Lightroom upgrade

Now Lightroom 4 has been out a while, a question for those who have upgraded and got used to it.

Are the changes to the processing version (PV2012) alone worth upgrading for?

I am unlikely to need the new video stuff or book module etc, so before shelling out my £60 just want re-assurance that the changes to the development module are all they are cracked up to be...

I think the develop module has enough improvements to justify the upgrade.

As Lightroom is my primary image processing tool, I upgrade anyway, just to keep up to date.

I find that there are a few 'nice to have's' rather than a single 'must have', though I may use the book feature in the future as I like Blurb anyway, I also like the map tagging module. I won't use the Video module and have never really worked with the Slideshow module either ...

I still run LR3.6 on my laptop as that's Windows XP and don't really think about the different versions when switching between the two but I do find LR4 is just a little smoother to work with (no 'sticky' sliders, the 'Auto' process seems a little better, etc).

Yes definitely worth upgrading for the PV2012 in the develop module alone.

The Geo-Tagging module is excellent.

V4.0 has a bug however in which the develop module is severely slowed down when the second monitor view is used, and V4.1RC introduced an unusable behaviour to try and help speed up processing in which the picture is blurred while you update a parameter.

For the minute I'm sticking to V4.0 and editing in single monitor mode

I found it quite difficult to get used to the new develop module. It is not just an evolution, more of a re-think! It is better, but you need to look at one or two of the various tutorials emerging on the web to understand how to use it to its best advantage. Michael Frye has just issued a vid on his blog (which I've not yet viewed, but normally like his stuff) or this thread is excellent, but the length of it should give some clue as to the complexity that awaits -
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/968940?tstart=0
It relates to the beta but the advice holds good for the official release.

Cheers

Paul

The only real rethink is the demise of the fill light parameter.

The fill light was an easy fix and lovable, but it caused haloing. Having to get similar with shadows and highlights isn't so immediate but it does give better results.

What is fantastic is the RGB separate tone curves. Brilliant when scanning negatives which are 25 years old and the dyes have deteriorated non linearly.

Many thanks for the useful comments, folks. Pretty clear message !

It is not just an evolution, more of a re-think! It is better, but you need to look at one or two of the various tutorials emerging on the web to understand how to use it to its best advantage.

Its gonna be a learning curve