Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 7.4 release
Update: Adobe contacted me and told me that the D7100 listing for the Camera Raw 7.4 release candidate was a mistake - they have since removed it from their website.
Adobe has made their almost-finished versions of Lightroom 4.4 and Camera RAW 7.4 available for download. These Release Candidates (RC) have been thoroughly tested, but are subject to improvement over the next few months before final versions are available. So far, Lightroom 4.4 RC is a free download for all current Lightroom 4 customers and will expire by 31st of May. Adobe Camera RAW 7.4 RC will expire on 30th of April. Why are these RC updates important? Well, first of all because of the added support for newest camera models:
- Canon EOS-1D C
- Casio Exilim EX-ZR700
- Fujifilm X100S
- Fujifilm X20
- Hasselblad Lunar
- Leica M
- Nikon 1 J3
- Nikon 1 S1
- Pentax MX1
Now, you may notice the rather peculiar addition of Hasselblad Lunar mirrorless camera which is said to be based on NEX-7, but with a full-frame sensor. There is a reason why I chose words “said to be”, because the camera is yet unfinished and thus unavailable. A rare feat making software support available before the actual camera is even officially announced.
New lens profiles are also present:
- Canon 24-70 f/4L IS
- Sigma 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DC MACRO HSM for Sony and Pentax
- Sigma APO MACRO 180mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM for Sony
- Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM for Canon, Sigma and Nikon
- Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC MACRO OS HSM for Canon and Sigma
There is a possibility that new cameras and lenses in addition to the ones mentioned above will be supported when final versions are released.
Of course, these RC versions also carry a number of bug fixes. Here are Lightroom 4.4 fixes (quoted from Adobe website):
- The crop overlay tool resized incorrectly when used in conjunction with the “Constrain to Crop” checkbox in the Lens Correction panel
- Background graphics were not correctly rendered within the Book Module
- The supplied lens profile for the Sony RX-1 did not contain vignette information
- Previews of photos in portrait orientation were blurry when viewed in the filmstrip in the Develop module (Mac only)
- Stack badges displayed the wrong count when creating new stack that included a preexisting stack
- The Filter scrollbar within the Library module was not rendering properly
And here is the list of Camera RAW bug fixes:
- The grayscale visualization associated with Noise Reduction Luminance was visible after mouse release. This occurred when positive Clarity was present.
- The command/control + A “select all” keyboard shortcut did not select all photos.
- Modifying the brush size using the Right-click + Drag method did not increase or decrease the brush size by the desired amount.
- The crop overlay tool resized incorrectly when used in conjunction with the “Constrain to Crop” checkbox in the Lens Correction panel.
- Hovering the mouse over a local adjustment pin would turn off the desired mask.
- Horizontal artifacts occasionally appeared in DNG files.
- Improved interactive performance at intermediate zoom levels (e.g., 33% and 66%)
Notably, these updates bring improvement to how Fujifilm’s X-TRANS RAW files are processed. The problem with their RAW algorithm was that decoding process is different to those of regular Beyer filter pattern, and most RAW converters didn’t do a very good job with Fujifilm X-Pro1 and X-E1 RAW files. Now, Adobe has improved their algorithms and based on first impressions throughout the internet, they’ve done a pretty good job at it. Hopefully, we will have time to compare results.
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The latest Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 7.4 release candidate does have added support for the just released Nikon D7100 DSLR camera. Adobe Lightroom 4.4 release candidate however does not support the D7100 for now. You can useNikon ViewNX 2.7.4 until Adobe releases their next version.