Lightroom 2.0 : Caution, Beta inside !

published : Tuesday, April 08, 2008 | model : ADOBE Lightroom

Theme : Digital Photography | Photography software

On April 2nd was announced the Beta version of Lightroom 2 : THE event of the month for digital photography amateurs. The first impressions are excellent and the number of Beta testers will be huge. But pay attention, you have to be cautious with this Beta of LR2.

Still a BETA version

The release of Lightroom 2 Beta by Adobe appears so finalized and operational that we could forget that it is indeed a beta release. To be used for testing purposes, it is not guaranteed 100% operational. Thus, you should not transfer all your image library under Lightroom 2. This would be too risky to have a pretty bad surprise in the event of bug or corruption of the database on which you have spent hours or even days under Lightroom 1.0,1.3 etc (Image organization, Keywording, Adjustment of RAW files…). Adobe insists on the fact that this beta must be used for testing, but also to get users feedback and therefore to launch a completely mature application next summer.

Dual Installation of Lightroom

As of the installation, the precautions of use are essential: you should not uninstall the version 1 which is on your computer before installing LR 2.0 Beta. Moreover, Adobe Lightroom 2.0 Beta installs aside of your Lightroom copy. So you can import a small share of your photographs in LR2 in order to test it and let the main part of them in Lightroom 1.3.

Even if you are inevitably very impatient to use Lightroom 2, it will be necessary to keep in mind that this beta release is a version of test. However, Beta 2 will be able to serve as a splendid training ground to be completely operational on Lightroom 2 when it will be launched, in a few month.