Adobe launched Lightroom mobile today, which syncs using the Adobe Creative Cloud with the Mac/Windows version of Lightroom. You need that Creative Cloud subscription for the sync, but not to use the app as far as I can tell.

The syncing is on a Collection by Collection basis, and is dog slow even on my very fast internet connection (30mbps up). That said it does appear to sync the ‘master’ (read: RAW) files.

On the iPad the download sync speed is pretty fast, and you can edit the images and sync back changes swiftly. It all works well, just the initial upload is annoyingly slow. You can also import images on the iPad into Lightroom, thus creating an almost very cool mobile editing tool.

I say almost because the presets are missing. I love my custom presets in Lightroom, but they aren’t there on the iPad version. That bums me out and really seems shortsighted. Instead, Adobe has just their basic set of presets, which is OK, but not great.

Also missing is any noise reduction tools, which is just lame.

Having said all that this is easily the best photo editing tool I have used on the iPad. It works fast, looks really great (which is amazing for an Adobe tool) and overall is very well rounded.