Finally! Camera Raw 5.2 was posted by Adobe today. I have been waiting for this release because I just got my brand new Lumix LX3 last week and I couldn’t load the Raw files into any Adobe program because only Camera Raw 5.2 supports it. Thank you, Adobe!
I’ll be sharing some of my initial impressions on my Lumix LX3 soon.
Just one tiny bit of disappointment – Lightroom 2.2 will be out in December and that release will include the support for the new RAW files supported by Camera Raw 5.2 This means that I have to use Camera Raw (in Photoshop) now to read my Lumix LX3 Raw files and not in Lightroom. That’s okay, at least they’re usable now! I don’t have to install the Silky Pix (the software bundle that comes with Lumix LX3).
Oh, and before I forget, the new Camera Raw 5.2 comes with the Camera Profile installer and the plug-in. Make sure that you copy the plug-in to the appropriate folder to install the latest one.
The new Camera Raw supports the following camera models:
- Canon EOS 5D Mark II
- Canon PowerShot G10
- Panasonic DMC-G1**
- Panasonic DMC-FX150**
- Panasonic DMC-FZ28**
- Panasonic DMC-LX3** -> yehey!!!
- Leica D-LUX 4*
To download the Camera Raw files, check out the following links:
Thanks to the following sites for the news:
- Rob Galbraith’s entry on Camera Raw 5.2
- Lightroom Journal: on Camera Raw 5.2 and the December Release of Lightroom 2.2
Btw, make sure you read the Lightroom Journal post above. There are some notes on the Panasonic and Leica Raw support:
**With the release of Camera Raw 5.2 (and upcoming Lightroom 2.2 release) there is an important exception in our DNG file handling for the Panasonic DMC LX3, Panasonic DMC FX150, Panasonic DMC FZ28, Panasonic DMC-G1 and Leica D-LUX 4. In this release the native, proprietary files from these cameras can only be converted to linear DNG files. A linear DNG file has gone through a demosaic process that converts a single mosaic layer of red, green and blue channel information into three distinct layers , one for each channel. The resulting linear DNG file is approximately three times the size of a mosaic DNG file or the original proprietary file format.
This exception is a temporary solution to ensure that Panasonic and Leica’s intended image rendering from their proprietary raw file format is applied to an image when converted DNG files are viewed in third party software titles. The same image rendering process is applied automatically in Camera Raw 5.2 and in Lightroon 2.2 when viewing the original proprietary raw file format.
In a future release Adobe plans to update the DNG specification to include an option to embed metadata-based representations of the lens compensations in the DNG file, allowing a mosaic DNG conversion. In the interim Adobe recommends only converting these files to DNG to allow compatibility with third party raw converters, previous versions of the Camera Raw plug-in or previous versions of Lightroom.
Posted by shawnmac on January 26, 2009 at 4:59 am
This is great! I just got the LX3 a couple months ago, but have been shooting JPG only until an update came along. Let’s just hope it works with CS3 (Adobe stops supporting it’s previous releases wayyy to quickly).
Posted by shawnmac on January 26, 2009 at 5:03 am
Looks like I spoke too soon:
“The Camera Raw 5.2 plug-in is not compatible with versions of Photoshop earlier than Photoshop CS4″
That’s just terrible. I wish they’d update previous versions to at least support more camera models, rather than limit them to the newest version. I mean, how old is CS3? Seriously?
Posted by Brian F Harris on February 17, 2009 at 7:49 am
Thanks Mike & guys..Wow! That’s good news as I only buy cams these days that do raw. I am aware I need to lift my photography to another level,from an art point of view so I don’t want to hide behind excuses that the problem is the software. Now we can hopefully handle raw as a mainstream process,our final output should improve lots. Now I just need to work on the composition and execution of the shots,whilst always looking for new ideas.RockyOne.Australia
Posted by khy boogie on March 26, 2009 at 9:01 pm
awesome. you have to spend £400 on photoshop CS4 to be able to get raw pics from a £300 camera. thanks adobe. thanks panasonic
Posted by mikelao on March 26, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Or, you can just purchase Lightroom 2!
Posted by naomi Bissell on September 21, 2009 at 8:30 am
I need a fix for the lumix lx3 I have photshop cs3 and have no intention of upgrading again to cs4 or to purchase Lightroom 2 . Who will find the fix for camera raw?
Posted by mikelao on September 21, 2009 at 9:23 am
hey naomi,
try to download the DNG converter and then convert the .RW2 files of LX3 to DNG. that is, if you want to open the photos in RAW format.
otherwise, jpg should be fine in photoshop cs3.
hope this helps!
mike
Posted by naomi Bissell on November 22, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Thanks Mike