UKC

I’m very pleased with my new OM-1, but displeased that my Lightroom 6.0 (perpetual licence pre-subscription) won’t read the camera’s .ORF RAW files, at least my previous Pentax setup could save RAW files as .DNG so I could work with Lightroom 6.0.

So I’m faced with upgrading to the Subscription version at £120 annually. I’ve tried the free OM workspace but it is very slow and seems limited and clunky.

I appreciate I could use a third party app to convert ORF to DNG then import them to Lightroom, but I would like to keep thinks simple and import direct from the SD card

is the upgrade from LR6.0 worth it?

In reply to kevin stephens:

https://www.darktable.org

In reply to kevin stephens: correct me if I’m wrong but Lightroom classic version 6 was released in 2015 so is 8 years or so out of date. If you’re keen on photography then the subscription version is worth every penny in my book. The recent Lightroom and photoshop releases have introduced loads of excellent features. The masking tools are excellent. If you are  happy with the functionality of what you have it may be worth looking  at some of the best open source software. The last time I checked which was about 12 months or so the best was very good indeed. I can’t remember which ones I checked out it may have been GIMP??? If you want to pay a one off fee there are lots of good alternatives worth checking out too. Capture One may be worth checking out and I think you can get it on a 30 day free trial. I’ve never used it but when I saw it in use it looked really good. 

In reply to kevin stephens:

Lightroom CC is really pretty good and worth the yearly fee for keeping it up to date and the introduction of new features. I don't mind paying for it plus the cloud storage is very convenient for working away from home etc. 

If you're upgrading from v6 you will probably be surprised at how much better it is! 

In reply to LucaC:

One of the reasons for sticking with LR is my renewed intention to properly organise existing photos, and in particular future photos. Has LR changed/improved regarding organising files?

In reply to kevin stephens:

Have you updated the Adobe Camera Raw? Not sure if the latest versions will work with an older version of Lightroom but it’s worth a shot before consigning it to the bin!

In reply to kevin stephens:

Lightroom is great, but it is expensive.  I keep meaning to make the leap to another product e.g. Darktable as recommended above, but have never quite got round to it.

Lightroom/Photoshop subscriptions do come up on offer now and again.  I got my current 12 months for £75 from Amazon during Prime Day.

In reply to kevin stephens:

Yes. Lightroom is a different beast today than even a year or 2 ago. Very effective AI denoising, intelligent masking, layers, people/ animal/ object subject detection, etc. Its an excellent piece of software and a no brainer if you are shooting in raw.

In reply to kevin stephens:

Lightroom CC has excellent photo management, with tagging, AI search, and the option to build folders and albums to organise etc. 

In reply to LucaC:

Indeed, I believe LR is still the best package put there…

there might be better apps for editing (Digital darkroom). Or better Digital asset organisation apps (library). But based on my research no app, ’cept LR has both top level quality. Granted, I haven’t looked all that much for the last two years, since pre Covid I decided to go from LR to Darktable… that process is stil in work, so can’t be arsed to see If something better is available… and Re-start the migrations, but now from two systems .

In reply to kevin stephens:

Not sure what it was like in your version but I have Folders and sub folders to house my shots that works well. I also star my photos so can just pull back pics with a particular star rating. You can add metadata to help searching but if you have a decent folder structure it’s not really worth it. The filtering features are excellent e.g. shots taken on a particular camera or lens. If you do projects you can add a shot to a collection without having to move it from its folder. The folder functionality doesn’t seem to have really changed in the last 5 years or so it’s always been excellent