Adobe has unwrapped Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 – imaging software which was tested by more than half a million people during its year-long development.

Expected to be available from the middle of next month the software will be available at an introductory price of around £147 – for purchases made before 30 April 2007 – and around £205 thereafter.

?Photoshop lightroom enables professional photographers to import, manage and present large volumes of digital photographs, helping them to spend more time behind the lens and less time at the computer,? claims Adobe.

Features include claimed support for more than 150 native raw file formats, as well as JPEG and raw. ?The latest camera models supported include the Nikon D40 and D80 and Pentax K10D,? adds the company. ?This means that photographers can use Lightroom with even the newest camera on the market, knowing that the image files will be recognised today and in the future,? it claims.

The free beta version will run until 28 February.

To order visit www.adobe.com/store