Lightroom 6 upgrades

[MikeFromMesa]

I bought LR 6.3 some time ago and, having read that there would be no updates or upgrades other than CC, eventually drifted off to other workflow tools (Dxo's Optics Pro and Capture One). I recently returned to LR to check how it worked with some specialized layering tools and, out of curiosity, checked to see what the latest version of LR was. It turned out to be 6.8 and, of course, I updated.

So clearly Adobe did, in fact, update LR and I wanted to ask if there are going to be regular updates to LR 6 or if 6.8 is the end. Did Adobe change its mind about updates? Or did I just get some bad information that there would be no further updates after 6.3?

Thank you.

 

[tspear]

Mike,

You got bad information. Adobe has continued to improve Lr. Adobe sells Lr in two models:
1. Purchased
2. Monthly subscription which includes Photoshop

Adobe has sort of committed that there will be a purchased version 7 available. The cynical say no way will Adobe do so, the majority who post who have used Adobe products for years have stated Adobe will announce multiple versions in advance when a purchased version is no longer available; like Adobe did for the Creative Cloud programs, for Adobe Connect....

Now the difference between the purchased and the subscription is that as new features are added to the application, the license for the subscription users allows the features to be used. While the enw features are in the application, the purchased users cannot access the new features. At some point Adobe will have added enough new features that they will likely create a new version, e.g. version 7 at which point purchased license holders can upgrade and get the new features.

For those which have purchased the license, the model has not changed. The subscription is a new model, giving "early" access to features.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

Thank you. I guess I need to remember that some information I get from the internet needs to be checked and rechecked to make sure it is not just someone's opinion.

I did notice that version 6.8 has functionality that I do not remember being in 6.3 so I guess LR, unlike PS, will be regularly available as a purchased product for some time yet. Thank you for the clarification.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Thank you. I guess I need to remember that some information I get from the internet needs to be checked and rechecked to make sure it is not just someone's opinion.

I did notice that version 6.8 has functionality that I do not remember being in 6.3 so I guess LR, unlike PS, will be regularly available as a purchased product for some time yet. Thank you for the clarification.

I don't think that 6.8 has functionality that 6.3 does not have. It has bugfixes and new camera support only. New functionality is only added in Lightroom CC updates, that's the fundamental difference between Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC2015: the perpetual version only gets bugfixes and new camera support, the latter version also gets new functionality.

 

[Jim Wilde]

I think there were a couple of changes which modified the UI slightly on the perpetual version, such as the new Transform panel in Develop (came out of the Guided Upright toll which is CC-only), and the Adobe Stock publish service, and I think the Preference option to use existing Smart Previews in Develop also made it into the perpetual version.

Nothing major, but just maybe enough to give the impression that things had been changed.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

After I updated I opened LR and saw the Transform Panel and the Upright settings. I had not remembered that from the 6.3 version and I just opened the old version (thank you Carbon Copy Cloner) and, sure enough, there is no Transform Panel in that version. That is what I thought I remembered when I wrote that there seemed to be new functionality. I have not checked the Preferences in the old version to see if there are any new settings.

 

[PhilBurton]

Mike,



Adobe has sort of committed that there will be a purchased version 7 available.

Mike,

How/when/where has Adobe made such a commitment? Time frame? There was nothing about a LR V.7 at the recent MAX conference.

I would very much love to see a V.7. I will upgrade as soon as V.7.01 is released.

Phil

 

[clee01l]

Mike,

How/when/where has Adobe made such a commitment? Time frame? There was nothing about a LR V.7 at the recent MAX conference.

I would very much love to see a V.7. I will upgrade as soon as V.7.01 is released.

Phil

I think what Tim is really saying is that Adobe has not specifically stated that there will not be a LR7. LR6.x will continue to receive updates but no new functionality until there is a LRCC2017.0 At which time one can say for certain whether there will be a LR7.0 with the added functionality in LRCC2017.0 Note: It speculation on my part that the next version of LRCC will be released in 2017.

 

[tspear]

Mike,

How/when/where has Adobe made such a commitment? Time frame? There was nothing about a LR V.7 at the recent MAX conference.

I would very much love to see a V.7. I will upgrade as soon as V.7.01 is released.

