# Before you upgrade to Lightroom 4...



## RC (Mar 6, 2012)

... check system requirments. Just about punched in my online order for LR4 when I decided I better check system requirements. Good thing I did since I'm still running XP and according to sys requirements, Vista w/SP2 or Win 7 w/SP1 is required. Planning to upgrade to Windows 7 in the near future, so a bit of a delay for me. 

Hopefully this will warn other XP users upgrading to LR4. 


System requirements
Windows

Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor
Microsoft® Windows Vista® with Service Pack 2 or Windows® 7 with Service Pack 1
2GB of RAM
1GB of available hard-disk space
1024x768 display
DVD-ROM drive
Internet connection required for Internet-based services*
Mac OS

Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
Mac OS X v10.6.8 or v10.7
2GB of RAM
1GB of available hard-disk space
1024x768 display
DVD-ROM drive
Internet connection required for Internet-based services*


Edit: _This appears to be a 64 bit issue_


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## JonJT (Mar 6, 2012)

Windows 8 might be out soon. Just saying.


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## photophreek (Mar 6, 2012)

There has been quite a bit of discussion about this on the Adobe forums since the beta version of LR 4 was released. From the discussions, it appears that the video editing features of LR 4 are the reason for going to Win 7. Win XP is supported in the release of CS 6. I've also heard of the pending release of Win 8 to coincide with Intel's next gen of processors. When all the dust settles later this year and into 2013, LR 5 will be out. I'm sitting tight on any decision to upgrade.


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## Maui5150 (Mar 6, 2012)

Gotta love the massive screwing by Adobe as well.

Planned a Beta in January (i.e. LR 4 soon to be released) so dumped versions of 3 over the holidays from anywhere from $99 to $149... Which is not bad considering the $299 retail... Then within 8 - 10 weeks releases LR 4 at $149 with $79 Upgrade... 

So for anyone who purchased in December... LOL you paid $180 or more for LR 4.

Cha-Ching... 

Now that is a classic screwing I have not seen in a long time


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## wtlloyd (Mar 6, 2012)

LightRoom5 will not be out in 2013, it's a two year product cycle.


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## unfocused (Mar 6, 2012)

Love the logic on this forum.

When Canon raises the price of the 5D to $3,500 they are screwing consumers.

When Adobe lowers the price of Lightroom to $149 they are screwing consumers.

Sounds to me that it is the companies that are screwed no matter what they do.


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## SRHelicity (Mar 6, 2012)

unfocused said:


> Love the logic on this forum.
> 
> When Canon raises the price of the 5D to $3,500 they are screwing consumers.
> 
> ...



It's the same reason why we wouldn't see a significant (>10%) drop in the price of the 5D3 for a while. If Canon were to drop the price suddenly, the earliest adopters would scream about how they got 'screwed' (the exact thing happened with the iPhone -- the folks who bought in the first couple of months were given $ credits by Apple, if I recall correctly). 

Now, it would be suboptimal had you purchased LR3 during Christmas shopping season when the best sales were down near $99, but that's still better than paying full price in October or November. The fact of the matter is that there will ALWAYS be that "last person who paid full price" whenever there's a price reduction. I wouldn't complain about it -- it's just bad luck or bad planning. We knew LR4 was coming this year, and it was suspected that the beta was going to be free to try, which is why I held off purchase LR3 last fall. I don't really do any commercial photography now, so I get the added benefit of the academic/student license pricing as well ($79). Add this with the ridiculous CS5.5 deals Adobe was (maybe still is) running -- I picked up CS5.5 Production Premium on the Adobe website for $89! -- and I can only say "Woot!".

[I know CS6 is going to be out soon. But $89 for CS5.5 Production Premium is too good to pass up. If I need, I can purchase Photoshop CS6 separately at a later time since I can't imagine I'll need/want to upgrade the other components to CS6]


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## Meh (Mar 6, 2012)

Maui5150 said:


> Gotta love the massive screwing by Adobe as well.
> 
> Planned a Beta in January (i.e. LR 4 soon to be released) so dumped versions of 3 over the holidays from anywhere from $99 to $149... Which is not bad considering the $299 retail... Then within 8 - 10 weeks releases LR 4 at $149 with $79 Upgrade...
> 
> ...



OMG, how dare they offer a discount to people who needed or wanted LR3 in December almost 3 months before LR4 was due to be released. That's just despicable.


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## or8it (Mar 6, 2012)

Maui5150 said:


> Gotta love the massive screwing by Adobe as well.
> 
> Planned a Beta in January (i.e. LR 4 soon to be released) so dumped versions of 3 over the holidays from anywhere from $99 to $149... Which is not bad considering the $299 retail... Then within 8 - 10 weeks releases LR 4 at $149 with $79 Upgrade...
> 
> ...



