I've read a few threads on various forums about Lightroom 2.1 performance. There are still complaints about performance with the Selective Adjustments Brush.

The commentary from Adobe with the release of Lightroom 2.1 claimed the performance issue was fixed. When people complain about 2.1 performance, the natural questions to ask are how much RAM, how fast is the processor, what's the operating system, where is the swap file, etc. The problem is, there are users out there with machines tat have enough processor ummph, RAM, etc. to run Lightroom 2.1 AND they still have problems.

I read a message tonight on DPReview from an anonymous software engineer at Adobe who worked on the local corrections in LR 2.1 and ACR 5.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=30093907

Here was the comment that caught my interest:

The biggest difference is usually Auto Mask vs. not having it checked. Large amounts of paint do slow down. This is very similar between 2.0 and 2.1, though a few things got faster in 2.1 . Can't say much, but local corrections will get faster in the next update.

The practical advice is to turn off Auto Mask when you need to make corrections to large areas of a photograph.

I've sent an e-mail to the engineer, so I can ask some questions and get some insider advice on how to get better performance out of Lightroom 2.1. I'll pass along what I learn.

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