Reformatted, LR4 beta or LR3?

ZBlack · January 23, 2012

Since I am just a hobbyist, I don't have that many images, and not to worried about importing my catalogs at this point in time. I reformatted the other day, and was just curious what some of you would do in my situation.

I currently own LR3 and installed the beta for LR4 prior to my reformat. I do plan to upgrade to LR4 when it's available. Would you guys install both? or just stick with LR4 beta until it becomes available, assuming it comes out before or on the day the beta ends.

Anyone else plan to upgrade asap?

NealAddy · January 23, 2012

I'll upgrade but not right away. I prefer to wait for any bugs to be shaken out of new releases.

If you're already on LR4 (beta) and have no issues with it I see no reason to go back.

eoren1 · January 24, 2012

I would stick to both for now.
I tried LR4 on a few images and, while I liked it, I noticed some things that make me want to hold off for now.
Still not entirely sure it was an LR4 thing but, at 100% (while doing some cloning work), I saw some green and purple pixels that had no place being there. Did not see them in the LR3 processed photo. Once I saw that, I quit LR4 and decided to bide my time.

MarkR · January 24, 2012

If you are happy with LR3, I'd stick with it until LR4 is official. Adobe has in the past snuck in additional features to the final version, and if that's the case you'll want to go back through your images in LR4 final anyway.

Having said that, I think LR4 is going to be fantastic, very worth the upgrade price when it is available. Also, in contrary to my advice, I am running both. LR4 has crashed on me a few times.

W.W. Webster · January 24, 2012

I understood that catalogues created with the LR4 beta will not be able to be imported into the LR4 final release. The beta is only intended for limited testing purposes. As you are very likely to find that any post-processing you do in LR4 beta will be lost, continuing to use LR3 in the meantime is the only safe strategy.

ZBlack · January 24, 2012

Ahh, I must have been mistaken then. I was thinking that the catalogs would be importable. They did say the old ones from LR3 would be in the final version, but not the beta, and I *assumed* it would work for the LR4 ones. Sounds like I'll stick with both for now to get a better feel for the new stuff in LR4, but use LR3 for my main adjustments and ones to keep.

W.W. Webster · January 24, 2012

ZBlack wrote: »

Ahh ... I was thinking that the catalogs would be importable.

Well, they may be, but this is not assured, nor is the beta guaranteed not to contain bugs - as quoted here

Develop settings applied in Lightroom 4 beta are not guaranteed to transfer correctly to the final version of Lightroom 4

While data loss is not expected, this is an early ‘beta’ quality build and you should always work on duplicates of files that are securely backed up

arodney · January 25, 2012

It is a bit of work, you could run both. Now if you upgrade legacy images using process 2012 in LR4, that isn’t something LR3 could see or use. For simple cataloging, sure, you could run them in tandem (you’ll have two catalogs). Also be careful when using LR4, it will suck the LR3 previews into it’s folder to use meaning you’ll have to regenerate the LR3 previews if high quality. In the end, the best approach might be to stick with LR3 for mission critical work, play around with LR4 knowing that until it is released, you’ll have to wait to upgrade the entire older catalog.

Reformatted, LR4 beta or LR3?

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