Adobe updated Lightroom to beta 4 a week back. I’ve been playing with it a bit so far, and they have definitely made some improvements.
Since purchasing Pixmantec (and RawShooter code), Adobe has some new features in the develop module, like Recover and Fill Light. Recover is a highlight recovery tool, and Fill Light lets you lighten dark shadows. Both seem to be nice additions. Photoshop news has a great overview of the Lightroom develop module. Existing Adobe Camera Raw develop settings are still incompatible with Lightroom, though that’s supposed to be fixed “soon”.
In addition to sprucing up the UI, Adobe seems to have added more options for import and export, and continued support XMP files. However I’d still like to see the program making as many file changes as possible, in addition to internal database changes. Photoshop news also has a good overview of the Lightroom library module.
If they can address my archival/multiple machine fears, and fix Camera RAW compatibility, I can definitely see my workflow changing to Lightroom.
Update: RawWorkflow.com has some great Lightroom tutorial videos up for free here. I’m really starting to dig the way Adobe has broken contrast out by the four sections – Highlights, Lights, Darks, and Shadows. Being able to manipulate all of these on the image, histogram, or curve is really cool.