How are people who have upgraded to LR4 from LR3 finding it. Is the upgrade worth it? Its good to see the upgrade isn't to expensive but is it a lot better than LR3??

I love the new develop sliders and the map module. The new develop sliders take some getting used to, but after you get used to it, you won't want to go back. For the relatively low cost it is worth it for me. Although I haven't had any problems, some have reported some slowness and other bugs with LR4. If you haven't already upgraded, you may want to wait until 4.1 is released which should be soon (a release candidate version is already available).

Seems okay. The sliders are different and although I haven't tried a comparison the images are similar. I saw a comparison done in a workshop a month or so ago and there was an obvious improvement for highlights. I also haven't used all the modules etc. I'm not sure the book module is much use in the Antipodes. If I process in LR4 and wish to take it into PS I need a rendered file. This is true even though I am running CS6 Beta with CRW7.

In recent years I have done little processing in CRW or LR, just the conversion as most of my processing is in PS, so perhaps I am not the best judge re upgrade. Also as per Adobe's equitable pricing ethos I got to pay AUD98 for my upgrade even though US79 is = to AUD76. Its just a download so I see not reason for the gouging on price.

There is another thread that already discusses the issues that people are finding with LR4

Adobe released an updated version as a temp fix to some of the problems and also added Canon 5d3 support: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4-1/?tabID=details#tabTop
mike

I think I will hang on to LR3 for a few more months yet.

I love LR4. The Shadow/Highlight sliders alone make it worth it for me, and the 2012 color profile recovers highlight detail from the RAW files better than older color profiles. The upgrade cost is fairly minimal. I'm not disappointed (and I just bough LR3 not more than 4 months before LR4 came out).

The fact that video files can now be catalogued, reviewed and even modified (if need be) makes the upgrade worth the money for that feature alone, if that area interests you. Everything else is an added bonus

The selective noise reduction alone makes it worth it to me. The reworked/expanded Develop module sliders are great too.

Cheers,
Greg

Thanks everyone its good to hear positive feedback often people only put up posts when they are dissatisfied with a new product.

I paid for it. I was interested that they had added WB adjustment brush / gradient, so had a play in the trial. I did find it a little non-intuitive, WB adjustment should be: as shot / daylight / cloudy / or whatever shouldn't it? Anyway, I played and liked the results enough to put my hand in my pocket.
I initially copied some files over from LR3 to test, and I was very pleasantly pleased with the auto button in develop. I know that is not the way a lot of people work in post production, but I can't resist trying things out. Comparing virtual copies between the 2010 and 2012 process (so I didn't mess up my earlier LR work) with the auto selection amazed me on most shots, and particularly on some shots from the previous process (pick a year as I can't remember).
BUT, I can't say I have spent a lot of time on LR4 so far, and I am not a big post process person.
There is a post on my blog regarding LR4 WB adjustment here, it might be of some help to anyone trying it out.
Cheers
Marshall

It is refreshing to hear success stories for a product that is working out ok. I’m still going to wait until 4.1 is released though.

Shadow areas could well tend to show bluish in a photo that has predominantly warm lighting ? Personally I'd tend to take that into photoshop so that I could use layer masks to control the adjustment though

Colin, actually it works quite well in Lightroom 4 if you use a gradient, or to be more precise, using the selective brush with "auto mask" selected. Not to say that it's better than doing it in Photoshop but it certainly works just fine.

Cheers,
Greg

Colin/Greg, the image I tried it out on was shaded ice and a birch leaf. The sky was reflected in the ice leaving a cool blue look that didn't help the leaf at all. I found the fix in LR using the adjustment brush was pretty easy although being able to set a cloudy WB for the brush would have been nicer. I expect I could have got the same or better result using layers on a daylight and cloudy pair of images in PS (Elements in my case), but I prefer to do as little PP as needed.
As an update to my mentioning the auto in the earlier post, I have had another look and must add this can also behave very badly, particularly in images with a lighter overall tone, or even with very light strips (nearly blown). So, as with any auto settings, take care with this. Maybe use it to see what LR4 can do, then back off or reset totally and DIY?
Cheers
Marshall

Thanks, Marshall. I checked out your blog post -- very nice. And of course the image turned out very nicely as well.

Cheers,
Greg