Adobe have just announed public release candidates of Lightroom and Camera Raw. These updates provide support for new camera models from Casio, Leica, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony along over 50 new or improved lens profiles. The ‘release candidate’ label indicates that this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before being made available via Adobe’s automatic update service.

In addition to the new camera and lens support the Lightroom update addresses a number of bugs that surfaced after the release of Lightroom 3. A comprehensive list of bug fixes have been provide on the Lightroom Journal.

While it’s not normal practice to include feature enhancements with a dot release Adobe have included a few in Lightroom 3.2. Of particular interest to many long time users of Lightroom will be the reintroduction of the Metadata Filter feature that allowed users to configure and remember source specific filters (Sticky Filters). However, unlike the previous implementation of this feature it is now hidden way under the File>Library Filters menu (see screen shot).

Lightroom Remember Source Filters

Facebook users will be pleased to learn that a Publish Services plugin for Facebook has also been included with Lightroom 3.2. Last but not least, Lightroom now includes support for Photoshop Elements 9.

More information on where to download a copy along with details of what’s new and improved in Lightroom 3.2 and Camera Raw 6.2 can be found on the Lightroom Journal.