When will Lightroom 2015 CC be updated?

[rthomaslyons]

Its been quite awhile we have lived with Lightroom 2015 CC and no rumours or indication that we might see a sparkling new version of the software. I thought once I went with the subscription model there would be exciting new developments along the way to Lightroom CC ??? but now its just silence.  I used to loved the speculation of when the next update would be and what new features might be but now its just a deduction from my bank account each month and silence. Not even a beta to play with. You used to be so much more exciting...now its just work, work work.  I miss you Lightroom!

[ProDesignTools]

As you may know, the Lightroom team updates the software regularly. The latest LR version is now 2015.9 (released on March 7, 2017).

Several major new features have been added to Lightroom CC since the original 2015.0 release – for example, Dehaze (v. 2015.1) and Boundary Warp (v. 2015.4) and Guided Upright (v. 2015.6). These new features are only available to Lightroom CC subscribers such as yourself.

It is unusual that the LR version is still at 2015.x, considering the calendar year and that all the other major Creative Cloud tools have already moved to 2017.x versions... But no doubt this will happen for Lightroom at some point as well – and if you put together everything that's been added to Lightroom since version 2015.0 first came out in June 2015, it's pretty significant.

[John Waller]

rthomaslyons  wrote

I thought once I went with the subscription model there would be exciting new developments along the way to Lightroom CC ??? but now its just silence.

I wouldn't exactly call it silence. There are incremental improvements released regularly.

New features summary for the 2015 releases of Lightroom CC

But I do agree that with the Cloud model we no longer have the excitement of months of build up to an exciting new version with rumours, sneak peeks, groundbreaking new features to explore, online chatter, Adobe roadshows in your local area etc. I miss those days.

With the Cloud model, I'm invariably underwhelmed when something new is released for Lightroom because it hardly ever has any effect on my workflow. In fact, updates and upgrades often introduce issues to stable installations and introduce new bugs. More than once, we have been advised by early adopters to skip an update until a bug in the new version is fixed.

[BobRockefeller]

We do not, of course, know when Lightroom CC will get the 2017 mark, or if there will be something about it so significant that it "deserves" it.

What we can suspect, however, is the Lightroom is a mature (maturing?) product that may not see many revolution new features. I hope that Adobe does still have some cleverness up their sleeves, and can wow us.

[Michael J. Hoffman · Accepted solution]

There has been a lot more focus on the mobile app lately (which is good; I use it more than I did previously). But the features keep coming in the desktop version as well. With the recent .8 release of LR CC2015, we got Reference Views, which was a nice workflow enhancement. What would you like to see in a future release?

For my part, I'd like to see some attention given to the creaky old corners that haven't been updated in awhile: Publish services, the Book module, and the Web module (maybe removing it altogether, since it seems archaic these days).

If you have specific requests, you can submit them here:

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

There is also a lot of discussion about feature requests here:

Photoshop Lightroom | Photoshop Family Customer Community

Mike

[Yaakov Kossoy]

While I agree with you that LR does update with new features, the fact of the matter is, LR has not had a major change in over 2 years.  In that time, several other vendors (which I won't name) have come out with similar products and work much faster than LR.  I think what has most people concerned is the lack of movement in getting LR to the next level.  It was high-tech and the best thing for a photographers workflow several years ago, but the slowness of the app is forcing many to go to similar products that have a better response time for their workflow.

[dj_paige]

I think what has most people concerned is the lack of movement in getting LR to the next level.

I would suspect that this is really a game of leapfrog, rather than a game of continuous improvements. COmpetitors come out with new features and jump ahead on some scorecards; Adobe comes out with new features next and jumps ahead on some scorecards. And so on.

So this "lack of movement" doesn't concern me. In addition, we can't see the movement because it is all internal to Adobe right now; and unseen by outsiders, until such time as it is public when a major upgrade comes out. You can't tell me that Adobe isn't working on major new features (and I can't tell you they ARE working on major new features). But I would be surprised if Adobe is just sitting still doing nothing.

[johnrellis]

Adobe has been investing some non-trivial engineering effort in Project Nimbus, a "cloud-native" photo editor, that is supposed to be out in beta this year.  I'd guess that they're targeting a major release of LR desktop and LR mobile/web to the release of Nimbus, so they all play nicely in the sandbox.  Before flamage about the cloud commences, please read Victoria Bampton's article about the product and the kind of customers they're targeting; Adobe seems fully aware that Nimbus couldn't possibly replace LR desktop for many/most desktop users.

