I’m always excited when a new version of Lightroom is ready. The team at Adobe is on a roll lately with quick bug updates and new features. You gotta love when new versions come out so quickly.

There’s a new Lightroom on the horizon, version 5.3. It’s reached Release Candidate stage which means that the update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of Adobe’s customers. In other words, they think its ready to use… so if any of these bugs have plagued you, give it a try.

Bugs Corrected in Lightroom 5.3 Release Candidate

The following bugs have been fixed. This should make many users happy.

  • Issues when upgrading catalog from previous versions of Lightroom.
  • Incorrect photos are displayed after switching away from a Publish Collection.
  • Catalog optimization did not finish, and was not optimizing the catalog
  • Feather of clone spots is set to 0 after upgrading catalog to Lightroom 5.
  • Auto White Balance settings are not saved to Snapshots.
  • Sony 18-55mm lens is detected as the Hasselblad 18-55mm lens for lens correction.
  • Increased Update Spot Removal history steps when in Before and After view.
  • Slideshows start playing automatically even when the Manual Slideshow option is enabled.
  • Video playback stops when dragging on the scrubber.
  • Errors when publishing photos to Flickr through the Publish Service.
  • Option + drag on Edit Pin behavior is functioning incorrectly.
  • Black border appears around the exported slideshow video.
  • Catalog containing images processed with PV2003 were adding a post-crop vignette when catalog upgraded to Lightroom 5.
  • Pressing the Reset button while holding down the Shift key caused Lightroom to exit abruptly.
  • Output Sharpening and Noise Reduction were not applied to exported images that were resized to less than 1/3 of the original image size.
  • The Esc key did not exit the slideshow after right clicking screen with mouse during slideshow playing.
  • Import dialog remained blank for folders that contain PNG files with XMP sidecars.
  • Metadata panel displayed incorrect information after modifying published photo. Please note that this only occurred when metadata was changed after the photo was published.

Adobe asks that you leave them feedback about the Lightroom 5.3 Release Candidate in their Feedback Portal.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can Lightroom 5.3 Release Candidate be installed alongside Lightroom 5? By default, the Lightroom 5.3 Release Candidate for both Windows and Mac will remove or overwrite your existing Lightroom 5 installation. If you wish to return to Lightroom 5 after installing Lightroom 5.3, simply reinstall Lightroom 5 from your original download after uninstalling Lightroom 5.3 Release Candidate.Both versions of the application share the same catalog format allowing your catalogs to be opened by either version without complications.
  • When will the Lightroom 5.3 release candidate expire? The Lightroom 5.3 release candidate will expire on December 31, 2013.
  • Will there be an upgrade charge for the final Lightroom 5.3 release? No, Lightroom 5.3 will be a free update for all current Lightroom 5 customers.

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