Sounds like you're really hoping for someone to justify a purchase for you. Why not just download the demo and try it yourself?

I have tried it- my trial ran out, and I am thinking of buying it when I upgrade to CS5 this week for two of my newer computers. I was wondering what others thought. I like it. In this months Popular Photography, Debbie Grossman gave it a great review, focus on import-export versatility and integratetion with ACR and Photoshop altogether, and noise rduction in Raw.
I sometimes shoot 100 plus shots in a day, and I usually shoot Raw. So I may go for it. I only wondered, what others use it for. It is $200 bucks with my CS5 upgrade, $300 later. I m just cheap:) wanted to know what y'all thought!

LR has the same exact noise reduction as ACR which comes free with Photoshop. The current noise reduction capability wasn't a LR advancement, it was an ACR advancement, but it sure wasn't played up that way. LR uses ACR's raw engine. It's exactly the same.

For import ease and especially speed, I prefer Photo Mechanic. I can shoot up to 10k photos in a day - always raw, and LR just can't keep up with Photo Mechanic. When it comes time to actually review the photos after import, PM blows LR out of the water by miles and miles.

PM also integrates with CS5 for external editing, but it isn't a DB program.

LR definitely has it's place, but for me that place has been becoming increasingly smaller.

My workflow is changing drasticly. I now use Photoshop CS5, the NIK Viveza, NIK Sharpener, and NIK Define noise reduction. My camera is profiled in ACR, and I have basicl 2 curves to run after I get past the Viveza.

So it is:
1. ACR (with custom camera profile)
2. Photoshop with Viveza Layer
3. Two curves
4. Save to disk.
5. Run NIK sharpener (and Define if noisy after sharpening) for print output, and save end result as ready to print.

I can then save wallpaper and web versions as needed.

Roman

Roman,

Have you tried printing while skipping the noise reduction step? I've found that unless it's just horrible, noise doesn't show in printing at all due to ink spread.

I printed a selection from 4x6 to 16x20 shot at ISO 12,800 and the noise just doesn't show.

I know. Its one of the wonderful things of printing vs. screen peeping. Define though is quite an awesome product. It has now become my defacto standard when I need noise reduction.

Roman

I imagine it's mostly because I got used to Noise Ninja first, but I never could like the interface of Define.

I should try it again someday.

Photo Mechanic looks interesting, I 'll download a trial of that. Thank you Jim. Interesting thoughts/ Thank you Roman also.

Hey Marty,

How did you like Photo Mechanic? When I was in Yellowstone, I spoke with a photographer who spoke very highly of it. I have not used a version since a very early one and did not take to it.

James

PS This was a great thread. I am going to pick up CS5 today. :P

Hey Everyone,

I just started using CS5. LOL, I have REALLY been in the dark ages. CS5 is absolutely AMAZING. The Content Aware thing actually works!!! Wow. It is actually kind of scary.

James