Lightroom 5.6 and Camera Raw 8.6 released today

Adobe today released a new version of its Lightroom and Camera Raw. A while back, we could already play with the release candidate of Camera Raw, but now Lightroom users can also benefit from the added features. Compared to the release candidate, the final version contains support for a number of additional (Sony) lenses as well as additional bug fixes.
Downloads available from Adobe:

• Adobe Camera Raw 8.6: Use the update mechanism of application (or: manual)
• Lightroom 5.6: Download Mac / Windows
• DNG Converter 8.6: Download Mac / Windows

Changes in Lightroom 5.6 and Camera Raw 8.6

• Improve performance when batch processing images (via the Save button in Camera Raw) and when converting images to DNG (via DNG Converter). This performance improvement is only available on 64-bit systems. (Camera Raw for Photoshop CC and CC 2014-only)

New Camera Support

• Nikon D810
• Panasonic LUMIX AG-GH4
• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ1000

Added Camera Matching colour profiles

• Sony DSC-RX100 III
• Sony A7S (ILCE-7S)
• Sony Alpha SLT-A77 II (ILCA-77M2)

New Lens Profile Support

Lens Name	Lens Mount
Canon	Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM
Canon	Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM
Canon	Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD A010E
Canon	Tamron 18-200 f/3.5-6.3 DiIII VC B011EM
Nikon	Nikon 1 NIKKOR VR 70-300mm f/4.5 – 5.6
Nikon	Tamon 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD A010N
Pentax	Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM A013
Phase One A/S	Schneider Kreuznach LS 40-80mm f/4.0-5.6
Sony Alpha	Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM A013
Sony Alpha	Sony 28mm f/2.8
Sony Alpha	Sony 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye
Sony Alpha	Sony 100mm f/2.8 MACRO
Sony Alpha	Sony DT 16-105mm f/3.5-5.6
Sony Alpha	Sony DT 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3
Sony Alpha	Sony DT 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3
Sony Alpha	Sony 70-200mm f/2.8G
Sony Alpha	Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM
Sony Alpha	Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G SSM
Sony Alpha	Sony 70-400mm f/4-5.6 G SSM II
Sony Alpha	Sony 135mm f/2.8 [T4.5] STF
Sony Alpha	Sony 300mm f/2.8 G SSM II
Sony E	Zeiss Touit 2.8/50M

Please note – the profile for the newly added Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM lens is not automatically located when applying lens profile corrections. This is a bug and we will fix it in a future release. The workaround is to: Manually select the profile and choose “Save New Lens Profile Defaults” in the Setup menu on the Profile tab. From then on, the lens should automatically select when the profile is enabled.

Bugs fixed in Lightroom 5.6

• Collections with a custom sort order would sometimes not properly sync with Lightroom mobile.
• Updated the “Adobe Standard” color profile for the Nikon D810.  Please note that this only impacts customers who used Camera Raw 8.6 or DNG Converter 8.6 to convert NEF raw files from the D810 to DNG
• Star ratings set in Lightroom mobile did not properly sync to Lightroom desktop.  Please note that this only occurred on images that were added to Lightroom mobile from the camera roll
• Resolved the issues causing the persistent “Syncing … images” state that some of our customers have reported.”
• Star ratings would sometimes not sync from Lightroom desktop to Lightroom mobile.  Please note that this only occurred when attempting to sync a Collection that contained more than 100 photos that already contained star ratings.
• Added information to the “System Info” dialogue to help designate if the customer installed Lightroom from the Creative Cloud.
• Unable to open sRaw files from the Nikon D810.  Please note that this only impacted customers that converted D810 sRaw files to DNG in either Camera Raw 8.6 RC or DNG Converter 8.6 RC.
• Images with invalid GPS coordinates would not properly sync with Lightroom mobile
• Lightroom occasionally crashed when changing image selection on Windows. Please note that this only occurred on the Windows platform.
• JPEG files exported from Lightroom would not open or be available to edit within Canon Digital Photo Professional application software.
• Lightroom would run in reduced functionality mode when it should not.

Bugs fixed in Camera Raw 8.6

• Fixed crash on launch in some cases on Hi DPI (Retina) systems.
• Fixed crash when opening some Sigma SD9 raw files.
• Fixed issue with JPEG images saved by Camera Raw not readable in some external applications.
• Fixed automatic lens profile selection for Leica M (Typ 240) when using most recent firmware version.
• Fixed issue with some Hasselblad H5D-50c and H5D-60 3FR raw images appearing slightly too dark. Unfortunately, this fix may affect the appearance of existing images captured with this combination of settings. It is recommended that you (1) purge the Camera Raw cache via the Camera Raw Preferences dialog, and (2) review previously captured images for unexpected brightness changes.
• Fixed bug with converting Nikon D810 and Nikon D4S sRaw files to DNG.
• Tweaked and updated the Adobe Standard color profile for the Nikon D810.  Please note that this only impacts customers that used Camera Raw 8.6 RC with the Nikon D810.

