Adobe tests Lightroom 2.1 with new SLR support
Nikon's new D90 SLR
(Credit: Nikon USA)Adobe Systems has put out a Lightroom 2.1 release candidate that stamps out a number of bugs, improves performance in some cases, and adds support for several newer Nikon cameras.
As with the test version of the Camera Raw 4.6 and DNG Converter software released last week, the new software supports raw images from Nikon's midrange D90 and higher-end D700 SLRs, its top-end Coolpix P6000 compact camera, and Fujifilm's Finepix IS Pro camera, according to the Lightroom 2.1 release notes. (Updated 9:35 a.m. PDT Sept. 22 with the correct Nikon camera model number.)
The new version also improves rendering performance on 64-bit Intel-based Macs, handles some previously unworking raw images from Olympus cameras, fixes some rotation problems with Nikon raw images, gets rid of some memory leaks, takes care of some problems when transferring files to Photoshop, and fixes some metadata problems when importing libraries from Lightroom 1.4. Alas, if you've already upgraded your library from Lightroom 1.4 to 2.0, you'll have to run an Adobe-supplied script to enable proper inclusion of keywords when exporting photos. (So that's why some Flickr photos were missing keywords!)
For further details, check the the blog posting from Adobe's Tom Hogarty or the Lightroom 2.1 release candidate download site.
And while you're at it, I highly recommend the Lightroom camera profiles software, also in testing, which in my opinion greatly improves photos' overall colors.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
