Adobe’s swift help for digicam RAW profiles has made it troublesome to go look wherever else for an inexpensive various. For now, most pro-oriented roads nonetheless result in ACR. Adobe has had a tough go of it recently and because of this, extra photographers have been asking what authentic choices exist that may change Photoshop and Lightroom. I’ve been testing just a few and whereas they’re all succesful performance-wise, I’m left feeling spoiled by Adobe’s absurdly quick help for brand spanking new digicam RAW profiles. Over the previous a number of years, Adobe has gone from “fairly quick” to outright “ludicrous pace” in relation to supporting new RAW profiles. When the X100VI was introduced in February, I anticipated to attend at the very least till launch to get the flexibility to edit my RAWs, however Adobe pushed an Adobe Digicam Uncooked (ACR) replace that arrived whereas I used to be sitting within the Haneda Airport in Japan — mere days after the digicam’s announcement and properly forward of public availability. The Panasonic S9 and GH7 took a bit longer however have been comparable tales: I’ve been capable of comfortably edit RAWs from each now for some time, and the latter isn’t even delivery to clients but. Conversely, Photomator and Affinity depart one thing to be desired. I used to be making an attempt to work on a file Chris Niccolls despatched me that he shot on his OM-1 Mark II final week and I used to be shocked to seek out that each Pixelmator and Photomator didn’t help it but. After talking to Pixelmator, I discovered that it depends fairly closely on Apple’s RAW help and whereas it does its greatest to develop on it as rapidly as doable, that may take some time. For instance, I used to be informed that an replace to Photomator and Pixelmator coming by the tip of July would carry RAW help to a bunch extra cameras, however I used to be shocked on the listing: Sony a6700 Sony a7CR Sony a7C II Fujifilm X-A20 Olympus TG-5 Olympus TG-6 OM System TG-7 OM System OM-5 Olympus E-M1 Mark II Olympus E-M1 Mark III Olympus OM-1 Mark II Olympus E-M10 Mark IIIS Sony A9 III GoPro HERO10 Panasonic DC-G100D Fujifilm X-T50
Seeing the X-T50 on there may be nice — that’s fairly swift help. However seeing the Sony a6700, the a7CR, the a7C II, and the OM System TG-6, OM-5, and E-M1 Mark II on the listing is downright baffling. That listing of Sony cameras is sort of a 12 months previous and the OM System E-M1 Mark II got here out in 2016. I do know that as a digicam reviewer, I’m going to have my arms on new {hardware} lots ahead of a overwhelming majority of photographers will, so I get not seeing a digicam added instantly. However six months? A 12 months? Eight years? There needs to be a line of cheap expectation and it’s ahead of that. Serif Affinity Photograph is best, though not by a lot. It solely added help for the Panasonic G9 Mark II, GH6, and Nikon Z8 on the finish of February. That replace additionally introduced help for a swath of Sony cameras together with the a7C II, a7CR, a7R V, and a9 III. Once more, the a9 III I get, however not seeing the a7C II, Nikon Z8, or the GH6 sooner appears like a giant miss. The Lumix GH6 got here out two years in the past. From what we will see, the corporate coming closest to Adobe is DxO, which appears to be pumping out digicam help fairly rapidly. The Lumix S9, for instance, is already supported. All the egregious examples above are supported, too, however the Panasonic GH7 nonetheless isn’t, to present an instance of how far forward Adobe is with updating ACR. Seize One, which has fallen out of favor with many photographers as a result of its pricing shift (and visual instability), has fairly fast help, too, though it notably isn’t permitting you to edit the RAWs from a Lumix S9 or GH7 but. It does, at the very least, permit photographers to edit Z6 III recordsdata, although. DxO doesn’t but. There’s some give and take between the highest two options in DxO and Seize one, however Adobe overlaps each and gives extra performance with its software program — good luck enhancing a GH7 picture file after which turning it right into a graphic design when you’re solely utilizing DxO or Seize One. If you wish to do extra than simply edit a photograph, Photoshop is gentle years forward of the competitors. Clearly, Adobe is working instantly with digicam producers to supply RAW profiles early. Previously, I and different PetaPixel editors have labored with Adobe to get entry to RAW profiles even earlier by means of a beta model of ACR, exhibiting that Adobe is even additional forward than its public releases point out.
Look, I’m not a giant fan of a number of the issues Adobe has mentioned and performed through the years and have been a vocal critic for the higher a part of a decade. I’m nowhere close to an Adobe shill, however I’ve to present them credit score right here: to truly do work with images and produce the content material we now have to, there actually just isn’t a viable various to Photoshop proper now — and that stinks.
