The new Lightroom beta 3 has some significant new functionality but I don’t think it warrants a new 3.0 version. It seems to be more of an upgrade to the already very capable Lightroom 2.5.

Here what I like …

Sharpening effect now shown at all magnifications

At last you can see the effect of sharpening at magnifications other than 1:1.

Photoshop has been able to do this for a long time and I never really understood why Adobe hid the sharpening in Lightroom. Other than they want us to be aware that the sharpening effect we see on the screen is not a true representation.  This is fine but I like to have a visual clue which at least shows me that I have overcooked my sharpening.

All new import dialog

The new import tool has a lot going for it. One feature I will use a lot is the ability to view images from Subfolders. This is not rocket science from an image browser viewpoint but it is great to have this capability inside of Lightroom.

Adobe have moved many of the the actions which where buried in menus onto the dialog box and which are now accessible via a single click. The whole import interface feels slicker and is much easier to use.

Export Video from Slideshows

You can now save your slideshows as a video directly from within Lightroom. This is very useful as before a third party tool such was needed.

Lightroom video export supports a good variety of standards from 240 to 1080P HD.

So overall a good update to come but I am not sure it is worth paying for a full 3.0 version. Hopefully there will be more new functionality – such as book ordering – by the time the full release is available.