I just wanted to point out to everyone who is bummed that the Lightroom 5.5 Release Candidate didn’t appear today alongside the Camera Raw 8.5 Release Candidate that there is probably a very good reason for this.
I expect Lightroom 6 to arrive on June 18, alongside the rest of the Adobe Creative Cloud updates. When I saw that Adobe had just announced the Camera Raw 8.5 release candidate alone (and not also announced a Lightroom 5.5 release candidate), I immediately figured that we probably won’t see one.
Adobe has a major event planned for the next big update for Creative Cloud on June 18. With Lightroom being a big part of Creative Cloud now (even though you can still by a perpetual license), I suspect that we will see a major Lightroom revision on June 18 as well.
Lightroom and Creative Cloud got even tighter with the recent release of Lightroom Mobile for iPad. While all of the great things we’ve always loved about Lightroom still work wonderfully when you aren’t connected to Creative Cloud, Lightroom Mobile makes a major case for paying $10/mo for access to the Creative Cloud through the Photoshop Photography Program, which also provides users with access to Photoshop CC in addition to Lightroom and Lightroom Mobile.
With all of this in mind, I think Adobe wants to drop a bit of a surprise and hold back a Lightroom 6 beta for a major announcement on June 18.
I could be wrong on this, but Adobe better have a good reason for holding out GH4 RAW file support from Lightroom, and I think a collective “boom” announcement would be reason enough from a marketing perspective.
Let’s be clear though, I don’t think Adobe will drop perpetual license support from Lightroom even though the connected features will become more integrated into Creative Cloud. And if you’re willing to shell out $10 a month, I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all.
Lightroom 5 and GH4 RAW File Support Workaround
If you have downloaded the Camera Raw 8.5 or DNG Converter 8.5 release candidate, you can simply convert your GH4 files into DNG files and import them into Lightroom until Adobe officially releases an update for Lightroom with built-in GH4 .RW2 file support.
Additionally, this is true for the other cameras that now have RAW file support in Camera Raw 8.5 but not yet in Lightroom.
Is this ideal? No. However, it is a viable workaround for those who don’t want to bring Camera Raw into their workflow just to work with GH4 RAW files.
I’ve got my ear to the ground for Lightroom 6 or 5.5, or whatever is next. As soon as I know what’s up, so will you. If you happen to know or hear something, please reach out and let me know.
Jared says
Very interested in LR6. I’m not using CC, and will stall as long as possible with CS6.
Gene Lowinger says
Lightroom 6 would be great. I haven’t used Photoshop for a while and have no need for the CC gimmick. LR Mobile doesn’t come close to what I need or want to do on my iPad. Meanwhile Photosmith is working just fine.
I hope your correct about LR and perpetual license. But I think Adobe is trying to figure a way to suck us all in to its CC scam.
George W. says
I hope LR 6 comes with GPU acceleration like PS and their competitors does. It will speed up the editing and viewing process when working on hundreds/thousands of photos which is what LR is build for over the PS. Also, less task to the CPU when applying effects which means less CPU fan noise and less need of upgrading the computer hardware when most of the GPU on the market for the past 5 years all have plenty of 2D rendering power and support DirectX9.0c or higher to do the job. GPU video cards start at $60.00 and a very good one for $150.00. CPU starts at $150.00 (quad-core) than you may have to replace motherboard & memory.
If not, DxO Optics Pro would be my next upgrade since it does support nondestructive RAW editing as well as GPU acceleration now. The highly recommended hardware for LR 5 is 6-core CPU and DxO is 4-core CPU which means that the GPU takes care of the extra 2(dual)-core of processing load off the CPU.
Daniel says
ACR is usually 3 digits ahead of LR, for example, ACR 8.4 corresponds to LR 5.4, ACR 5.5 LR 2.5, so after ACR8.5RC expect LR 5.5 next, not LR6. :)
E says
There was no Lightroom 5.4 RC when ACR 8.4 RC was released either. In fact, there was no LR 5.4 RC at all, it just released about 1.5 months after the ACR RC was out. In light of this, lack of a LR RC means nothing.
Jorge says
I suggested to talk with this company if is possible to add in the software a Time Lapse Template will be very nice everybody today are doing Tlapse ….
Thanks