[dj_paige]

While this is nice to know, John, it doesn't really address (except tangentially) the need for new features in LR that will keep the capabilities of Lightroom equal to, or ahead of, competitors. In particular, the last major update the image processing engine was Version 2012, which came out, according to my math, five years ago. I would assume Adobe is developing a new image processing engine (whether or not it winds up in Project Nimbus is irrelevant here), and it is about time for them to release it, in my opinion. If the next version of LR comes out and there's no new image processing engine, I will be very disappointed, and I'm sure many others will be disappointed as well.

[johnrellis]

I think the information about Project Nimbus is relevant to the question of when a major release of LR might appear.  I think it's plausible speculation that Adobe wants to release Nimbus this year, that Nimbus will be a significant step up for Adobe's cloud platform, and that it will take significant changes to LR Desktop to integrate with Nimbus.  So Adobe could be holding off on LR CC 2017 until Nimbus is ready.   But this is just educated speculation...

[dj_paige]

I'm not talking about timing of the release.

I'm also not talking about adding features to integrate LR with Project Nimbus. Nor do I think the other posters in this thread were talking about this.

[JP Hess]

And your point? I don't think you took the time to consider what John was suggesting.

[dj_paige]

John and I are not talking about the same new features. I was not talking about whatever new features will be required for Project Nimbus.

[johnrellis]

I thought some of the others were talking about when the next major update would come (as opposed to an incremental CC 2015 release).  But if not, then my comments aren't relevant...

[dj_paige]

I was specifically responding to Yaakov Kossoy in reply #5, whom I quoted and who said

I think what has most people concerned is the lack of movement in getting LR to the next level.

in the context that Adobe is falling behind compared to other similar software.

Whether or not Project Nimbus is the answer to this question is unknown, but I think it is an entirely separate issue.

[99jon]

I have no idea if there will be an advance on PV2012 as suggested by you Paige, but I’m speculating any new version must strike a balance between those who purchase and those who commit to monthly payments. What would subscribers think if Adobe simply bundled all new features into a perpetual license; something perhaps called LR7?

I’m sure Adobe is abreast of the competition, but past timescales may not be an indication of future releases. Maybe something like a new NR algorithm with performance enhancements would appeal to both types of customer. Or even the ability to export as HEIF instead of jpeg or video as HEVC instead of MP4!

[DdeGannes]

I tend to agree with dj-paige the PV 2012 is a bit outdated and while opinions may differ its my view that there are several raw processing applications that have a better processing engine than LR/ACR e.g Capture One, DxO Optics  Pro, ACDC Pro, SilkyPix Pro are examples. Overall Lightroom has a better editing feature set but the processing engine needs updating.

[johnrellis]

"I think what has most people concerned is the lack of movement in getting LR to the next level." ... Whether or not Project Nimbus is the answer to this question is unknown, but I think it is an entirely separate issue.

I agree that Nimbus is very unlikely to address the concerns of those who think LR Desktop is becoming uncompetitive by failing to introduce new features.

However, it may be that Adobe has such features queued up for the next major release of LR Deskop (CC 2017?), and the marketers have tied the timing of that release to the release of Nimbus.  For example, suppose the marketers have decided that CC 2017 will have a new rendering engine and it will have tighter integration with the cloud / mobile via Nimbus.  If that is the case, then we're seeing the release of this hypothesized rendering engine (and other new features) lashed to the release of Nimbus.

In this sense, the timing of Nimbus is relevant to those who are worried that Adobe isn't moving LR to the next level.

[Yaakov Kossoy]

If that is the case, the least Adobe can do is at least give it's user community a hint at what is being planned and an estimate on release.  But let's face the facts, LR hasn't had a major redesign in several years and it has become the old dog in the yard.  Users are starting to leave because of LR taking too long to load a photo up.  When the last redesign was done, DSLR's topped out at around 12 MP, now they top out over 40 and medium format topping out over 80.  The engine can't keep up, like the other vendors have been able to improve.

In the IT world (and Adobe is a big part of it), an applications lifespan is usually about 3 - 4 years before it is completely obsolete and a major redesign gets released.  Adobe is behind the curve.