New version of Canon Digital Photo Professional software

Canon has released a new version of its Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software. This new version contains quite a few radical changes and new features over its predecessors. Big disappointment for many will be this new 4.0 version is only compatible with the very latest Canon DSLRs; only the EOS-1D X, EOS-1D C, EOS 5D Mark III and EOS 6D are currently supported! For other models, an update of DPP (3.14) will be released (not yet available, though).

For the new camera's the software does offer some great improvements though. Designed and developed from the ground up, the new Digital Photo Professional 4.0 is much faster as it fully utilises the 64-bit architecture of the host system.

You can download DPP 4.0 (for free) from Canon Europe's support site. Select your camera - EOS-1D X, EOS-1D C, EOS 5D Mark III or EOS 6D – and select DPP 4.0 from the software options to download.
Please note that DPP 4.0 will be compatible only with 64-bit versions of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 as well as Mac OS X 10.8 and 10.9.

New key features

• Faster, real-time adjustments.
• Improved RAW file workflow.
• Better, more approachable user interfaces.
• Compatible with 64-bit native environments.
• Colour adjustments for specific colour gamuts.
• Improved highlight recovery provides expanded tonality.
• Improved shadow recovery function.
• Support for movie playback.
• Auto Lighting Optimizer can be applied to JPEG images.
• Better integration with EOS Utility.

New colour adjustment palette

A new colour adjustment palette allows hue, saturation and luminance adjustment for eight individual colour gamuts, enabling the user to adjust one specific colour in isolation without affecting the image as a whole. This is particularly useful when adjusting background tones in portraits, where there might previously have been a risk of giving a colour cast to skin tones, for example.

Enhanced highlight function

Canon software developers have re-engineered the processing algorithms to increase the freedom in tonal rendering. By adjusting highlights, it is now possible to reproduce tones such as those in clouds and peoples’ faces that would previously have appeared washed out.

Dual display support

For those photographers with dual monitors, DPP 4.0 allows a secondary monitor to be used as the preview window on the primary display. While the main monitor can be used to perform delicate adjustments, a secondary image window for images can be used as a magnifier for closer inspection of part of an image.

Better EOS Utility integration

With the launch of DDP 4.0 comes an updated EOS Utility 3 and the two pieces of software now offer better integration. The introduction of EOS Utility 3 makes it is possible to trigger the camera direct from the DPP tool palette as well as access to all the rest of the EOS Utility remote shooting functions without the need to start a separate application, thus enabling a more streamlined and integrated workflow.

Adobe Camera Raw 8.6 (Release Candidate) available

Together with the availability of the new Nikon D810 camera, Adobe has released a release candidate for its Camera Raw (and DNG convertor) software. So if you are the lucky owner of a brand new D810 camera (or any of the other newly added cameras and lenses), you can start enjoying the full benefits of ACR.
Please note that as a release candidate, this is not yet the final version of the software and things may change/get added to the final release.

Downloads available from adobe labs:

• Adobe Camera Raw 8.6RC for Photoshop CS6
• Adobe Camera Raw 8.6RC for Photoshop CC and Photoshop CC 2014
• DNG Converter 8.6RC

Changes in Camera Raw 8.6RC

• Improve performance when batch processing images (via the Save button in Camera Raw) and when converting images to DNG (via DNG Converter). This performance improvement is only available on 64-bit systems. (CC and CC 2014-only)

New Camera Support

• Nikon D810
• Panasonic LUMIX AG-GH4
• Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ1000

Added Camera Matching colour profiles

• Sony DSC-RX100 III
• Sony A7S (ILCE-7S)
• Sony Alpha SLT-A77 II (ILCA-77M2)

New Lens Profile Support

Lens Name	Lens Mount
Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM	Canon
Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM	Canon
Nikon 1 NIKKOR VR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6	Nikon
Schneider Kreuznach LS 40-80mm f/4.0-5.6	Phase One A/S
Sony 28mm f/2.8	Sony Alpha
Sony 100mm F2.8 Macro	Sony Alpha
Sony DT 16-105mm f/3.5-5.6	Sony Alpha
Sony DT 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3	Sony Alpha
Sony 70-200mm f/2.8G	Sony Alpha
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM	Sony Alpha
Zeiss Touit 2.8/50M	Sony Alpha

