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Camera Raw 18.7 is Here: Faster Culling, Smarter Exposure Matching, and More!

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Camera Raw v18.7 brings a range of workflow enhancements and quality improvements designed to help you move through your editing process more efficiently. From faster photo browsing and more consistent exposure across images to greater workspace flexibility, refined editing results, and expanded camera and lens support, this update focuses on making everyday photo editing smoother and more intuitive.

What’s New

The September 2026 release of Adobe Camera Raw brings new ways to speed up photo selection, create consistency across large shoots, and refine your editing workspace. The new Grid view makes it easier to browse and compare large groups of photos in a thumbnail-based layout, helping you quickly identify your best shots, apply ratings, and select multiple images at once. For photographers working with batches of images, Match Exposure can now automatically normalize exposure using capture metadata, with an advanced option that also compensates for changes in light conditions across a sequence. This release also introduces a floating Histogram and Vectorscope panel for a more flexible editing experience, improved Reflection Removal for cleaner results on glass, water, and reflective surfaces, and expanded support for new cameras and lenses from leading manufacturers.

Learn more about the latest updates here.

👉 Download the latest version of Camera Raw here.

How to Update

Update to Camera Raw v18.7 through the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application, or download and install it manually from here.

Join the Conversation

Have you tried the new Grid view or Match Exposure workflow yet? We'd love to hear how these updates fit into your editing process. Share your experience, favourite new feature, or any before-and-after examples with the community and help shape future Camera Raw releases.

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martinb37856479

Participant

Why doesn’t the image automatically fit back into view after cropping, like it did before? Is there a setting I need to enable? After cropping, it just stays at the previous zoom level. Now I have to press CMD+OPTION+0 and then CMD+0 before the magnifier works as it did before the update. Otherwise it only toggles between “fit in frame” and the zoom level from before the crop, instead of switching to 100%. This update has introduced many changes that disrupt the workflow I was used to.

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ph.hiroki

Participant

Title: Camera Raw causes extreme memory pressure when opened from Bridge on M2 MacBook Pro (16GB RAM)

I've been experiencing this issue since before my current software version.

When I open Camera Raw from Adobe Bridge, memory pressure increases dramatically unless I disable GPU acceleration. This happens on my M2 MacBook Pro with 16GB of unified memory.

The problem occurs as soon as Camera Raw opens, not while editing or applying adjustments. With GPU acceleration enabled, memory usage spikes immediately, and editing becomes extremely sluggish. Slider adjustments and other image operations can take several seconds to respond.

For now, disabling both GPU options in Camera Raw's Performance settings prevents this behavior. However, I would prefer to keep GPU acceleration enabled if possible.

I've already tried resetting Camera Raw's GPU support, but it didn't resolve the issue.

Has anyone experienced the same problem? Are there any other solutions or workarounds I could try besides disabling GPU acceleration?

System details:

Mac: M2 MacBook Pro
Unified memory: 16GB
macOS: 26.3.1
Adobe Camera Raw: Latest version
Workflow: Opening RAW files in Camera Raw directly from Adobe Bridge

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Bubbly_contributors3d46

Participant

Changing keyboard shortcuts that users have relied on for years is completely unacceptable. The lack of an up-to-date list of shortcuts on Adobe's website, combined with the inability to customize them, is a slap in the face to paying subscribers.

Most photographers use Camera Raw for fast, high-volume photo editing. Efficiency and muscle memory, built over years of practice, are essential. And now, overnight, Adobe has turned our established workflows upside down.

We pay for professional software, yet we're given chaos and forced to relearn everything from scratch. Restore the old shortcuts or let us customize them!

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Bubbly_contributors3d46

Participant

Changing keyboard shortcuts that photographers have been using FOR YEARS is absolutely unacceptable. There is no reasonable justification for disrupting workflows that users have spent years building and refining.

Even worse, THERE IS NO UP-TO-DATE LIST OF KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS ON ADOBE'S OFFICIAL WEBSITE. This is an outright mockery of users who pay for a subscription.

And on top of that, WE CANNOT CUSTOMIZE SHORTCUTS TO SUIT OUR OWN NEEDS. Seriously? In professional software in 2026?

Many photographers use Camera Raw for fast, high-volume editing of hundreds or even thousands of photos. Efficiency matters, and muscle memory is essential. We have spent years developing efficient workflows, and Adobe has turned them upside down overnight.

No meaningful transition period, no up-to-date documentation, no option to restore the previous shortcuts, and no way to customize them.

This is not an improvement to the user experience. It is sabotage of the workflows professionals have spent years developing.

