My Lightroom Observations

Question

Okay, I have been going back and forth with Lightroom... I love it, I hate it, I love it... you get the point. Anyway, as I have stated in the past, I want Lightroom to work for me, and so I have decided to take a step back and try a level-headed approach to evaluating Lightroom and documenting my findings. I'll update this thread as I make new observations.
First, my system: Custom Pentium Core 2 Duo (E6300) 1.86 GHz CPU, 3GB dual-channel DDR2 PC-5300 memory (two 1GB and two 512MB), nVidia GeForce 7300 GS video card with 512MB memory, 160 GB SATA-II system drive (application and database are on this drive), 250 GB SATA-II storage drive (RAW images and sidecards are on this drive), and a 250 GB SATA-II backup drive. I am running a native resolution of 1680x1050 through DVI on a 21" widescreen monitor. I have turned on "Render Standard Previews" on import, and my Standard Preview size is 1680 pixels at medium resolution. I do not have Lightroom writing changes to sidecar files.
Lightroom Observations 03-15-07
I imported 2038 RAW images (plus sidecars). They were either CR2 files or compressed NEF files. The CR2 files appear to be quicker to import and refresh than the NEF files do, although there doesn't appear to be too much difference (could just be the compression of the NEF files). Thumbnails get the three white dots on them on first viewing, and one by one, the dots go away. Additionally, these three white dots didn't appear on the first hundred or so images that were imported.
On a side note, there appears to be a tremendous amount of work by Lightroom to draw/refresh its own GUI. I am typing these notes into Notepad on a Windows XP machine, and I noticed when I drag the non-maximized Notepad window around on the screen, there is a long "trail" of Notepad windows left behind. This "trail" goes away after a second or two. I recall this being an issue in the BETA, but I also recall Adobe reps suggesting that this was a BETA only issue and that it would be fixed. It appears that it is still an issue.
Thumbnail generation for the first pass appears to only happen on thumbnails currently in view, and even then, only if there isn't an open window such as Notepad on top of Lightroom that is not maximized. Odd thing I just noticed, however, is if I switch to Firefox, which is maximized, to browse the web as thumbnails are created, when I return to Lightroom, the visible thumbnails are finished. As I switch to the Notepad to type these notes when the Notepad window is not maximized, Lightroom stops processing the thumbnails even though they are visible on screen. If the Notepad is maximized, however, thumbnail creation continues on the visible thumbnails.
Regardless, no thumbnails get drawn for the first pass when they are not visible on the screen, even if Lightroom has the focus. I have to page down to show a new screen of thumbnails, and only then will they get drawn for the first time. Subsequent viewings of the thumbnails is faster, but not instantaneous.
Scrolling through thumbnails using the scroll bar, even at a reduced thumbnail size (third tick from the left, instead of fourth tick from the left which I believe is the default), is hit or miss on how smooth it will be. It's almost as if the thumbnail cache (is there one) is wiped out while scrolling, and when it is wiped out, the smooth scrolling comes to a halt. From then on, it is jerky and non-fluid. However, I can scroll backwards, and everything is smooth sailing again for a short while, at which point scrolling becomes jerky once again. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to when the scrolling is no longer fluid and smooth.
Thanks for reading, and I'll experiment more tomorrow.

Answer 1

Lightroom Observations 03-17-07
I have decided to delete the existing Lightroom database and start over. This time, I have set the thumbnail size back to what I believe is the default, the fourth tick from the left. I am going to import a smaller set of images based on a typical photography day for me, which ranges from roughly 50 images to 500 images, depending on the subject and purpose for the photography. I am doing this so that I don't start out behind the 8 ball, so to speak. I am thinking that because Lightroom seems to do so much "behind the scenes" that I need to import images in smaller, typical photography-day chunks. Let's see what happens when I do this...
I imported 64 CR2 RAW files with sidecars. The first thing I noticed is that after import I was unable to force Lightroom to render standard sized previews by selecting that option through the menus. It appears that Lightroom knows when the standard sized previews are fully rendered, and won't allow re-rendering when there is no need. Note that I did have render standard sized previews checked on import; I just wanted to see what would happen. In this case: nothing. The second thing I noticed is that metadata appears to be slow. I have my thumbnails (in compact view) set to show the following:
- Include quick collection markers
- Include pick flags
- Include thumbnail badges
- Show clickable items on mouse over only
- Tint grid cells with color labels
- Compact Cell index number: off
- Compact Cell rotation: on
- Compact cell top label: label
- Compact cell bottom label: Rating and label
When I browse my thumbnails by moving the scroll bar, the label data at the top and bottom of the thumbnails takes roughly one to two seconds to display. Additionally, all of these images do not currently have a label designation. The top label for the thumbnails shows "none" to reflect this. However, if I chose a thumbnail and select none for a label option, the "none" at the top of the thumbnail goes away and I am left with a blank top label. Obviously, Lightroom is attempting to display the title of the label, such as "Rejected", or "Needs Edit In Photoshop", etc., and on first import, when there is no label, Lightroom displays "none." However, Lightroom doesn't display "none" when I chose the none option for label; Lightroom displays nothing (a blank field).
With this small import of images, scrolling the thumbnails is fairly smooth. I say fairly, because the first time I scroll up or down, there is a slight pause. This pause is nothing like I documented in Day 2, but it is an obvious stuttering. However, scrolling after this initial stutter is smooth, as expected. Additionally, there are no three white dots on any of the thumbnails when I scroll through them.
Undoubtedly, this is directly related to the thumbnail cache, and I am no anywhere close to exhausting the cache with only 64 images to display.
When I double-click on a thumbnail, I am taken to the Loupe view, as expected. The screen draws the larger version of the image very quickly (under one second), and is similar to the observations I made on Day 2.
I am now trying to enter higher metadata into these newly imported images, specifically Location, City, State, Country, and Country Code. When I click into the Location field under the metadata panel in grid view, I can enter the text for the location name, as expected. However, when I hit tab to move to the next field (City), the focus is lost as the metadata information is updated/refreshed. This breaks my workflow for entering metadata. I am expecting the focus to shift to the next field, not disappear altogether. As it is, if I am not paying attention when the focus is lost, and I start typing, I end up hitting keystrokes that invoke functions within Lightroom, causing havoc. It seems that the metadata should only update after I either leave the metadata panel, or I hit ENTER on the keyboard. Tab should simply take me to the next metadata field, not invoke a metadata update.
So I have updated the higher metadata in my small collection of images. I then clicked on the metadata browser to see the results, and the first thing I notice is that there are no image counts for the various metadata fields listed under the browser. Then, one by one, the image counts update to reflect my metadata changes. I'm not too sure why this is so slow, and don't really have any suggestions for this one.
On a small side-note: As I was importing these 64 images, I was deleting them and starting over, testing that rendering standard sized previews on import had any effect. What I discovered was that deleting the images from the Lightroom database and from the disk (by using the delete option from within Lightroom) took approximately ten seconds. Ten seconds to delete these 64 images is entirely too long, but I am at a loss to figure out just what is going on. I assume that there is some database management taking place, but ten seconds to delete a small handful of images indicates, to me, that there is an underlying issue. Don't get me wrong... I'm not making the argument that the database concept is flawed. I, personally, don't have a problem with the database concept. I use and enjoy iView MediaPro3, and it is database driven. It just seems that there is a serious flaw with respect to database functions within Lightroom.
I'm still experimenting, so I'll likely have more later. This has also been updated at http://lr.ianfarlow.com.