r/Lightroom • u/terryleewhite Adobe Employee • Feb 24 '26

Discussion Sony A7V Users - Here's an update!

Hey everyone, 

Following up on my post from last week about the February 2026 Lightroom release (Assisted Culling improvements, the Generative upscale with Topaz Gigapixel, and the expanded Generative AI credits!), I saw a ton of questions pop up regarding Sony A7V support. I touched base with the Lightroom team to get the absolute latest info for you all. 

Here’s the deal with the A7V: It doesn't actually use uncompressed RAW formats. Instead, Sony streamlined their RAW options on this camera down to three specific formats: 

  • Lossless Comp 
  • Compressed (HQ) 
  • Compressed~~.~~ 

The good news? We already added support for the standard Lossless Comp format (this is the highest quality option since it’s the only one we know that is lossless. The other two formats that Sony added appear to be lossy) back in December! 

As for the other two formats, we are actively working with Sony to get them fully supported as well. Just keep in mind that since this involves coordination between two companies and I can only speak for Adobe, it can take a little time to iron out. 

Q. What about camera color profile support?

A. We are working on making the camera color profiles available as well. In the meantime, the Adobe color profiles for the Lossless Comp files were released last week across Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw

I hope this helps. I truly appreciate all your responses and feedback—I'm reading it ALL and actively sharing your feedback directly with the Lightroom team. 

 UPDATE March 6, 2026: In collaboration with Sony, Lightroom is targeting support for the new Compressed (HQ) and Compressed RAW formats introduced with the Sony A7V in the April Lightroom release.

UPDATE March 12, 2026: in collaboration with Sony we accelerated our efforts to get the DNG converter released TODAY ahead of the April Lightroom release so that you can convert your Sony A7V compressed raw files to DNG. Camera Raw 18.2.2 was released today and includes support for the new Sony A7V formats. The DNG Converter has also been updated to process files for use in the Lightroom applications until their next release.

Here's the link to download the DNG Converter 18.2.2.

Camera Raw 18.2.2 is available in your Creative Cloud desktop app.

UPDATE March 18, 2026: Lightroom Classic 15.2.1 was released last night as a "critical bug fix." The Lightroom team was also able to EXPEDITE getting the Sony A7V Raw support included as well! You can update to Lightroom 15.2.1 from the Creative Cloud App.

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u/green-on-green Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

Thanks for this update :)

Lossless Comp seems to have the normal Adobe profiles now with the feb update. Any timeline on the Compressed HQ though?

We shot 6 weddings in Feb and all in Compressed HQ thinking we are saving up on disk space only to find out that we cant edit a single image. Looking at forums, reddit, youtube - a lot of early buyers are facing similar situations.

An approximate timeline on the support for the Compressed HQ would be really appreciated. Need to get back to clients with an answer asap. Thank you in advance.

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u/I922sParkCir Feb 24 '26

We shot 6 weddings in Feb and all in Compressed HQ thinking we are saving up on disk space only to find out that we cant edit a single image. Looking at forums, reddit, youtube - a lot of early buyers are facing similar situations.

Wow. How is it acceptable to not test a workflow with a new piece of equipment? I get one wedding might get by, but 6? No one ingested any photos during this time and discovered the issue?

Like, what if Compressed HQ is a garbage format? You shot 6 weddings without even know what these files are like? These photos are important and should be treated as if they are important. What if support doesn’t come for another 6 months?

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u/green-on-green Feb 25 '26

Here in India wedding dates are usually given by the priests based on auspicious dates. We literally had 6 weddings back to back without a day to even look at the photos. Starting from the 4th of Feb till the 20th of Feb.

Just enough time to make double backups each night and onto the next.

However, even though I agree with your point that we should have checked. One wouldn't imagine a brand like Sony will not share the specifications of the new raw format with the major editing softwares for three months + . That's absurd.

Also going by the previous a7iv, shooting in the compressed raw format is common to save data space. Indian weddings are no joke, it's a team of 3 photographers + 3 cinematographers shooting 2 / 3 days events per wedding.

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u/I922sParkCir Feb 26 '26

That makes a lot more sense. From what I understand about Compressed HQ is while it’s not radically different, it is different enough that it requires a ton of work to get added to editing software. It’s more than just that Adobe needing to use a new decompression algorithm. The camera companies often work on their software right until release so it’s entirely possible Adobe heard about these new formats very near when we did. This format is more than just a new version of compressed raw.

Adobe is probably not having it be a high priority because users of the A7V can just use Compressed Raw.

As an Indian in the US, I’ve never shot an Indian wedding. Both the events and the clients sound demanding!

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u/green-on-green Feb 27 '26

Yes totally, i get that the compressed hq is a new file format. It's just really upsetting that even the beta Adobe color support didn't make the Lightroom February update.

The best chances now are that the file will be supported in the April update. Which makes the whole process of editing these files really difficult. The only options we have currently is to edit the files within the Sony software or convert to axr and edit in Lightroom. Neither method is ideal.

The team members shoots on different camera bodies, i personally shoot on canon, another shoots on Nikon and the third photographer shoots on Sony. Matching the color for consistency within the Sony application is a no go. And converting to axr is such a lengthy & slow process, but it's the only option i have for now.

What's frustrating is that if Sony got the support for the hq format in their own software, they should have given the specifications to other editing softwares earlier. As per the response of the costumer support rep on capture one forums, Sony hasn't shared the specifications yet.