We pay for a subscription, yet Adobe seems to have forgotten that software is supposed to serve its users, not force them to abandon years of established habits because someone decided to change things without providing the basic tools needed to adapt.

Restore the previous shortcuts, or at the very least, let us choose between the old and new layouts and customize the shortcuts ourselves. This should be standard in professional software, not something users have to beg for.

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robnpryce

Participant

These new shortcuts are trash. At least give me the option to change them back or allow any customization. It was annoying when the tools and toolbars changed and now again with shortcuts. I didnt choose this subscription based model of constant updates

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ph.hiroki

Participant

プレビューが遅いのですが私だけだろうか、、、

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martinb37856479

Participant

I want the old keyboard shortcuts back! For example G for linear gradient and not L. L is too far to the right. I don‘t need this grid view. I have Bridge for this!

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martinb37856479

Participant

Shortcut customization would be great

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LeonLondon

Participating Frequently

Why have you changed the “sort by” option? My workflow used to involve importing a number of images into ACR, editing the ones I liked, right-clicking in the thumbnail bar and selecting to only show the starred images. Now I appear to only have “sort by” which just puts all the images into a different order. This means I have to click through until I get to the final starred image and select all above it, rather than just being able to “select all”. This seems like a really counterintuitive move in the design.

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Anshul_Saini

Author

Community Manager

Hi @LeonLondon,

Thanks for explaining your workflow. I checked this with the changes introduced in Camera Raw 18.7.

You should still be able to filter the filmstrip so that only your starred images are displayed. In 18.7, Camera Raw introduced a new Filter Bar above the filmstrip with expanded filtering controls, including Star Rating.

Click the Filter button above the filmstrip to display the Filter Bar, then set the Star Rating criterion you want. Once filtered, only the matching photos are displayed, and Select All (Cmd/Ctrl+A) will select all of those visible filtered photos.

You can also:

press ` (backtick) to show or hide the Filter Bar;
press Cmd/Ctrl+F to turn filtering on or off without losing the filter criteria you’ve set.

So you shouldn’t need to use Sort By Star Rating and then manually select everything up to the final starred image. Sorting only changes the order; filtering limits which images are displayed.

I do understand your feedback about the previous workflow being accessible directly from the thumbnail/filmstrip context menu. I’ll pass along that the new location wasn’t apparent and made it look as though the filtering capability had been removed.

Best,
Anshul Saini

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LeonLondon

Participating Frequently

That’s so helpful of you, Anshul. Thank you so much! I’ll give it a try tomorrow.

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Frank32806397ntvm

Participating Frequently

And instead of adding something actually useful for photographers — like HSL controls for masks — Adobe keeps filling Camera Raw with more and more AI features that, in my experience, often don’t even work reliably.

If I want AI to generate or heavily alter an image, I can use Gemini, ChatGPT, or one of the countless dedicated AI tools available now.

Camera Raw should primarily be a tool for photographers who want to edit their own photographs, not another interface overloaded with features for creating fake or AI-generated imagery.

Please focus again on improving the actual photographic workflow: better masking controls, more precise local adjustments, customizable shortcuts, and features photographers have been asking for for years.

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Anshul_Saini

Author

Community Manager

Hi @Frank32806397ntvm,

Thanks for expanding on the feedback. I understand the distinction you’re making between adding new AI capabilities and continuing to improve the core photographic editing workflow in Camera Raw.

I’ve passed your feedback along to the Camera Raw team, specifically your requests for more comprehensive color/HSL controls within masks, more precise local adjustments, improved masking controls, and customizable keyboard shortcuts.

We’ve also heard feedback on the shortcut from several photographers in this discussion, so I’ve raised it separately with the team as well.

I can’t comment on future features or release plans, but I do want to make sure the product team has the specific workflow improvements you’re asking for rather than reducing this to general feedback about AI.

Thanks for taking the time to spell out what would make Camera Raw more useful in your day-to-day photographic workflow.

Best,
Anshul Saini

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Sanek93

Participant

For some reason, version 18.7 isn't available for download at the link

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Anshul_Saini

Author

Community Manager

Hi @Sanek93,

Sorry for the delayed response. You may already have downloaded Camera Raw 18.7 from that link.

When this announcement went live, the HelpX page text was still being updated, so it may have continued to display the previous version temporarily. The download links themselves are updated on the backend to provide the latest available Camera Raw installer, while the version number shown on the page can sometimes take a little longer to update.

So, for future reference, if you see a short delay between a Camera Raw release and the version displayed on that page, the download link may already be serving the new version.

Sorry for the confusion, and thanks for flagging it.

Best,
Anshul Saini

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