Adobe Lightroom 4 is out, with a new price tag


Today Adobe just officially released Lightroom 4 and some changes have been made since the public beta version.


The full version costs $149.00,

Upgrade $79,

Student and Teacher Edition $79.



Downloads available at adobe.com.


Changes since the public beta:
  • Reverse geocoding now available in the Map Module
  • Revamped and improved auto tone in Develop based on new controls
  • Increased range of local white balance controls (temperature and tint)
  • Updated Develop presets plus added new presets for video
  • Maximum Blurb book size is now 240 pages
  • Over 800 bugs found and fixed! (Thank you Lightroom 4 beta customers!)
Important Release Notes
  • We found a late bug in the Lightroom 4 book module that would cause text errors if Courier New or Times is the selected font.  Please preview your books as a PDF before submitting to blurb when using those fonts
  • Norton Antivirus 2012 incorrectly flags video related program files in Lightroom 4 as possible threats. Please instruct Norton Antivirus 2012 to exclude Lightroom 4 files from its scan.
  • McAfee Virus Scan prevents emails from being sent from Lightroom 4. Please instruct McAfee Virus Scan to exclude Lightroom 4 files from its scan.
  • AVCHD support is limited to MTS and M2TS video files. Dedicated video editors (such as Premiere Pro) may need the AVCHD file structure to process the files.
  • Lightroom can sometimes crash when printing to PDF in Windows 7. Lowering the resolution of the PDF in the print driver can help mitigate this.
New Camera Support in Lightroom 4.0
  • Canon EOS 1D X
  • Canon PowerShot G1 X
  • Canon PowerShot S100V
  • Fuji FinePix F505EXR
  • Fuji FinePix F605EXR
  • Fuji FinePix HS30EXR
  • Fuji FinePix HS33EXR
  • Fuji FinePix X-S1
  • Nikon D4
  • Nikon D800
  • Nikon D800E
New Lens Profiles Supported in Lightroom 4.0

Lens MountLens Name
CanonTokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
CanonTokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX II 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
CanonTokina AT-X 165 PRO DX 16-50mm f/2.8 (IF) ASPHERICAL
CanonTokina AT-X 535 PRO DX  50-135mm f/2.8 (IF)
CanonTokina AT-X M35 PRO DX 35mm f/2.8 Macro
CanonTokina AT-X M100 AF PRO D 100mm f/2.8 Macro
CanonTokina AT-X 116 PRO DX 11-16mm f/2.8
NikonTokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
NikonTokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX II 12-24mm f/4 (IF)
NikonTokina AT-X 165 PRO DX 16-50mm f/2.8 (IF) ASPHERICAL
NikonTokina AT-X 535 PRO DX  50-135mm f/2.8 (IF)
NikonTokina AT-X M35 PRO DX 35mm f/2.8 Macro
NikonTokina AT-X M100 AF PRO D 100mm f/2.8 Macro
NikonTokina AT-X 116 PRO DX 11-16mm f/2.8
NikonNikon AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G
NikonSigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 II DC OS HSM
LeicaLEICA APO-SUMMICRON-M 75 mm f/2 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA APO-SUMMICRON-M 90 mm f/2 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA APO-TELYT-M 135 mm f/3.4 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA ELMAR-M 24 mm f/3.8 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA ELMARIT-M 28 mm f/2.8 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA ELMARIT-M 90 mm f/2.8
LeicaLEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90 mm f/4
LeicaLEICA NOCTILUX-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA SUMMARIT-M 35 mm f/2.5
LeicaLEICA SUMMARIT-M 50 mm f/2.5
LeicaLEICA SUMMARIT-M 75 mm f/2.5
LeicaLEICA SUMMARIT-M 90 mm f/2.5
LeicaLEICA SUMMICRON-M 28 mm f/2 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA SUMMICRON-M 35 mm f/2 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA SUMMICRON-M 50 mm f/2
LeicaLEICA SUMMILUX-M 21 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA SUMMILUX-M 24 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA SUMMILUX-M 35 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA SUMMILUX-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 18 mm f/3.8 ASPH.
LeicaLEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21 mm f/3.4 ASPH.
PentaxSigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC HSM
PentaxSigma 50-200mm F4-5.6 DC HSM
SonyTokina AT-X 116 PRO DX 11-16mm f/2.8
SonyTamron 18-200mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III VC B011
SonySigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC HSM
SonySigma 50-200mm F4-5.6 DC HSM
SigmaSigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 II DC OS HSM

