Lighrroom 5.x Beta anyone?

Is anyone using the beta version of LR 5.x? I downloaded it and started messing around with it. It has a few new features, but I found that the catalogs between LR4.x and 5.x are incompatible (as explained in the notes) and that means that if you import photos from your CF card into the LR 5.x library, they will not be in the LR 4.x library until you sync the folders (LR4). Also, any adjustments you make in LR5 do not transfer to LR4. So for this, I haven't really done much with LR5 and am wondering how any other users feel about it. I'm pretty happy with LR4.

Jim

Although LR5 Beta catalogs cannot be used today anywhere but in the Beta , it will be possible when the final version is released to open LR4 catalogs in LR5. It is also very likely that it will be possible to import Beta catalogs into the final version. The present limitation is a safety measure just in case the Beta does somehow corrupt a catalog; at least it won't be one into which a lot of work has been invested.

I like LR5 and will buy it if the price is at around the same level that previous upgrades were. Still, I have a bit of a feeling of disappointment - no "Wow, I've gotta have that." It's probably because I was spoiled by previous upgrades; LR3 was a huge improvement over LR2 and LR4 bordered on revolutionary. LR5's innovations are nice, convenient and faster and I don't doubt I will use them a lot, but the Rad filter doesn't do anything that can't be done with the brush or a combination of Grad filters. The improved Spot tool will certainly often save me from having to break the LR workflow, but it still needs a lot of work, so final judgement is reserved. I can see that Smart Previews will be much appreciated by those who commute with a laptop or otherwise need to work away from home base, but that doesn't apply to me. However, they are also said to speed up preview redraw times in Develop, so that might be good.

I will not upgrade unless they fix the resource killing issues.

tzalman wrote in post #15921616
Still, I have a bit of a feeling of disappointment - no "Wow, I've gotta have that." It's probably because I was spoiled by previous upgrades; LR3 was a huge improvement over LR2 and LR4 bordered on revolutionary.

Really? I find all updates up to 4 as minor enhancements more than anything that deserved a full new version number. To me LR4 was LR2 and LR5 would be LR2.1 by that logic...

A lot of the improvements were almost fixes, people (myself included) had been asking for them since the first beta.

Okay I'm another one who didn't feel that 4 was worth upgrading to, but my really good friend who does huge landscape prints absolutely thinks it's a lot better. Look, I'm a responsible adult, honest I am, I pay my taxes and think of myself as being lucid and rational. But after complaining yesterday that LR5 Beta doesn't have the Brightness option, suddenly there it was. WTHeck? So I thought it was a slip of the vision, that I just wasn't paying attention. About fifteen minutes ago I was back processing and there was absolutely no Brightness adjustment, anywhere that I could find. I wondered if I'd gone back to LR3 but no I had not worked on anything from LR3.

But now something has changed, when using the brush to darken, I dialed the circle down very small to just give some edge of shadow character and although the circle was very small, like 1/4" wide on my 24" screen, the swath that it was darkening was about an inch wide. I readjusted the circle wider than back to small and the same thing happened. But it wasn't happening about ten minutes before then.

Another thing, no matter what I do, everything I download into LR5 Beta looks over saturated just a bit and also have to pull the vibrance back a bit. I'm sure I'll get used to it but it's definitely a look that I haven't liked in any photograph yet.

Yes it's a Beta, yes I know it will take time.

But on the plus side, brushing with the spot removal tool seems to have improved greatly, in that it doesn't have the edge definition that I was first seeing, which of course is crazy because there's been no upgrade in the software. But the other quirkiness and jerky, less that subtle movement's of the mouse (arrow) seems to either be okay or I'm used to it being faster.

Jannie wrote in post #15924872
But after complaining yesterday that LR5 Beta doesn't have the Brightness option, suddenly there it was. WTHeck?.

I'm not sure if you are experienced with LR4 or not from your posing, but LR4 changed its methodologies in adjusting the image. But you can edit like LR3 where brightness lives.

If you had an image from LR3 and side car XMP, the processing version would be LR3 (PV2010), a new image in LR4 will be PV2012 where there is no Brightness slider.

Side note: PV 2012 is leagues better then PV2010 (main reason to upgrade from LR3 to LR4), so I'd suggest getting used to it, and forgetting about PV2010. It really sucks in comparison.
Other side note: dodge and burn in PV 2010 also are buggy enough to be unusable (if you're using the defaults):
http://www.getcolorman​aged.com …stment-bug-and-workaround

a_roadbiker wrote in post #15921293
Also, any adjustments you make in LR5 do not transfer to LR4.

Change your preferences so both programs are writing changes to XMP files instead of to the catalog file. LR5 will be able to read everything you did in LR4. LR4 will be able to read everything you did in LR5 except for the new features that don't exist in LR4.