Unless your running Windows XP of course


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## Maui5150 (Mar 6, 2012)

unfocused said:


> Love the logic on this forum.
> 
> When Canon raises the price of the 5D to $3,500 they are screwing consumers.
> 
> ...



Most companies offer "FREE" upgrades or highly discounted upgrades to customers who purchase a product right before an unannounced upgrade. At time of purchase, no beta or imminent release of LR4 was out there. 

In fact, I just got one of those from NIK when I had purchased their suite and I forget which one of their components basically had just got upgraded, and they gave me the new version. 

If is pretty much a standard practice "Customers who have purchased version X within last 60 or 90 or what ever days"


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## or8it (Mar 6, 2012)

Maui5150 said:


> Most companies offer "FREE" upgrades or highly discounted upgrades to customers who purchase a product right before an unannounced upgrade. At time of purchase, no beta or imminent release of LR4 was out there.



So do Adobe, you just have to contact them.

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/153/tn_15304.html#main_I_meet_the_requirements__How_do_I_place_my_order


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## funkboy (Mar 6, 2012)

RC said:


> _This appears to be a 64 bit issue_



The Mac version of Lightroom had full 64 bit support in version 3 <grin>


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## Emeyerphoto (Mar 6, 2012)

Does anyone know if it will maintain LR3 settings? I have images that were edited with LR3 and I don't want to lose those same settings. I don't want to import my library and then realize that the adjustments made to those images are totally fouled up. 

Thank you for any responses in advance


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## Warninglabel (Mar 6, 2012)

Emeyerphoto said:


> Does anyone know if it will maintain LR3 settings? I have images that were edited with LR3 and I don't want to lose those same settings. I don't want to import my library and then realize that the adjustments made to those images are totally fouled up.
> 
> Thank you for any responses in advance



Hope this helps  Copied from DPReview http://www.dpreview.com/articles/7481161037/lightroom-4-review



> Lightroom 4 introduces Process Version (PV) 2012. What's a process version and why should you care? Well, it's the image processing engine behind Lightroom (and Photoshop's Adobe Camera Raw plug-in). The Lightroom engineers make periodic tweaks to its components to provide better image rendering and/or enable new editing functionality. While the rendering performance sees some minor changes, PV2012 stands out by introducing a redesigned and recalibrated set of the Develop module's Basic panel tools, along with more localized editing options. Simply put, PV2012 is of huge consequence for every serious Lightroom user. Its changes are significant and will have a direct effect on your editing workflow.
> 
> As with the introduction of previous process versions, Lightroom, by default honors the current (in this case PV2010) process version of your existing images. If you desire, you can simply go on working as you always have. But should you choose to update an image to PV2012, a whole host of new functionality awaits.
> 
> ...


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## Emeyerphoto (Mar 6, 2012)

Warninglabel said:


> Emeyerphoto said:
> 
> 
> > Does anyone know if it will maintain LR3 settings? I have images that were edited with LR3 and I don't want to lose those same settings. I don't want to import my library and then realize that the adjustments made to those images are totally fouled up.
> ...



Thank you very much for that info.


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## Neeneko (Mar 6, 2012)

JonJT said:


> Windows 8 might be out soon. Just saying.



And a lot of people will ignore it just like they did Vista and 7.


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## dirtcastle (Mar 6, 2012)

Just curious... are people using XP for financial reasons or personal preference?


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## Neeneko (Mar 6, 2012)

dirtcastle said:


> Just curious... are people using XP for financial reasons or personal preference?



I think most people that are using XP are doing so because upgrading does not actually get them much. While some people love getting new OSes, most people only upgrade when either (a) the get a new computer or (b) some bit of hardware or software only works with a newer version. The OS itself rarely offers anything all that compelling or better functioning then earlier versions since most people tend to use them as little more then application launchers and file browsers.


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## Jamesy (Mar 6, 2012)

dirtcastle said:


> Just curious... are people using XP for financial reasons or personal preference?


In some cases it can be the result of compatibility reasons. My main system is a corporate laptop running XP and I can't change it as some corporate software will cease to run, while my home systems have either Vista or Win7. As I said, I do not have the option of upgrading my main laptop so I will stick with LR3 for now.


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## EYEONE (Mar 6, 2012)

Neeneko said:


> JonJT said:
> 
> 
> > Windows 8 might be out soon. Just saying.
> ...



People hardly ignored Windows 7. Windows 7 is the best version of Windows MS has released yet.


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## Kernuak (Mar 6, 2012)

Jamesy said:


> dirtcastle said:
> 
> 
> > Just curious... are people using XP for financial reasons or personal preference?
> ...