Press release:
Innovative Shadow and Highlight Recovery and Enhanced Digital Photography Workflows Mark A Milestone Release
SAN JOSE, Calif. — March 6, 2012 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 4 software for Mac OS and Windows. Lightroom is the essential digital photography workflow solution helping amateur and professional photographers quickly import, manage, enhance and showcase their images.
First released as a public beta in January 2012, the final version of Lightroom 4 is now available for US$149 for the full version and US$79 for the upgrade, providing an incredible value for photographers. Lightroom 4 introduces refined technology for superior shadow and highlight processing, ability to create photo books, additional local adjustment controls, and enhanced video support.
“Feedback from our customers is invaluable in developing Lightroom and the real trick to a great release is to combine these insights with Adobe’s unrivalled image processing innovation,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “Lightroom 4 is a stunning new release that will enhance photography workflows and help photographs stand out from the crowd.”
New Features in Lightroom 4
Lightroom 4 is a major release, adding significant new capabilities and innovations. New adjustment controls maximize dynamic range from cameras, recovering exceptional shadow details and highlights. The software features new and improved auto adjustments to dynamically set values for exposure and contrast, and additional local adjustment controls including Noise Reduction, Moire and White Balance.
Lightroom 4 provides photographers the tools to create beautiful photo books with text controls and a variety of easy-to-use templates, as well as a direct link for photo book creation from within the new Book module. A new intuitive Map module displays images already assigned a location, provides location tagging and reverse geo-tagging controls and saved locations for easy assignment of a photographer’s common locations.
Now, native video support gives photographers the capability to play, trim and extract frames from video clips shot on DSLRs, point-and-shoot cameras and smartphones. Video-specific presets and many standard Lightroom image adjustment controls can be applied to video clips, and adjusted videos can be exported as a H.264 file or published directly to Facebook or Flickr*.
In the Develop module, presets fully utilize new processing technology and the addition of soft proofing helps photographers tune images in a destination color space to ensure content looks its best. In addition, customers can now email images directly from Lightroom using an email account of their choice.

Canon EOS 5D MarkII Firmware update 2.1.2


Canon just released a minor update to their EOS 5D MarkII. Althought nothing special has been identified it's always a good thing to have the latest update for compatibility issues with new fast CF cards already on the market.

You can download it from here (9.73Mb with English instructions).
 
Details

Changes:
Firmware Version 2.1.2 incorporates the following change.
1. Optimizes the camera’s performance when using certain UDMA 7-compatible CF cards released in February 2012 or later.

The Version 2.1.2 firmware being released this time is for cameras with firmware up to Version 2.1.1. If the camera's firmware is already Version 2.1.2, it is not necessary to update the firmware.

Q&A Section:
Preparations for the Firmware Update:

ALWAYS HAVE A COMPLETELY CHARGE BATTERY BEFORE BEGIN THE UPDATE.

After the downloaded compressed file (.zip) is extracted, a firmware folder is created.
*Extracting the downloaded file:
Right-click the zip file, and then select Extract All to extract the file. The extracted folder contains the firmware (file name: 5D200212.FIR, file size: 9,754,668 bytes) and instructions on the firmware update procedures (a PDF file in English).

Before starting the firmware update operations, please confirm the contents of the download, and carefully read through the firmware update procedures.

Q: What are some changes of Firmware Version 2.1.2?
A: The following change has been incorporated.
1. Optimizes the camera’s performance when using certain UDMA 7-compatible CF cards released in February 2012 or later.

