# Sony A1 support



## Dave Clark (Feb 28, 2021)

It seems that Adobe has issued a pre-release version of LR that supports the Sony A1 to a few people.  The A1 is already available in Europe and Asia and will become available in NA later this week or early next week.  

Any word on when Adobe will release a LR version for the A1?

It also seems that Sony now embeds a full size JPEG in each RAW file, but the pre-release version does not read it and still provides only the thumbnail version.  Any indication Adobe is on top of that?


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## Johan Elzenga (Mar 1, 2021)

The people who could answer this are not allowed to do so because they have signed an NDA. Just be patient.


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 1, 2021)

While I can't say any more than Johan, I might point out that the last release was mid December and they're usually 2-3 months.


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## Dave Clark (Mar 4, 2021)

"Just be patient".   Thanks for the advice.

The A1 is already being delivered in Europe and Asia and will start shipping in NA in a few days.  Ship date in NA was originally scheduled for today, so if Sony had not delayed shipment Adobe would not have been serving their Sony customers well.  I would expect that Adobe, as a leader in post processing software, would be on top of this and would have a release ready for their customers.  Adobe is already late for Europe and Asia and it will be interesting to see if they are ready for NA.  

Until Adobe issues a release I need to adopt other ways to process the A1 files I expect to be making in a few days.  Maybe I need to spend some time with Imaging Edge.   Anybody know what is popular in Europe?


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 4, 2021)

Adobe is reliant on the manufacturers to provide them with cameras early enough... sadly very few cameras are supported the day they ship as a result. If camera manufacturers used a standardised format like dng, it wouldn’t be an issue, but unfortunately there are far too many politics involved.


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## Hal P Anderson (Mar 4, 2021)

Ninja'ed by Victoria, as usual.


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## mcschlotz (Mar 11, 2021)

Wait a minute... doesn't the issue at hand have to strictly do with the .ARW files generated by the A1?  Why would Adobe have to wait for possession of an actual camera vs having a bunch of ARW files?  Based solely upon that logic the delay argument doesn't seem to hold up.  There must be something else required.


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## clee01l (Mar 11, 2021)

mcschlotz said:


> Wait a minute... doesn't the issue at hand have to strictly do with the .ARW files generated by the A1?  Why would Adobe have to wait for possession of an actual camera vs having a bunch of ARW files?  Based solely upon that logic the delay argument doesn't seem to hold up.  There must be something else required.


In fact, you are correct.  What Adobe needs is the image file from the new camera.   The ARW is a proprietary file spec. from Sony.   They can and do change it internally with the release of every new model.   Sometimes the only change is the Model name written in the field for the model name.  There is also a "Makers Notes" variable length field embedded in the EXIF.   When the RAW file is parsed by Camera RAW, the first thing Adobe looks for is the model name for instructions on how to parse the rest of the file.    When it does not get a match with any known model's it can't continue with the conversion to RGB.   Even if the only change with the file format is the model name,  then this would be enough to stop the RAW conversion process.    There have been instances where editing the RAW proprietary format and replacing the new model name with a previous (known) model name is enough to permit Camera RAW to  complete the RAW conversion process.


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## Hal P Anderson (Mar 11, 2021)

mcschlotz said:


> There must be something else required.


I'm pretty sure that Adobe would have to have control over what their test image is an image of. You need to know what the colours in the scene were to be able to translate the raw file to RGB. I reckon a picture of some random scene wouldn't do.


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## Johan Elzenga (Mar 11, 2021)

I agree. To add basic compatibility they probably only need a raw file, but to create the necessary raw profiles they’ll need a camera, and preferably more than one.


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## Paul McFarlane (Mar 12, 2021)

You may note this has now been officially added to the Adobe Supported Camera list for Classic 10.2 for March (to match ACR 13.2 just released):

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/camera-raw/kb/camera-raw-plug-supported-cameras.html


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## Dave Clark (Apr 5, 2021)

Ver 10.2 has A1 support but does not make use of the full res JPEG embedded in RAW files for the preview.  Is there a way to get LR to extract the full res JPEG rather than the low res thumbnail?


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## Johan Elzenga (Apr 5, 2021)

Dave Clark said:


> Ver 10.2 has A1 support but does not make use of the full res JPEG embedded in RAW files for the preview.  Is there a way to get LR to extract the full res JPEG rather than the low res thumbnail?


I suspect that the A1 does not embed a full size preview. What you can do is to shoot raw+jpeg and *not* check the option to treat the jpegs as separate files. Then the jpegs will be used as thumbnails if you import with 'Embedded & sidecar' as thumbnail option.


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## Dave Clark (Apr 5, 2021)

Johan Elzenga said:


> I suspect that the A1 does not embed a full size preview. What you can do is to shoot raw+jpeg and *not* check the option to treat the jpegs as separate files. Then the jpegs will be used as thumbnails if you import with 'Embedded & sidecar' as thumbnail option.


People are using EXIFTOOL to extract the full res JPEG from RAW files, so it seems to be there. 
Your solution will work but at the expense of adding approximately a 20, 10, 6, or 4MB JPEG file (depending on the choice of XFine, Fine, Standard or Light) to the 52MB compressed RAW file.  I assume the embedded full res file is one of the smaller options, so either 4 or 6MB is duplicated.


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## johnrellis (Apr 7, 2021)

I downloaded a sample A1 raw from dpreview.com and its embedded JPEG preview is only 1616 x 1080:


```
$ exiftool -b -previewimage DSC09749.ARW > DSC09749.jpg
$ identify DSC09749.jpg
DSC09749.jpg JPEG 1616x1080 1616x1080+0+0 8-bit sRGB 262363B 0.000u 0:00.000
```

When I import that file into my LR 10.2 with the option Build Previews: Embedded & Sidecar and display it in Library > Loupe view at 100% zoom, LR displays a 1616 x 1080 image, which is then replaced by a fully rendered 1:1 preview after about 6 seconds:





Are you seeing something different?


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## Dave Clark (Apr 9, 2021)

johnrellis said:


> I downloaded a sample A1 raw from dpreview.com and its embedded JPEG preview is only 1616 x 1080:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...


There are two embedded JPEGs.  You extracted the thumbnail.  Use -jpgFromRaw.  The full res JPEG seems to be similar to the Light JPEG, about 3-4MB.

BTW, Isn't that supposed to be on the dog's back rather than his front?


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## Dave Clark (Apr 9, 2021)

johnrellis said:


> I downloaded a sample A1 raw from dpreview.com and its embedded JPEG preview is only 1616 x 1080:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...


I assume the reason you see the low res thumbnail preview replaced is that in Preferences > General you have checked "Replace embedded previews with standard previews during idle time".   That option is not checked by default, so you must have checked it.

BTW, I see that is not your dog, so ignore my remark about the harness being improperly installed.


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## johnrellis (Apr 9, 2021)

Dave Clark said:


> There are two embedded JPEGs.


Got it, right. 

Nikon Z 7 .nefs also have two embedded JPEGs, and in contrast to the A1, LR uses the larger one for embedded previews.  The Z 7 and the A1 store their larger embedded JPEGs in different locations, which may account for the difference in behavior  (IFD0/SubIFD versus IFD2).

I suggest you file a bug report:
https://www.lightroomqueen.com/send-bug-report-feature-request-adobe/


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