Tom,
I believe LR v1’s ReadMe suggests converting pre-beta4 databases to beta4 then converting them to v1.
In my LR DAM testing, I was cavalier about moving the LR databases and files to which they point. A database can corrupt, so be careful. You can test an LR database’s integrity in Lightroom before opening it. The backup database by LR and my manual backup did not help, but fortunately I had exported all my LR adjustments to xmp before closing the program when I last worked on the images. I imported the ‘proprietary RAW + xmp’ folder into a new LR database and recovered my LR adjustments. PK is right, turning off ‘automatically write to xmp speeds’ up LR, but make sure you export to xmp when you are done. I use iView to distill the number of images that LR looks at to speed up the ‘cache’ even more by transferring the choice ones to a RAW selects folder for each photo shoot. Thanks, John B. for the link. Tom, the forum’s search engine is powerful for threads and even users’ post.
I have been reading Martin Evening’s
Lightroom book and he mentions PK’s
the DAM book at least twice, especially when it comes to making backups. ME’s book is worth it just for the keyboard shortcuts and quick tips alone. The keyboard shortcuts do not seem to be in the docs included with LR. The keyboard short cuts really make the adjustments of RAW, TIFF and JPEGs files fly.
A lot of the anecdotes in the book also appear in the Adobe podcasts. From their podcast point of view, Adobe delivered the goods in v1. Having said that, when it comes to DAM functionality, Evening admits LR does not have a full-featured DAM like iView. The DAM Forum gives insight on the pros and cons of LR vs iView. It seems LR was made for photographers like you so I hope it suits your needs for the time being. I make round trips from iview to LR and back a couple times in my typical workflow so I can use the strengths of each. I describe the gist of it in 'the LR to replace Bridge?' thread:
http://thedambook.com/smf/index.php?topic=1412.0#msg10089Best of luck in your decision-making. DAM applications are a moving target as software companies leapfrog each other. I waiteed for Capture NX, and passed on it, then compared CS2 to LR, passed on CS2. I needed RAW-conversion speed with decent DAM integration and rmage quality so I pre-ordered LR, and am very happy with my workflow now.
Mannix
Author
