Archive for March, 2008

Comments on 1.4 Release

Posted on March 17, 2008 by Tom Hogarty | Comments (66)

The entire Lightroom team is extremely sorry for any problems we’ve caused our loyal customers with the March 14th 1.4 update. In our eagerness to get new camera support into customers’ hands as promptly as possible, we let some bugs slip past our testing that were frankly unacceptable. Compared to other Adobe applications, we’ve taken a much more aggressive approach to releasing frequent new versions with new features, but it’s clear we need to take a hard look at our release process to make sure that this aggressive approach doesn’t sacrifice quality. One thing that we may consider is continuing the community approach we’ve taken in the past by releasing betas of our updates, so that they can get the broadest testing possible before they are certified as final. The timing for what will need to be a Lightroom 1.4.1 release has not been determined but updated information will be posted to this blog when available. 

Important Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 Update

Posted on March 16, 2008 by Tom Hogarty | Comments (68)

The Lightroom 1.4 update for Mac and Windows has been temporarily removed from the Adobe.com web site.  Those Lightroom users who have installed Lightroom 1.4 should uninstall the update and install Lightroom 1.3.1.(Mac, Win) until a further update can be provided. For those not in immediate need of the updated camera support available in Camera Raw 4.4 or the DNG 4.4 Converter, it’s recommended that you also continue working with the 4.3.1 versions. (Mac, Win)  This decision is based on the following errors that have been discovered with the recent update:

  • EXIF Time Stamp Error: There is an error in the EXIF time stamp update technology that causes Lightroom to believe that the files are out of sync with the correct time stamp as displayed in Lightroom. Any ensuing metadata update will attempt to incorrectly modify the EXIF time stamp in the original raw file itself.  This is the only metadata field that Lightroom will write to an original proprietary raw file. This error will not impact the integrity of your image data.  The Camera Raw plug-in also will incorrectly change the EXIF time stamp in files converted by the plug-in.  The information written to the XMP sidecar files or XMP metadata in the converted files will remain correct.
  • DNG Conversion Error(Windows Only): With the latest version of the Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 applications, Adobe has included technology to verify that the image data in a DNG file is unchanged from when it was originally converted to DNG.  Unfortunately, when converting to DNG using Lightroom 1.4 on Windows, the application will write an incorrect verification tag to describe the image data.  When Lightroom attempts to work with those files in the Develop module, the application reads that incorrect tag, believes that there is something wrong with the raw data and will present an error.  Rest assured, there is nothing wrong with the integrity of your image data or metadata.  For those that have already converted their files to DNG using Lightroom 1.4(Windows only) we recommend using the DNG 4.3.1 converter to convert the DNG files you’ve created with Lightroom 1.4.
  • Olympus Conversion Error:  There is an error in converting Olympus JPEG files to other formats in Lightroom 1.4 and the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in. 

To uninstall Lightroom 1.4 please see the instructions per your platform:
Mac: Delete the Lightroom application in the Application folder(Mac) and Delete the following file:  Library/Receipts/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg
Windows: Choose the Uninstall Lightroom 1.4 menu item from the Windows start menu.  The Add/Remove Program utility on Windows will also achieve the same result. 

To replace the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in with the 4.3.1 plug-in, follow the manual installation instructions provided on the download page linked above.

I will post additional updates to this blog as we have more information on the timing and scope of the future update.

Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4

Posted on March 13, 2008 by Tom Hogarty | Comments (21)

The Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 updates have been posted to the following locations: Lightroom(Mac, Win), Camera Raw(Mac, Win).  The updates include support for the following new camera models:

Canon EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi/EOS Kiss X2)
Fujifilm S100FS
Nikon D60
Olympus SP-570 UZ
Pentax K20D
Pentax K200D
Sony A200
Sony A300
Sony A350

Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 include corrections for the following issues:

  • Previous camera profiles identified in the Calibrate panel of the Develop module may have displayed poor results at extreme ends of the temperature and tint ranges. A new camera profile identified as Camera Raw 4.4 is now available and will be applied by default to all images without existing Camera Raw or Lightroom settings. The creation of new default profiles will also include the updated Camera Raw 4.4 profile. Images edited in Camera Raw or Lightroom with earlier profiles will retain the earlier profile value and visual appearance.
  • In previous grayscale conversions the Color Noise setting was disabled and this could result in an image with excessive noise when grayscale channel mixing is applied.  Both the tool and effect have been enabled in Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 providing the ability to reduce noise in grayscale conversions.  In order to return to the prior visual appearance, Color Noise reduction can be set to zero.

Lightroom 1.4 includes corrections for the following issue:

  • Compatibility with legacy printer drivers on OS X 10.5 (Leopard) has been updated. I’d like to thank everyone who commented on my earlier post regarding this topic.  Some valuable feedback was provided and by working directly with Apple and Epson we are able to provide a resolution through this Lightroom update. 

As always, don’t forget rule #5!

Note: The Camera Raw plug-in won’t be automatically updated via the Adobe Update Manager(AUM) until early next week.