Adobe's first major RAW-oriented photography workflow app is set to hit the shelves on February 19 for $299 and is already available for pre-ordering. A free trial will be available on that day along with an introductory price of $199 until April 30. The Windows and Universal Mac versions of Lightroom are coming simultaneously, with the recommended system requirements being either a Mac with Mac OS X 10.4.3, 1GHz PowerPC G4 processor or a Windows machine with Windows XP SP2, an Intel Pentium 4 processor, 768MB RAM and a 1024 x 768 resolution display. While Lightroom will run fine on Vista, users will need to wait for a free update for full disc-burning support to work.
The public beta version will not expire until February 28 and existing libraries will be updated for use by the 1.0 app. The final version includes full cross-compatibility with Photoshop Camera RAW 3.7, which will be a downloadable upgrade released at the same time. This will add support for Lightroom's advanced edits as well as RAW support for the Nikon D40, Nikon D80, Canon EOS 400D Rebel XTi, EOS Kiss Digital X and the Pentax K10D.
Changes from the last public beta version of Lightroom also include:
- Snapshots and multiple settings for same RAW file
- Improvements to Develop, Slideshow, Printing and Web output
- New Key Metadata Browser for quick tagging and rating
- Beefed-up labeling and rating
- Curves show more range information for selected areas
- More connection between actual disk structure and what you see within the application
- Clone and heal nondestructively
News source: Ars Technica
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