Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC

[gregmeister_admin]

Greetings,
There is certainly a lot of discussion going on regarding Lightroom this month, so I want to add my voice to the pile...

Here is what I have found out so far. (YAMMV)

1) Lightroom Classic is the latest version of Lightroom for the subscription users.
2) The stand-alone version of Lightroom not linked to a CC or "photographers bundle" will not be updated after 2017. If you have the stand-alone version of Lightroom 6 and are not a subscriber you are holding onto the last version of Lightroom outside of subscription and it will not update for new cameras nor will it get any bug fixes or feature updates.
3) Subscribers to the Adobe Creative cloud or Photographers bundle will now have a choice...

A) You can continue to use Lightroom Classic (new name for old Lightroom) and it will be updated and feature supported as a part of
the subscription service you already have. It's not going anywhere until the winds at Adobe change direction again.

B) You can move to the new cloud based version of Lightroom CC which is designed for mobile photography and cloud based users. It
has some features that Lightroom Classic does not have but they are focused more on the mobile experience and most Classic users will not need them

C) You can use both... Classic and CC do not share a catalog and do not talk to each other. Changes in Classic are not passed to CC
unless you export and import your images.

On the whole, the discussion online appears to be fear driven and full of what if's. People are afraid Adobe will funnel the Lightroom users into the CC version but currently they serve 2 separate user groups and should not compete too much. There are other options out there and anyone who is seriously concerned can go look at products like "ON1 RAW" and "Affinty".

I certainly remember the original discussion about Adobe changing to the subscription model and all the angst and anger that went along with it. I participated in that process as a Beta Tester for Adobe and I voiced my strong objections at that time. I have also been a subscription user for 2 years. My experience with subscription has been far better than I feared and easier than I expected. Having the tools we use to create changed without our "approval" certainly can strike fear into our creative souls but in this case the change is minor and the long term outlook appears to be stable until after 2018.

Of course, Adobe can always change its collective mind...
Greg