Lightroom 5.2 Release Candidate is now available

http://labs.adobe.com/​downloads/lightroom5-2.html


preliminary Canon 70D support

new features:

• A Smoothness adjustment slider has been added to the Detail Panel under Color Noise Reduction. This helps to reduce low-frequency color mottling artifacts
  
  
• Refinements to the Spot Healing Tool:

  New Feather control

  Auto find source method now works better for images with textured areas like rocks, bark, and foliage

  Auto find source method now prefers source areas within the crop rectangle

• Smart Preview size has been updated to 2560 pixels on the long edge.
  
• Refinements to the Local Adjustment Brush:

  Right Click (PC) / Control-click (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to bring up a context menu to duplicate or delete

  Control+Alt+Drag (PC) / Command+Option+Drag (Mac) on a brush adjustment pin to clone (duplicate) that adjustment

• Catalog containing images processed with PV2003 were adding a post-crop vignette when catalog upgraded to Lightroom 5.
  
• Pressing the “Reset” button while holding down the Shift key caused Lightroom to exit abruptly.
  
• Output Sharpening and Noise Reduction were not applied to exported images that were resized to less than 1/3 of the original image size.
  
• Incorrect photo was selected when trying to select a photo in segmented grid in Publish Services.
  
• The Esc key did not exit the slideshow after right clicking screen with mouse during slideshow playing.
  
• Import dialog remained blank for folders that contain PNG files with XMP sidecars.
  
• Metadata panel displayed incorrect information after modifying published photo. Please note that this only occurred when metadata was changed after the photo was published.
  

Sounds great. I will probably buy it when 5.2 is finally released.

Thanks. What happened to 5.1?

Question answered - there is no 5.1! No, I don't know why.

WesternGuy

And here I was thinking LR 5.0 was a "release candidate" or maybe even a beta version. If the listed issues are really fixed then hopefully Adobe is now focusing on the sluggish performance of this product.

I typically wouldn't use an RC, but 5.0 is bad enough that I'm having trouble seeing how it can be anything but an improvement.

I never upgraded from 4.
Looks like CS6 and LR4 is it for me.
No more Adobe purchases.

Bob_A wrote in post #16171101
And here I was thinking LR 5.0 was a "release candidate" or maybe even a beta version. If the listed issues are really fixed then hopefully Adobe is now focusing on the sluggish performance of this product.

I typically wouldn't use an RC, but 5.0 is bad enough that I'm having trouble seeing how it can be anything but an improvement.

I've been running it all afternoon and I can't say I see any measurable performance improvements in the RC.

WesternGuy wrote in post #16171094
Thanks. What happened to 5.1?

Question answered - there is no 5.1! No, I don't know why.

WesternGuy

Probably the guys in the trenches had a version ready to go a couple weeks ago and the fat cats on the top floor told them it isn't good enough.

O.K., I've had time to do a little comparing. The one bug in 5.0 that "bugged" me was the problem with images downsized for web posting - any image downsized to 1/3 or less than its original size did not get either output sharpening or NR. It wasn't a fatal bug because it could be set right with some extra work; sharpening and NR in a second or second and third application or, alternatively, reimporting the low res version back into LR 5.0 and exporting again at the same size. Still, it was a bug that needed fixing. So here are a couple comparisons; 5.0 on the left, 5.2 on the right, shot at ISO 6400. Both received identical editing including Luminance NR = 40 and exported with resizing to 450x667 pixels and Output Sharpening = High (100 ppi). Because the downsizing went a long way to hiding some of the noise in the original shot, the second illustration below is the same comparison at 3X so the difference in noise can be seen.

Why the color shift?

The smoothness slider sounds like it could help with some issues I've run into in the past. Wide-field astrophotography comes to mind.

armis wrote in post #16172093
Why the color shift?

Must be caused by the sharpening or NR, nothing else was different.

I don't understand that Smoothness. There is also (and has been since LR3) a Detail slider. I would have thought they are opposites. In the past I figured less detail means more smoothness, but now they both default to 50. Is Smoothness 50 in LR5.2 different than Detail 0 in LR4? When both are at 50 don't they cancel each other out? Clearly something that needs to be investigated, although, to tell the truth Color NR isn't something I think about a lot and mostly just leave it at its default 25 ecept for really high ISOs.

I don't know, I've always had Color NR at 50 or more by default as it didn't seem to hurt color rendition in any noticeable way, but helped heaps with noise. However, there were still fairly large but faint red and blue splotches (for instance here); I'm thinking that's what the new slider might be targeting? I dunno. To be honest I don't use my 5D2 much anymore and my X-E1 has like zero chroma noise SOOC anyway, so it's not something I expect to explore very seriously .

armis wrote in post #16172093
Why the color shift?

from my experience, aggressive NR will sometimes introduce color shifts.

armis wrote in post #16172452
I don't know, I've always had Color NR at 50 or more by default as it didn't seem to hurt color rendition in any noticeable way, but helped heaps with noise. However, there were still fairly large but faint red and blue splotches (for instance here); I'm thinking that's what the new slider might be targeting? I dunno. To be honest I don't use my 5D2 much anymore and my X-E1 has like zero chroma noise SOOC anyway, so it's not something I expect to explore very seriously .

That's what the new slider is supposed to be targeting, those random splotches of color left over after aggressive color NR. I can't say I have a lot of experience with it, most of the time I never touch color NR in LR.

Stone 13 wrote in post #16171370
I've been running it all afternoon and I can't say I see any measurable performance improvements in the RC.

I would have expected that since there is no mention of performance improvements in the list. Hopefully (please Adobe) there are some once 5.2 is officially released in September.

Hmm have they stopped the hang-ups that 4 suffers with its doing my head in