Lightroom 4 Beta Released

Well, as many predicted a beta of Lightroom 4 has been released. For photographers this is a pretty good deal. I haven't had a chance to really dig in, but here are the high points:

• New and improved basic adjustment panel, highlights are now whites, fill light is now shadows.
• Adjustment brushes have access to everything, so you can brush in white balance adjustments, noise, etc.
• Video editing and scrubbing support. Not full editing, but still more than nothing.
• Book creation (a la Aperture)
• Maps (a la Aperture), but no face support :(
• Soft proofing
• Overall better/faster/more awesomness

As with the other Lightroom betas, you can't upgrade your current libraries to the new format (a good thing), so you have to create a new library to play with things. This is a free download that expires March 31, 2012, so download and play around with it!

Some other resources:

• Adobe videos with what's new (best to start here)
• DPReview has a full rundown as well
• [Scott Kelby and Matt show off the new features)(http://www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom4)