Bug fixes

• Fix crash on launch in some cases on Hi DPI (Retina) systems.
• Fix crash when opening some Sigma SD9 raw files.
• Fix issue with JPEG images saved by Camera Raw not readable in some external applications.
• Fix automatic lens profile selection for Leica M (Typ 240) when using most recent firmware version.
• Fix issue with some Hasselblad H5D-50c and H5D-60 3FR raw images appearing slightly too dark. Unfortunately, this fix may affect the appearance of existing images captured with this combination of settings. It is recommended that you (1) purge the Camera Raw cache via the Camera Raw Preferences dialog, and (2) review previously captured images for unexpected brightness changes.

New versions of Nikon Camera Control Pro, Wireless Transmitter Utility and UT-1 firmware

Nikon released updates for its Camera Control Pro, Wireless Transmitter Utility software, and Communication Unit UT-1 firmware. Amongst others they now all support the new D810 camera (available as of today).

You can download these updates from the Nikon Support sites:

• Nikon Camera Control Pro v.2.18.0: EU / USA
• Nikon Wireless Transmitter Utility v.1.5.1: EU / USA
• Nikon Communication Unit UT-1 firmware update v.2.1: EU / USA

Changes in Nikon Camera Control Pro v.2.18.0

• Support for the D810 has been added.
• Highlight-weighted has been added to Metering options in the Exposure 2 tab (available only when the D810 is used).
• Metering options have been added to the Movie tab (available only when the D810 is used).
• Flat has been added to Picture Control options in the Image Processing tab. (available only when the D810 is used).
• A Clarity setting has been added to the adjustment dialog displayed when the Edit... button in the Image Processing tab is clicked. (available only when the D810 is used).
• A Show Capture NX-D option has been added to the Tools menu.

Additional modifications to the Windows version

• Windows XP is no longer supported.

Additional modifications to the Macintosh version

• Mac OS X version 10.6 is no longer supported.

Changes in Nikon Wireless Transmitter Utility v.1.5.1

• Support for the D810 has been added.
• Support for the Communication Unit UT-1 Firmware Ver. 2.1 has been added 

Additional modifications to the Windows version

• Windows XP is no longer supported.

Changes in Nikon Communication Unit UT-1 firmware update v.2.1

• Support for the D810 has been added.

Nikon Capture NX-D officially released

As announced recently, the official version of Capture NX-D, Nikon's new processing and adjustment application, is now available for free download from the Nikon imaging website.

Capture NX-D offers raw development of images captured in by Nikon digital SLR cameras, Nikon 1 advanced cameras with interchangeable lenses, and COOLPIX compact cameras that support this capability.

New versions of Nikon ViewNX2 and Picture Control Utility available

Despite the fact that, in my opinion, the new Capture NX-D (available from 15 July, see earlier article) should replace it, Nikon still released an update to it's Nikon ViewNX2 application.

They also released a new version of the (usually integrated with e.g., Capture NX2) Picture Control Utility.

Both applications now have added support for the new D810 camera.

You can download the new software from the Nikon support site:

• Nikon ViewNX2 v2.10.0: Nikon EU | Nikon USA
• Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 v2.0.0: Nikon EU | Nikon USA

Changes in Nikon View NX2 v2.10.0

• Support for the D810 has been added.
• Picture Control Utility has been replaced by Picture Control Utility 2 v2.0.0 (see below).

Changes in Picture Control Utility 2 v2.0.0

• The application be used from ViewNX 2 and Capture NX-D, and also as a separate, stand-alone application after installation.
• Support for the D810 has been added.
• Users can now choose to save Custom Picture Control files in "NP2" format, compatible with the new Picture Control System, or in "NCP" format for use with all cameras that support Custom Picture Controls.
• The following are possible when "NP2" is selected.
  - Flat can now be selected from the list of Stored Picture Controls.
  - When Manual Adjust is selected, each of the adjustment items can now be adjusted in units of 0.25 for more precise adjustment.
  - A new Clarity item has been added to adjustment items.
  - The adjustment range for Brightness has been expanded to −1.50 to +1.50.
• The Custom Curve is larger, making it easier to adjust tone curves.
• The size of the application window can now be adjusted, allowing the area in which the preview image is display to be enlarged.
• A new Adjustments for Preview function enables adjustment of Exposure Comp. and White Balance. However, adjustments to these settings are not reflected in the Custom Picture Control being created.
• A Reflect changes on preview check box has been added for before-and-after comparison of the Custom Picture Control on the preview image.