Adobe releases debugged Lightroom 1.4.1

Even as it released Lightroom 1.4.1, Adobe also is working on a more significant upgrade to its raw-image editing software. The most interesting new capability in a Lightroom 2 beta is localized corrections. This image from an Adobe demonstration shows the control for a brush that can adjust saturation, brightness, exposure, and clarity of the area of the photo you 'paint.'

(Credit: Adobe Systems)

Correction, 5:30 p.m. PDT: This blog initially misstated the day Adobe released Photoshop Lightroom 1.4.1. It is Thursday.

After a debugging session to fix problems with the flawed 1.4.0, Adobe Systems on Thursday released Photoshop Lightroom 1.4.1.

Raw images from higher-end digital cameras have more flexibility and quality than JPEGs, but also require processing in a computer to convert to more useful formats. Lightroom handles that task, along with cataloging and other chores. Adobe also released the corresponding version 4.4.1 of Adobe Camera Raw, the raw-image converter plug-in for regular Photoshop.

Adobe had to recall Lightroom 1.4.0 and Adobe Camera Raw 4.4.0 because of problems the software caused with photo timestamps. It also could render JPEGs wrong from Olympus cameras and, on Windows, cause files stored in Adobe Systems' Digital Negative (DNG) format to become unreadable. And according to product manager Tom Hogarty, it was slower at importing photos than 1.3.

Compared to 1.3 and 4.3, the new versions add support for several new cameras, including Canon's Rebel XSi (aka 450D or Kiss X2), Nikon's D60, Pentax's K20D and K200D, and Sony's A200, A300, and A350. The Lightroom update also adds compatibility with older printer drivers on Mac OS X 10.5 and lets users adjust color noise even when an image is converted to black and white.

The software can be downloaded for Mac OS X and Windows machines.