Q: Are the previous versions of firmware included in version 2.1.2?
A: Yes, the following improvements from the previous versions are included:.

(Previous) Version 2.1.1 improvements:
1. Fixes a phenomenon where shooting stops after capturing one image when in continuous shooting or the Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) continuous shooting setting.
2. Corrects wording in the Dutch language menu screen.

(Previous) Version 2.0.9 improvements:
1. Improves writing/reading speeds when using UDMA 7-compatible CF cards.
2. Fixes a phenomenon where the IS function will not work when custom function C.Fn III-2 is set to [5: IS start] and the lens attached does not have an AF stop button. This is because custom function C.Fn III-2 allows users to assign IS start to the AF stop button on the lens.
3. Corrects misspellings in the menu screens displayed in Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai languages.

(Previous) Version 2.0.8 improvements:
1. Fixes a phenomenon *1) in which movies are not taken at the shooting mode registered in the user's settings if a shooting mode Aperture priority (or Shutter priority) is registered in any of the camera's user settings (C1, C2, C3) and the user attempts to shoot a movie.
*1) This phenomenon occurs with cameras that have the Version 2.0.3 / 2.0.4 / 2.0.7 firmware.
2. Fixes a phenomenon in which the shutter will not release when pressing the shutter button when the auto power off function is set to "on". It occurs due to the communication between the camera and the lens or the flash or due to the CF card.
3. Fixes a phenomenon *2) in which overexposure occurs when shooting a Live View shooting simulation with the ISO speed set to L.
*2) This phenomenon only occurs when the EF 2x extender is used, the camera's ISO speed is set to L (Low), and the shooting mode is set to P (Program AE).
4. Fixes a phenomenon in which the settings of the Speedlite transmitter ST-E2 revert to the default settings when both the camera and the ST-E2 are set to auto power off.
5. Fixes a phenomenon in which the Macro Ring Lite (MR-14EX, MT-24EX) and slave flash do not sync while shooting wirelessly.

(Previous) Version 2.0.7 improvements:
1. Fixes a phenomenon in which the aperture exhibits abnormal movement when shooting movies in manual exposure mode and Aperture Priority AE (Av mode) using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses).
Supplemental Information:
This phenomenon involves the aperture of the lens exhibiting abnormal movement when the focusing ring moves (during focusing). For zoom lenses with variable maximum apertures, the aperture changes when the zoom ring is operated (during zooming), but this is normal
behavior, where the effective aperture changes according to the focal length (the zoom position).
2. Fixes a phenomenon in which the exposure level shown in the LCD panel differs from what is shown in the viewfinder when shooting still images in manual exposure mode.
3. Fixes a phenomenon in which the Wireless File Transmitter (WFT-E4 or WFT-E4 II) may not automatically power off when used for FTP transfers.

(Previous) Version 2.0.4 improvements:
Firmware Version 2.0.4 incorporates five enhancements to the movie function and a fix to the manual sensor cleaning function of the EOS 5D Mark II camera.
1. Adds or changes the following movie frame rates.
- NTSC frame rate (fps)
. Firmware Version 2.0.4 or later
. . . Recording size / Listed / Actual
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 30 / 29.97
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 24 / 23.976
. . . 640 X 480 / 30 / 29.97
. Firmware Version 1.2.4 or earlier
. . . Recording size / Listed / Actual
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 30 / 30.00
. . . 1920 X 1080 / - / -
. . . 640 X 480 / 30 / 30.00
- PAL frame rate (fps)
. Firmware Version 2.0.4 or later
. . . Recording size / Listed / Actual
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 25 / 25.00
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 24 / 23.976
. . . 640 X 480 / 25 / 25.00
. Firmware Version 1.2.4 or earlier
. . . Recording size / Listed / Actual
. . . 1920 X 1080 / 30 / 30.00
. . . 1920 X 1080 / - / -
. . . 640 X 480 / 30 / 30.00
2. Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels).
3. Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure.
4. Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies.
5. Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.
6. Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.)

