Photoclubalpha

Adobe Camera Raw 5.5 Release Candidate [EDIT: ... and DNG Converter 5.5 RC, too]

New cameras supported:

• Nikon D300s
• Nikon D3000
• Olympus E-P1
• Panasonic DMC-FZ35

Camera Raw 5.5 includes a correction to the demosaic algorithms for Bayer sensor cameras with unequal green response.

works on CS4 only, I guess...

pakodominguez wrote:works on CS4 only, I guess...

Sure. Since ACR 1.0, all ACR versions always worked with their respective Photoshop version only.

Oh, this reminds me that I forgot something---Adobe DNG Converter 5.5 Release Candidate also is available on Adobe Labs, for those who are not using Photoshop CS4.

-- Olaf

I am using an ACR x.y (I think 4.2 or 3.9 or something like this, could this be?) with PS Elements 5, though you get much less options than in ACR with CS or Lightroom.

But I suppose my Elements is too old for the new ACR and Adobes European Price Policy is Out of scope for a hobbyist like me!

I've downloaded, installed and done some comparisons and viewed a bunch of files - it's definitely changed the colour conversion of Alpha files. The change is not huge but then if you examine the G1 and G2 values in technically deeper raw converters, they are very close anyway. Treating them identically may be a fault ACR has had in the past, accounting for some of the peculiar white balance issues.

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2009/08/2 ... -a-little/

Definitely worth upgrading to this.

David

David Kilpatrick wrote:I've downloaded, installed and done some comparisons and viewed a bunch of files - it's definitely changed the colour conversion of Alpha files.

Umm ... I don't know. With my A900 raw files, I can hardly see a difference. Sure, there is a difference, but it's so tiny that in order to notice I must examine the images at 400 % view. Basically, the ACR 5.5 conversions are slightly softer than ACR 5.4 conversions. I think they also have very slightly better tonal separation and colour separation ... but that's hard to tell. The large-scale colour rendition has not changed.

David, in your article you said in order to compare, one has to make the 5.4 conversion before installing ACR 5.5---is that what you did? Please note that installing ACR 5.5 will also overwrite the Adobe Standard camera profiles! In order to test the difference between ACR 5.4 and 5.5, you must just swap the Camera Raw.8bi plug-in files only rather than doing a full installation. So (1) save the old ACR 5.4 Camera Raw.8bi file, (2) install ACR 5.5 beta along with the new profiles, and then (3) switch between the two plug-in files to compare, using the new profiles always. When you do a comparison before and after a full ACR 5.5 installation then you're seeing the Camera Raw difference plus the camera profile difference.

-- Olaf

I would expect it to need new profiles - and did not restore old profiles, I've got a selection of custom profiles which have been retained. Of course the new profile might actually be reducing the difference in raw conversion values, not adding to it. I don't have time to do multiple reinstallations now, but I am sure from a number of revisited shots that 5.5 is significantly better than 5.4 even though the visual colour difference is marginal (or invisible without special conditions).

Whatever they have done, it has reduced noise levels as well as changed colours. I'm happy to let others test that and find it out. I am certain that technical testers with measuring software will find it has improved the raw conversion for many cameras.

Anyway, it's effectively a free upgrade if you have CS4. It's the first sign to me that Adobe have realised something is fundamentally weak in ACR and needs attention.

David

Olaf, 5.5 uses the same A700 and A900 standard profiles as before. October 2008 vintage. I also have all the other installations such as Beta and Beta 1 camera profiles. I've just checked all the support installations and there is no trace of anything new for any Sony model except A230, A330 and A380 which do have July 2009 profiles - and other new models such as D300s.

David