Lightroom: Catalog Speed
category: Lightroom • 1 min read
My first article on Lightroom was: Lightroom: Slow As Molasses Or Lightning Fast?.
I did some further testing with actual numbers: What’s Lightroom’s speed when browsing the same 100 photos of the same catalog with all these photos after having generated the 1:1 preview:
| Mode | Time | % slower |
|---|---|---|
| Library @ fit setting | 1 mn 42s | 0% |
| Library @ fill setting | 1 mn 45s | 3% |
| Library @ 1:1 setting | 3 mn 53s | 129% |
| Develop @ fit setting | 5 mn 11s | 205% |
| Develop @ fill setting | 5 mn 12s | 206% |
| Develop @ 1:1 setting | 6 mn 04s | 257% |
Conclusion:
- Browse the catalog in the library module.
- Generate the 1:1 previews during the import.
If I didn’t generate the 1:1 previews during the import, or would have deleted the 1:1 previews, browsing at the fill setting and/or the 1:1 preview setting would have been about 5 times slower.