Lightroom 2.0 - 4 Hours later.
After spending the last several hours playing with the new 2.0 beta, I'm impressed with the changes to-date. Its not perfect, and there are still some things missing that would be very useful (soft proofing anyone ?), however for MY workflow, the improvements have fixed a number of gotcha's with LR for me.
I think its now viable to use as a Image management (DAMlite as it were) product for image reviewing, cataloging and workflow for my image library. (Your mileage may vary of course).
The big changes that I think make this possible, that I've tested so far
1. Dual Monitor support. Finally can have LR on one screen, and the full screen preview on another.
2. 30,000 pixel size limit. This was a big boost, as previously with panoramas and scanned 4x5, it failed dismally for including these images in the library. New one works just fine.
3. Open in Photoshop for Photomerge, HDR and Smart Object. ! This is an excellent improvement, as is not requiring it to be saved as a Tiff first, (and saved someplace I didn't want it). I am hoping this is enough to give Bridge the flick for image review and processing.
If they support some of the other PS integration, such as image processor, or scripting, that will be even better, but this is a great start.
(Wishlist: Ability to script similar exports to other tools, like say, ptGui direct from the library).
4. Annoyance. I liked the old meta-data browser, specifically locations listed as a hierarchy. Shame thats gone. Can't see any way to reproduce that with the filters in the same way.
I don't print from Lightroom (yet), and roundtrip everything to PS CS3 still, however that could change. I like the new sharpening, and local adjustments. Hopefully this is the sign of things to come in the next CS as well. Looking forward to any other features they add prior to release, and in future versions, but so far, its looking really good. Thumbs up to the devs.
Caveat: Yes, I know its not perfect, there are MANY things that we all want, but I believe it’s a great step forward, and for me at least, looks like its now viable to use full time now.
Tomorrow my 8gb Vista 64 box arrives, so that will be a real test, and nice timing by adobe to release a 64bit app. With the usual caution of a beta product (i.e. Backups !), I think I'll be importing my entire library into LR2 on the weekend, on Vista 64, and see what happens.
Regards
Mark