Editing programs and new file types

So I have Photoshop Elements 8 and it doesn't seem to recognize the RAW files from my 60D. I looked in the help section and it says it supports camera RAW files, and it even recognized the files from my 7D when I had that. I'm a little annoyed because I had to upgrade to 8 because 6 didn't recognize my 7D files just like 8 isn't recognizing my 60D.

So I'm thinking about just dropping the money and getting Lightroom or something similar, assuming it doesn't have the same problem every time a new camera comes out. I don't know anything about Lightroom though, like what version to buy, etc. So I have a few questions:

1.) Does Lightroom suffer from the same problem of not recognizing newer cameras?
2.) Which version would you recommend? I am strictly a hobbyist and do mostly landscape shooting.
3.) Anything else I should know about Lightroom? Or would you even recommend something different?

As far as I know the latest version of ACR that Photoshop Elements 8 uses is version 6.2. Version 6.1 doesn't support the 60D but 6.2 and newer does.

Upgrade ACR to version 6.2 (the highest version supported by Elements 8) and you should be good to go

Here's the ACR compatibility table: http://helpx.adobe.com …patible-applications.html

Morlow wrote in post #15089149
So I have Photoshop Elements 8 and it doesn't seem to recognize the RAW files from my 60D. I looked in the help section and it says it supports camera RAW files, and it even recognized the files from my 7D when I had that. I'm a little annoyed because I had to upgrade to 8 because 6 didn't recognize my 7D files just like 8 isn't recognizing my 60D.

So I'm thinking about just dropping the money and getting Lightroom or something similar, assuming it doesn't have the same problem every time a new camera comes out. I don't know anything about Lightroom though, like what version to buy, etc. So I have a few questions:

1.) Does Lightroom suffer from the same problem of not recognizing newer cameras?
2.) Which version would you recommend? I am strictly a hobbyist and do mostly landscape shooting.
3.) Anything else I should know about Lightroom? Or would you even recommend something different?

The latest version of Lightroom was just released. Lightroom 4.2 will support your camera and also contains lens profiles for most of the current lenses from a variety of manufacturers. The RAW processor should be equal to the latest version of ACR, which I believe is Camera Raw 7.2. You can keep Elements installed and export files to it directly from Lightroom in order to use any features not available in Lightroom.

Lightroom works very differently from Elements and PS. Its 100% non destructive. There is no save feature. All modifications are instructions that are applied to your RAW or JPG files on the fly. The original files are never modified. If you want to give someone a copy of your images with changes included you export the file in several formats. There are lots of incredible features like snapshots of images at various points in time so you can pick and choose which changes gave the best results. A history with unlimited undo's that works across sessions and allows you to jump directly to a much earlier state using a list of changes, and virtual images, so you can have multiple, permanent copies (within Lightroom) of images with different changes and without taking up additional space on your drive. Depending on what you use Elements for, Lightroom may not be an Elements replacement. It does about 70% or 80% of what Elements does, and does it for the most part better and easier.

That said, if you are used to Elements 8 and rather not spend the cash, try updating to the highest version of Camera RAW supported by Elements 8.

Every Raw converter in existence does, because all the camera makers change their Raw format slightly with every new model. Moreover, since every model sees colors slightly differently each one has to be individually profiled. Adobe has supplied a solution, however; the free DNG converter. Most versions of Lightroom and ACR will support even DNGs made from newer cameras which thet don't support directly.

There is only one current version, LR 4. It is updated (for free) roughly every three months. At present we have LR 4.2.

Try the 30 day free trial before making any decisions.

Thanks guys. I didn't realize I could update Elements 8 like that. I will try that and see if that works when I get home from work.

Updating my Adobe worked! Thanks again.