Adobe adds raw support for newer cameras

The Sony A850, the least expensive full-frame SLR on the market, now has raw-image support from Adobe.

(Credit: Sony Electronics)

Adobe Systems released an update to its Photoshop and Lightroom products on Thursday night to support raw images from a raft of newer cameras from Canon, Nikon, Sony, and others.

Raw image formats, which record the unprocessed image sensor data from various higher-end cameras, offer higher quality and more flexibility than JPEGs but require more processing and take up more space. Adobe, Apple, and others write their own modules to decode the proprietary formats.

Adobe's update supports several newer SLRs from Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony; compact cameras from Olympus, Panasonic, and Canon; and several medium-format camera models from Mamiya. Here's the full list of cameras now supported in Lightroom 2.6, the Camera Raw 5.6 plug-in for Photoshop CS4, and the DNG Converter 5.6 utility:

• Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon PowerShot G11
• Canon PowerShot S90
• Leaf Aptus II 5
• Mamiya DM22, DM28, DM33, DM56, M18, M22, M31
• Nikon D3S
• Olympus E-P2
• Pentax K-x
• Panasonic FZ38
• Sigma DP1s
• Sony A500
• Sony A550
• Sony A850

The software also fixes a problem that, on PowerPC-based Macs, could create artifacts in highlight areas in some circumstances with medium-format sensors and with some cameras from Sony, Olympus, and Panasonic.

The Camera Raw plug-in also works for customers of Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8. The free DNG Converter software can translate raw files into the Digital Negative format Adobe is trying to promote and standardize as a way to address file format longevity issues for archiving, expand use of raw photography, and handle metadata better.

Supporting raw processing keeps software makers on a new-camera treadmill. Apple updated its support for some of the new cameras on Wednesday, and DxO Labs announced it supports Canon's high-end S90 compact with the new DxO Optics Pro v6.1.1.