Adobe released the Lightroom 4 Beta earlier today and this video is a quick first look at the major changes in the program that relate to still photos. I used a fairly broad brush to cover the changes and will go more into detail as the Beta test progresses.
Unfortunately, not a single one of my main upgrade requests is included in version 4 of the program. Regardless, there are some interesting and useful new features and functions.
I think the new Book module will be very useful to many users. Adobe partnered with Blurb and it is now very simple to layout a photo book design. For those that do not use or have not used Blurb you can also export the book to PDF.
There is also a Map module for use with geo locating or geo tagging your images. It's pretty cool.
Inside the Develop Module, the Basic tab changed (more detail in the video), there are more options for local adjustments, and CA removal has been simplified (although I have not found it to work all that well.) Soft proofing was also added to the Develop Module for use in prepping an output file.
There are some very large changes to video handling and optimization. I did not have the time in this quick look to go through them. But if you do video, you will like them.
I will discuss more regarding the Beta soon.
Fiat Lux!