Many large corporations are very conservative and slow to change, even if there is no evidence of potential conflicts and incompatibilities. Sometimes it is to the extent of risking security issues.


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## TexPhoto (Mar 6, 2012)

At work, we upgraded to XP from Win 2K middle of last year.

At home, I use a Mac, and keep up with the adjustments. When I bought CS5 they offered Lightroom for an extra $100.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 6, 2012)

There are a lot of XP users out there, and some times, it is the only software that works. 

For example, Canon has XP drivers for firewire and the 1D MK II / 1DS MK II, etc. They have dropped this support for later software versions, so you cannot use the firewire port to set the personal camera settings, or to tether the cameras and use remote release. There are USB drivers, so you can connect and download images, but some features require the firewire connection. There are lots of peoplle who buy a used MK II only to discover that their nice new 64 bit windows 7 computer can't connect to the firewire port.


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## Jamesy (Mar 6, 2012)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> There are a lot of XP users out there, and some times, it is the only software that works.
> 
> For example, Canon has XP drivers for firewire and the 1D MK II / 1DS MK II, etc. They have dropped this support for later software versions, so you cannot use the firewire port to set the personal camera settings, or to tether the cameras and use remote release. There are USB drivers, so you can connect and download images, but some features require the firewire connection. There are lots of peoplle who buy a used MK II only to discover that their nice new 64 bit windows 7 computer can't connect to the firewire port.



I wonder if something like VMWare personal workstation version (I think this only runs on Win7), or whatever it is called, can get around this issue by launching a version of XP


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## dirtcastle (Mar 7, 2012)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> There are a lot of XP users out there, and some times, it is the only software that works.
> 
> For example, Canon has XP drivers for firewire and the 1D MK II / 1DS MK II, etc. They have dropped this support for later software versions, so you cannot use the firewire port to set the personal camera settings, or to tether the cameras and use remote release. There are USB drivers, so you can connect and download images, but some features require the firewire connection. There are lots of peoplle who buy a used MK II only to discover that their nice new 64 bit windows 7 computer can't connect to the firewire port.



For older, unsupported gear, it should be easy enough to get a used < $100 desktop that runs XP. This XP box would serve as an intermediary with a newer computer. Then you are freed up to do your post processing on a computer with a newer OS. 

If you freeze all your software to accommodate one dying link in the chain... eventually the chain will break.

I'm just trying to offer practical thoughts on this issue (which I've defintely gone through myself).

Almost always, software provides very affordable workarounds for issues like these. VMWare is a good example.


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## ippikiokami (Mar 7, 2012)

Emeyerphoto said:


> Does anyone know if it will maintain LR3 settings? I have images that were edited with LR3 and I don't want to lose those same settings. I don't want to import my library and then realize that the adjustments made to those images are totally fouled up.
> 
> Thank you for any responses in advance



Hey! So i just upgraded my catalog and here is what i've seen.
It keeps all your edit settings... In fact! It doesn't even enable the new sliders until you press an exclamation mark on the corner of the picture. I was about to pull my hair out trying to figure out where all these new adjustment sliders in the brush were until I just was looking around and saw the small exclamation mark. After you do that the new sliders pop up but the adjustments from I've seen stick


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## Invertalon (Mar 7, 2012)

I just installed LR4 and was able to import my LR3 and LR4 Beta Catalogs with no problem. Kept all my editing and such as well. 

On the plus side, it seems to work faster then the Beta... Thankfully... With the sliders and such.


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## Jamesy (Mar 7, 2012)

I have not done the jump myself but there is a thread on FM that mentions some issues with Tone Curves:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1092153/0#lastmessage

A PM was sent to me on another forum stating:
To paraphrase: it seems that LR4 does not import Tone curves properly when upgrading a LR3 catalog to LR4. Photos with Tone Curve adjustments will look different in LR4 even if you don't employ the "2012 process".

This is something you may want to be aware of when upgrading.


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## Isurus (Mar 7, 2012)

Jamesy said:


> I have not done the jump myself but there is a thread on FM that mentions some issues with Tone Curves:
> http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1092153/0#lastmessage
> 
> A PM was sent to me on another forum stating:
> ...



Thanks for that link. I suspected there may be some glitches with the import of LR3 catalogs since we couldn't actually test the functionality with the beta. I'm holding off on upgrading until they have that bug free.


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## Marsu42 (Mar 7, 2012)

Before you upgrade to LR4 final be aware that the auto tone algorithm changed from the beta and is complete crap! It doesn't just bring your pictures to a common base you can then work on and batch-apply to, but it somehow tries to use all PV2012 sliders and the results are just awful. 

Has anyone figured out how to get back to the good ol' autotone of LR3 and LR4 beta?


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