Upgrade 1.7.1 to 1.8 stable

[cobra98]

I have two routers running on 1.7.1.

TP-Link TL-WR1043N/ND v2
with
DHCP Table for clients
and
TP-Link TL-WDR4300 v1
WAN is configured as LAN
plus webcam attached

is it save to upgrade to 1.8 with preserve settings?
What are benefits of the upgrade?
I don`t want to type in all DHCP Clients with MAC ID and IPs can i export and import it somehow if settings are gone?
I guess i take the flash file for upgrade

[Lantis]

No you can't preserve settings.

Yes you can back up your settings and manually restore parts of them.
DHCP table is an example that is safe to do so.