(Previous) Version 1.2.4 improvements:
1. Supports the WFT-E4 II wireless file transmitter that was released in December 2009.
After the firmware is updated, if the WFT-E4 or WFT-E4 II wireless file transmitter is used with the camera, the indications that appear under [Communication mode] on the [WFT settings] menu are changed as follows:
FTP -> FTP trans
PTP(PC) -> EOSUtility
HTTP -> WFTserver
HTTP account -> WFT account
2. Corrects a phenomenon in which visible noise may appear in images taken by continuous Bulb shooting.
This firmware update corrects a phenomenon that if the [C.Fn II-1 Long exposure noise reduction] setting is set to [2: On], noise may appear in images that are captured while the previous image is still being generated.

(Previous) Version 1.1.0 improvements:
1. Includes a function to enable the manual exposure setting when shooting movies.
*When shooting movies in manual (M) mode, the shutter speed *1, the lens aperture value *2, and the ISO speed *3 can be freely set to allow a greater flexibility.
Notes:
*1 Shutter speed range: 1/30 sec. to 1/4000 sec.
*2 Lens aperture range: maximum to minimum aperture value of the lens used
*3 ISO speed range:
Auto: ISO 100 to 6400 set automatically
Manual: ISO 100 to 6400, H1
2. Disables the function of the depth-of-field preview button when images are played back or when the menu screen is displayed on the LCD panel.
*There are indications that images being reviewed or the menu screen may suddenly disappear from the LCD panel. As this phenomenon may be caused by accidentally pressing the depth-of-field preview button, this firmware update disables the function of the depth of field preview to address this issue.
3. Fixes a phenomenon where the peripheral illumination of images cannot be properly corrected, even if the images were captured with the lens Peripheral Illumination Correction function set to Enable.
*Firmware Version 1.1.0 fixes a phenomenon where peripheral illumination may not be properly corrected due the type of lens used and shooting conditions.
4. Fixes the algorithms of the Auto Lighting Optimizer function when Custom Function C.Fn II-3 Highlight tone priority is enabled.
5. Fixes incorrect indications on the Arabic, Romanian, Spanish, and Ukrainian menu screens.
6. Changes the battery information displayed on the camera when using the optional Battery Grip BG-E6.
*If only one LP-E6 battery pack is installed in the Battery Grip BG-E6, the battery information for the empty battery slot shows the error message, Cannot communicate with battery. However, with this firmware update, this error message no longer appears, even if only one LP-E6 battery pack is installed.

(Previous) Version 1.0.7 improvements:
1. "Black dot" phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black)
When shooting night scenes, the right side of point light sources (such as lights from building windows) may become black. The phenomenon may become visible if the images are enlarged to 100% or greater on a monitor or if extremely large prints of the images are made.
This firmware improves and mitigates this phenomenon.
2. Vertical banding noise
If the recording format is set to sRAW1, vertical banding noise may become visible depending on the camera settings, subject, and background. The firmware improves and mitigates this phenomenon

Notes:
When updating to Firmware Version 1.0.7, please also update the Digital Photo Professional and Picture Style Editor software *4 to the following versions or later. These software updates can be downloaded from our Web site.

*4 Digital Photo Professional: Version 3.5.2 or later (for Windows and Macintosh)
Picture Style Editor: Version 1.4.2 or later (for Windows and Macintosh)
If the existing software applications are used to display sRAW1 and sRAW2 images that were captured by a camera with Firmware Version 1.0.7, dark, low-contrast areas in the images may appear slightly magenta. If the updated software applications are used to display sRAW1 and sRAW2 images, the color of the images will appear normal, regardless of the camera firmware version.

What ISO means ?

Just would like to share with you all this great explanatory YouTube video of what ISO means, as per request by some of the readers.

Enjoy

A Simple Explanation of ISO for Digital Photography and Video