Phil

Phil,

We have beat this bush to death multiple times in multiple threads. My previous links, and Adobe history has not convinced you otherwise. So I am not going to rehash it again.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

Mike,

How/when/where has Adobe made such a commitment? Time frame? There was nothing about a LR V.7 at the recent MAX conference.

I would very much love to see a V.7. I will upgrade as soon as V.7.01 is released.

Phil

You directed this post to me but I was not the one who made the statement. I think you meant to direct it to tspear.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

After I updated I opened LR and saw the Transform Panel and the Upright settings. I had not remembered that from the 6.3 version and I just opened the old version (thank you Carbon Copy Cloner) and, sure enough, there is no Transform Panel in that version. That is what I thought I remembered when I wrote that there seemed to be new functionality.

That is correct, but for Lightroom 6 it's a cosmetic change only.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

That is correct, but for Lightroom 6 it's a cosmetic change only.

It seems like new functionality for LR 6 to me. Version 6.3 did not have that panel and its functionality, LR 6.8 does. How is that only a cosmetic change? Or am I misunderstanding your post?

 

[Johan Elzenga]

It seems like new functionality for LR 6 to me. Version 6.3 did not have that panel and its functionality, LR 6.8 does. How is that only a cosmetic change? Or am I misunderstanding your post?

You're wrong. Lightroom 6.3 already had all the functionality of the new Transform panel, but everything was in the 'Lens Corrections' panel. In Lightroom 6.8 the same functionality is split over the 'Lens Corrections' panel and the new 'Transform' panel. There is no new functionality (for CC subscribers there is). That means it's only a cosmetic (interface) change in the perpetual license version.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

You're wrong. Lightroom 6.3 already had all the functionality of the new Transform panel, but everything was in the 'Lens Corrections' panel. In Lightroom 6.8 the same functionality is split over the 'Lens Corrections' panel and the new 'Transform' panel. There is no new functionality (for CC subscribers there is). That means it's only a cosmetic (interface) change in the perpetual license version.

OK. Now I see what you are saying.

This was new information for me so I went back to compare the settings. Here is the result of the screen shots and the comparison. As you can see there are two sliders in 6.8 that are not in 6.3, but I am not sure that they add anything really new.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

I admit I didn't realize that X Offset and Y Offset were added to 6.8 (or actually it was the 6.6 update that changed this). I thought they too were only in Lightroom CC. These sliders do not really add anything you couldn't achieve before with the other sliders, but they do make life easier. In that respect you could say they add a little functionality. The big difference with the subscription version is that in Lightroom CC adds 'Guided Upright'. That is really new functionality. It does not only make it much easier to do these corrections, but you can also make more extreme corrections than with the manual sliders.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

I admit I didn't realize that X Offset and Y Offset were added to 6.8 (or actually it was the 6.6 update that changed this). I thought they too were only in Lightroom CC. These sliders do not really add anything you couldn't achieve before with the other sliders, but they do make life easier. In that respect you could say they add a little functionality. The big difference with the subscription version is that in Lightroom CC adds 'Guided Upright'. That is really new functionality. It does not only make it much easier to do these corrections, but you can also make more extreme corrections than with the manual sliders.

I expect that the CC version is much more up to date and has more advanced/newer features. Adobe is updating it, and the associated PS product, regularly and the subscription model is almost certainly a greater profit center than the perpetual model and that seems fair considering that the subscription subscribers are paying more money for their product than the perpetual model users. If I had any great interest in PS itself I would probably be a subscription user myself.

My personal opinion is that Adobe was very smart in their switch to the subscription model and those using it are probably getting more than their money's worth at only $10/month. Both products (LR and PS) are first class and industry standards. I switched to other workflow tools but I still find myself being drawn back, from time to time, to LR if only for its ease of access to all of the tools available through it as plugins. If Adobe offered only LR as a subscription model at, say, $5/month I would probably change from LR 6 to CC but I do find that LR 6 serves all of my current general needs and if I do need a pixel editor I find that Affinity Photo is more than functional enough for what I do.

Thanks for the help.

 

[PhilBurton]

Phil,

We have beat this bush to death multiple times in multiple threads. My previous links, and Adobe history has not convinced you otherwise. So I am not going to rehash it again.

Mike,

The only history that matters is that Adobe has moved all their Creative Suite products from perpetual license to subscription. And Wall Street rewards companies that have subscription pricing with higher share prices.

