We already had good reviews of a pre-release version of Lightroom Classic version 7.2 earlier this month, but today, it's finally out. As other software companies such as Apple have announced a slowdown of software feature developments and a concentration on bug fixes and performance improvements, so, too, has Adobe promised a renewed focus on Lightroom performance across all platforms. And this is just the beginning.
Lightroom Classic, CC, and CC for iOS and Android now all feature improved performance. Lightroom Classic now uses multi-core systems more efficiently than ever before. Systems with 12 GB RAM or more will also see further improved performance in high-demand CPU tasks such as import, grid loading, preview generation, application of Develop module, walking through images in Loupe view, HDR and panoramic merge functions, and image export. The performance improvements aren't small, either. Powerful desktop systems should see improvements well over 50 percent, while most systems will see at least 10-20-percent speed improvements.
Windows users in particular should see even further improvements, as Adobe has solved a problem that caused the program to slow down over longer sessions of editing within the same catalog (i.e., after having the application open for some time). This issue is also fixed for macOS, but was more severe with Windows machines before this fix.
Additionally, there are a handful of smaller, related feature updates that allow favoriting and searching by folders and easier Collection Set building that maintains (or mimics) original folder hierarchies.
Many of these same stability and performance improvements made it into Lightroom CC for desktop. Overall, users should notice a more stable experience as well as the ability to add copyright information to imported images.
Lightroom CC for Android and iOS are also getting some improvements. Guided Upright, Auto Upright, and other manual distortion tools are coming first to Android in a new Geometry tab that will come "soon" to iOS. Also, the ability to add and manipulate text-based watermarks to images on export that has been available on iOS for some time is also coming to Android. Finally, Android also gets some neat Adobe Sensei attention with a feature that allows image searches through Google Assistant. You can now say, “'Search mountains in Lightroom,' to launch Lightroom and find matching photos" on any device running Android Marshmallow and later.
The best part: Adobe says this is just the beginning. Adobe sounded rather optimistic when explaining there is more to come.
Unless otherwise stated, these changes are immediately available in new updates. Let us know what you think, or head over and read our review of the performance improvements in Lightroom Classic.
I've been using the upgrade for a little while this morning and I've noticed something peculiar...even when I'm not actively editing etc all of the computers cores are activated and fluctuating wildly. Alternately it's registering all 16 threads as being actively in use....placebo?? as in Adobe figured out a way to fool us into thinking the new version is actually using multi-cores etc..when it's really not?
for reference:
8-Core L2013 Mac Pro with 64GB RAM and the dual D500 GPU's
If anyone wants to hear it form the horses mouth...lies and all: https://theblog.adobe.com/announcing-february-update-lightroom-classic/
Any chance you have "Generate Preview in parallel" in the Lr Preferences checked?
Yes...makes a difference?
Yes, of course. It explains the CPU usage you are seeing.
It continued after all previews were rendered upon import of about 100 frames....I haven't seen it to that extent since though.
Nah...my cores were all firing after previews were built and nothing else was being done on the computer. It kept up for a good hour then settled down.
Just installed and its noticeably faster, especially when selecting next photo in develop module
Significantly better! Still has a long way too go but finally they actually say something and come through. Keep it coming. Loading of folders and the images are slow still still but better. Focusing on the catalog image retrieval side will really make the work flow seamless. D-Mode is much better. No lag when using adjustment brushes and switching from overlay (O) and using the brush with overlay still on. Thank You!
Tooooo late. Implemented C1 in my workflow months ago and have never looked back
I really like C1 but I noticed (in my trial period) that images in the preview view don't look in focus or soft until you zoom in using the loupe or 100% zoom. Do you have this issue? It's really the only thing holding me back from going all in as it is just a pain to have to zoom in to see if my image is sharp.
Haven't noticed it. Maybe it's because I don't really know that much and didn't really _see_ it!
Just kidding. I'll take a look as soon as I get back home and will get back to you. Might have something to do with performance adjustments?
Remarkably improved. Didn't have much of an issue with my Canon files, but those huge 96mb files of my D850 are moving along very quickly with the upgrade.
I'm really sceptical, we got these promises so may times so far... But we'll see. Hope the best. :)
I just fired up Lightroom and it just reserved 14GB of my 16GB of RAM on startup, triggering a Windows prompt to choose to close the program. I only had 9 images in the library view. Restarted it and now it's only consuming 3GB.
Seems snappier until I click on an image and then see loading for up to 7 seconds before it looks hi res. Then another couple of seconds if I go full to check eye focus. Add all those seconds up and that's a nice waste of my time. But congrats on making whatever you did, faster, where ever that is. I guess my i7, 32gb of memory isn't powerful enough to handle a photo cataloging and light editing program. But I'm sure they will get it right in the CC version to push everyone to the cloud. No thanks. People like to trust a company wouldn't sabotage it's own software to get people to move where they want and then Apple admits it so I don't trust this stuff.
still a slug ?
sadly every version gets more bogged down then before
I run a post company and do a lot in LR for clients besides my own shooting but I have used C1 for my own work since it came out
you can get to the end in either program BUT C1 I always feel is better output and more control etc..
and of course tethering its no match
adobe get with it you have the muscle to do things but it seems you are counting the money more then advancing what we need ?
on my new 7820x with a 1TB NVMe 1080 gou etc.. I can watch the sliders redraw its that slow ! EVEN did a %100 fresh install of windows nothing on it and was dog slow in the develop module moving image to image which is where most of us need the speed !
output speed is nice but I can batch and walk away same as import I can start and do something else
but in develop module we need to sit and do the next image and you have done nothing for this part of the program !!!
who cares if your output is a touch faster if it takes you so long to move from image to image and wait for the menus and sliders and the bog of settings etc..
yeah that is the latest just downloaded and tried :) it might be quicker
grid loading preview generation etc.. again useless was already OK it suffers in other areas :) but each system seems to be dif ? also some are OK with a bit of lag some are not :) I am the later :)
YUP I just use LR for client files for my post company and my own work I use C1 :) but adobe in general needs to do some major updating on both LR and PS :)
sadly adobe is the bottleneck for some these days :) at least my raw side for me in C1 is insane fast instant and in PS ? I am ok as I can wait for a blur or other thing once in a while I am mostly moving my pen around on a tablet so speed in PS is not huge but filters should be instant these day with the computing power we have or at least way faster :)
Updated to 7.2 and now Lightroom is so slow that it is almost impossible for me to use it. Really disappointing, so now I need to find a solution, there is a slight improvement if I turn off gpu acceleration but it is still far speedwise from before the update.
time to check out Capture one :)
the only thing LR has on it is better DAM but that is it :) IMHO :)
I Actually downloaded the Capture one demo last week and the only reason I will use Lightroom now is because I shoot real estate and and use the Enfuse plugin which I really like. If someone knows something similar to use in Capture One I would really like to know!
"Windows users in particular should see even further improvements, as Adobe has solved a problem that caused the program to slow down over longer sessions of editing within the same catalog"
I had to stop using Lightroom to edit weddings in because it became such a heap of shit after 20 min of editing I'd constantly restart it and it was driving me nuts. Something about it caching the previous edited shots and it would just grind to a halt.