Lightroom 4.4 brings Nikon D7100 support, Fujifilm fixes
Adobe's image editing and cataloging software supports 25 new cameras and addresses image-quality problems on Fujiflm's X-Trans and EXR sensors.
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Adobe Systems has released Lightroom 4.4 with support for two mainstream SLRs, Nikon's new D7100 and Canon's Rebel SL1, and with better image quality for a Fujifilm cameras with unusual sensors.
Lightroom is designed for editing and cataloging photos, especially those shot in cameras' proprietary raw image formats that offer higher quality but impose an image-processing burden on photographers. Adobe periodically updates the software to support new cameras -- and in the case of version 4.4 to fix problems with existing cameras such as the Fujifilm models.
Fujifilm's X-Trans and EXR sensors each vary from the standard image-sensor approach to capturing color information. Most sensors use a checkerboard pattern called a Bayer array to determine whether each pixel on the sensor captures red, blue, or green color data. Fujifilm uses different arrangements and processing in an attempt to offer better image quality -- for example the dynamic range that measures how well a camera captures both dark and light parts of a scene.
Software such as Lightroom has the job of "demosaicing" the raw sensor data, using mathematical algorithms to endow each pixel in the image with red, green, and blue data instead of just a single color. Lightroom hadn't done a good job handling the raw image data from the Fujifilm cameras, leading some to steer photographers toward alternatives such as Phase One's Capture One.
Adobe says it's got the issues licked now, though.
"Lightroom 4.4 includes a correction to the demosaic algorithms for Fujifilm cameras with the X-Trans sensor," namely the X-Pro1, X-E1, X100S, and X20, digital imaging product manager Sharad Mangalick said in a blog post last night.
A separate correction improves image quality for Fujifilm cameras with the EXR sensor when shooting in the EXR HD mode with the X10, XF1, X-S1, S200EXR, HS20EXR, HS30EXR, F550EXR, F600EXR, F770EXR, and F800EXR, Adobe said.
The software also updated the white-balance setting for some older Nikon SLRs, the D2X, D2Xs, D2Hs, D200, D40, D50, and D80.
Lightroom 4.4 is a hefty download: 427.4MB for OS X and 788MB for Windows. Here's the full list of supported cameras in the new version:
- Canon EOS 1D C
Lightroom 4.4 includes "preliminary support" for the Nikon Coolpix P330.
The software also adds support for optical corrections from a number of lenses, including Sigma's 35mm F1.4 DG HSM A012, Nikon's AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR, and Canon's Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM and EF 24-70mm f/4 L IS USM.
For the full list, as well as a number of bugs fixed, check the Adobe blog post.