So I’m at the Adobe Store ready to buy Lightroom. Well, I’m not actually going to buy it yet, since I still need permission from She Who Must Be Obeyed which will hopefully happen soon because I’ve only got one day left in the trial… Anyway, I’m reckoning that I don’t have the patience to wait for the box to be delivered, so I’ll go with the download option instead. I click the drop-down to select ‘download’ (not that I need to actually download it — It’s already there and installed!). The price changes. It increases by £4.37! What’s with that? Is it more expensive for them to deliver content that they’ve already delivered online rather then provide printed manuals and boxes?

Interestingly, the price isn’t different in the US store.

Oh, and don’t get me started about the fact that Lightroom costs £150 in the UK, ordered from the same web site for online delivery yet it’s $199 (which is currently £101.38!) for US folks. I’m in the process of seeing if I can order from the US store… Update Which I can’t, because it requires a credit card address in the United States!

Ooh, shiny! Canon yesterday announced the release of the Canon EOS-1D Mark III. Interestingly, it doesn’t have the 16.7 megapixel full frame sensor of the 1Ds Mk II, but a 10.1 megapixel APS-H one which gives you a 1.3x conversion factor. I guess that’s how they’ve brought the price down (just looking at Jessops, the 1Ds Mk II retails at about £4,500 where the Mk III is on pre-order at £3,000). However, it does record 14 bits per pixel, rather than the usual 12, so the tonal range is vastly better. It has the neat sensor cleaning system that first appeared in the 400D. I particularly like that it’s got a nice big buffer for continuous shooting, letting you shoot 10fps for 30 raw frames (or 110 jpegs).

First thoughts? I want to nab a second hand 1Ds Mk II from somebody who’s upgrading. Other than that, I think I’d rather have a 5D. I (probably irrationally or ignorantly) like the idea of a full-frame sensor.

So Adobe Lightroom has been released. (What’s with sticking ‘Photoshop’ in the middle there? I do dimly recall you developed that product too Adobe, and if you’ll only get a move on and produce a native Intel build — CS3 — you’ll get more cash out of me for that too!) I’ve been broadly aware of its development, being an avid reader of James Duncan Davidson’s blogs.

To be honest, I’ve been avoiding looking at Lightroom. I have a lot invested in Aperture: I bought it at full price the day it came out and never quite got around to claiming the rebate when 1.1 was released; I’ve spent a lot of time using it; and I’ve got 15,000+ images sitting in its library. But James’ post this morning — Lightroom: Select Photos by Lens — intrigued me. I tried to select photos based upon which lens I’d used in Aperture a few months back, and given the information available to me, felt I had to guess based upon the focal length & aperture, at which point I started applying keywords to determine the lens. I was sure that this information was stored in EXIF but I couldn’t see it in Aperture’s UI. Perhaps I just missed it, but anyway… It just works in Lightroom. I can browse by lens, camera (ie is it my or Annabel’s camera that took this shot?) and a host of other different things.

It makes sensible use of the IPTC location metadata! If I specify a location for my photographs, it creates a hierarchy in the metadata browser for locations. Fan dabby dozey! I’ve been, again, manually emulating that with keywords in Aperture because I didn’t feel the IPTC support was actually doing much of any use.

And that’s not all. Again, it’s totally subjective, but when looking at the detail of my photographs (I’ve only checked a couple) in 1:1 in develop mode, they look sharper, more clear, better pictures! I’ll have to sit with the two side by side this evening to do a proper test, but that’s my first impression.

Oh, and it feels faster too. Again, totally subjective and probably all in my imagination because I’ve only had one cup of coffee this morning.

All this boils down to? I’m not going to dismiss it out of hand, just because I’ve invested time and money in Aperture. I’m going to give it a proper shot.