortions, chromatic aberrations, and lens vignette effects that most lenses introduce to the image. Users now also have a straighten tool to perfect vertical and horizontal perspective, additional presets for applying more photographic adjustment styles, and three new contemporary vignette styles and a Grain effect to add a more natural look with images.

Lightroom 3 Expands Image Showcasing
Output options have also been enhanced in this release, with new capabilities to publish collections on online sharing sites. Flickr(r) users have the ability to synch their accounts to Lightroom with one click, and integration with additional online photo sharing sites can be added via third-party plug-ins. Customizable print layouts provide more refined control over how photographers present final images, and new watermarking features with options to modify text, size, location and style, help give professionals and amateurs flexibility for branding images. Lightroom 3 now also includes the ability to export polished slideshows as video files with the option to add audio and title screens.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for Windows and Macintosh is available now at www.adobe.com/store, for pre-order via Amazon.com and NewEgg.com and will be available soon at retail and online outlets such as Frys, BestBuy.com, Costco.com, Walmart.com, Staples.com, OfficeMax.com, OfficeDepot.com and select camera stores.

The estimated street price is USD $299 for new users with an upgrade price of USD$99 for qualified registered Lightroom users. Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OS X v 10.5, 10.6 with Intel(r) based processor, or Microsoft(r) Windows(r) 7, Windows Vista(r) Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise or Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Intel(r) Pentium(r) 4 processor, 2 GB RAM and a 1,024×768 resolution screen.

Additional information on product features, upgrade policies, pricing, and language versions is available on www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom. Join the Lightroom community on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lightroom) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/lightroom).

Download Adobe Camera Raw 6.1 for Windows
Download Adobe Camera Raw 6.1 for Mac

Official release notes:

• Newly supported camera models include:
  • Canon EOS 550D (Digital Rebel T2i/ EOS Kiss X4 Digital)
  • Kodak Z981
  • Leaf Aptus-II 8
  • Leaf Aptus-II 10R
  • Mamiya DM40
  • Olympus E-PL1
  • Olympus E-600
  • Panasonic G2
  • Panasonic G10
  • Sony A450
• Camera Raw 6.1 includes new lens correction functionality that can apply profile-based corrections to accommodate geometric distortions, chromatic aberration and lens vignette effects. Manual corrections for geometric distortion as well as vertical and horizontal perspective transforms are also available. A handful of lens profiles are included for automatic correction and more can be created by the community with the Adobe Lens Profile Creator.
• This release addresses a bug on the Mac platform that could cause Photoshop CS5 to quit unexpectedly when opening a file in the Camera Raw 6.0 plug-in.
• This release contains performance enhancements designed to improve the responsiveness of the controls and the scrolling mechanism relative to Camera Raw 6.0.