We are always welcoming new users to this forum, which is great. I'm concerned that they might read some of these threads and mistakenly conclude that there will definitely be a LR 7 perpetual license release. Please don't misunderstand. I am a perpetual license user, not a subscription user. I watch Adobe keenly for any authoritative indication, or even an accidental disclosure, that there is going to be an LR 7. I haven't seen any such indication, which is why I asked you.

It is entirely possible that Adobe does have an LR 7 release planned, and some members of this forum have knowledge of that release, but if so, they are under non-disclosure.

Phil

 

[Johan Elzenga]

You have to understand that there is no 'Lightroom 6' as a separate product. There is only one version of Lightroom, and your license (perpetual or subscription) determines which features are activated and which features are not activated. That means that the question whether there will be a 'Lightroom 7' one day is not a technical question. There won't be any 'Lightroom 7 beta testers' who could accidentally leak something, there are only 'Lightroom beta testers'. And they don't have to know either. It's a marketing decision only, and a decision that can be taken at a fairly late stage.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

You have to understand that there is no 'Lightroom 6' as a separate product. There is only one version of Lightroom, and your license (perpetual or subscription) determines which features are activated and which features are not activated. That means that the question whether there will be a 'Lightroom 7' one day is not a technical question. There won't be any 'Lightroom 7 beta testers' who could accidentally leak something, there are only 'Lightroom beta testers'. And they don't have to know either. It's a marketing decision only, and a decision that can be taken at a fairly late stage.

Yes. I understand the concept. Some of the functionality is "locked" out of use for perpetual users by the state of their license and that is both easy to do and easy to change, so updated versions of LR 6 may suddenly change to LR 7 (or 8, or 9 ... or CC for that matter) with only the installation of a new license or license type and no need to even download a new version.

This is not a new concept and I have known companies years ago when disk space was expensive to do the same with hardware - that is, sell equipment with disk space of x MB (this was a long time ago) and, if the user decided to upgrade their hardware, just install a patch to "unlock" some additional disk space. This is just the software equivalent.

 

[davidedric]

FWIW something similar exists in Elements. The ElementsXXL plug in unlocks quite an array of features that are otherwise only available in CC. I'm not an Elements (or Photoshop) user, so I don't know how important or useful they are.

Dave

 

[Johan Elzenga]

FWIW something similar exists in Elements. The ElementsXXL plug in unlocks quite an array of features that are otherwise only available in CC. I'm not an Elements (or Photoshop) user, so I don't know how important or useful they are.

No, you can't compare it. Photoshop Elements is really a different product. It has a lot of features that Photoshop CC does not have. Yes, Adobe was a little lazy apparently, so there is some Photoshop CC code in Photoshop Elements that the ElementsXXL plugin can unlock, but Photoshop Elements is not simply a locked down version of Photoshop CC. Lightroom 6.x on the other hand is nothing more than a locked down version of Lightroom CC2015.x.

 

[PhilBurton]

You have to understand that there is no 'Lightroom 6' as a separate product. There is only one version of Lightroom, and your license (perpetual or subscription) determines which features are activated and which features are not activated. That means that the question whether there will be a 'Lightroom 7' one day is not a technical question. There won't be any 'Lightroom 7 beta testers' who could accidentally leak something, there are only 'Lightroom beta testers'. And they don't have to know either. It's a marketing decision only, and a decision that can be taken at a fairly late stage.

Johan,

Such a decision cannot be taken at a late stage, because of launch planing considerations. And if a DVD version is planned, there are sales channel issue to address. And yes, there do need to be separate beta testers, if only to make sure that the "feature lockout" functionality works as expected.

Look at the issues surrounding ON1 RAW. Adobe is smart enough to avoid those rookie mistakes.

Phil

 

[Johan Elzenga]

There were/are no separate beta testers for Lightroom CC2015 and Lightroom 6, so no I don't think so.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Besides: if and when Lightroom 7 is launched, there will be no difference with the Lightroom CC version of that moment. Just like when Lightroom CC2015 and Lightroom 6 were launched. The difference (by means of locking out features) would start when updates are released after that launch. Lightroom CC would get new features with each update, Lightroom 7 would not.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Oh, and by the way: Lightroom 7 would have a few million beta testers already. They are called 'Lightroom CC2015.x users'...