P: Support for HEIC file format (Windows)

Really two problems:
1. Lightroom (Classic or new CC) for Windows or Mac refuses to import these files
2. Lightroom for Mobile on iOS imports these files as JPG/H.264 (unsure if Adobe or iOS is doing the conversion, but if the latter Apple should be pushed for native import), though even if it did, see #1

Why this should be fixed:
-HEIF/HEVC is on by default on new iPhones, so the world's foremost creative company should support it
-HEIF supports many excellent features JPG doesn't, so disabling on the iPhone - although a valid option - is highly undesirable; as an example, I love the Portrait mode fake bokeh, but the iPhone's algorithm is a bit lacking and I'd like to touch up the depth maps regularly but conversion to JPEG doesn't retain them and creating them from scratch would be awful

Why I think this isn't a big ask:
-Photoshop for Mac will open HEIF files
-Premiere Pro for either platform will open either file type

One nice compromise in case HEIF file support can't be brought to all Lightroom platforms in a timely manner would be to convert to DNG or TIFF upon import.

Thank you for reading!

I (given my background) should have known better than to imbed myself with any one companies product. I should never have started using the catalog features of lightroom, from whence it's so hard to extract myself (but ultimately, if I don't, it will be worse in the future.) Lesson learnt, again.

So now I begin to unwind my catalog, and I'll implement something that will not be dependent on any company product. Probably just a file based and / or exif based system. It won't be as useful, but no more will I be at the whim of some company decision to change direction to somewhere I'm not happy to take the ride.

Lack of HEIC support in LR Classic is increasingly is looking like a pure marketing decision, albeit a poor one. Technically, it's not a difficult feature to add, and I don't believe it's a greed or spite issue as some here have suggested. 

Since HEIC is supported on LR CC (sort of), it appears they using this feature hole in LR Classic to aggressively push Classic users to the move to the cloud. Oddly, the LR powers-that-be have ignored the fact that LR CC is not at all ready for professionals & power users with many, many terabytes of media. Surely, they must have industry advisors that would have known this. 

Adobe products are generally very good and I respect the overarching decision to move LR to a multi-platform, cloud-based system. The product roadmap here is just too aggressive and LR CC is simply not yet ready or it and the upgraded cloud storage costs are too expensive. 

I began to suspect shenanigans within LR marketing the moment they announced LR was being renamed "Classic." <insert eye roll here> 

The stock graph says it all, there's not enough users pushing for innovation in Lightroom Classic to move the needle.  For the record, I'm another big Lightroom Classic user who doesn't want my giant catalog in the cloud, and I also need HEIC support.

Since there's no clear expectation of when this feature may show up, does anyone out there know of a credible alternative?  Something that can genuinely compete with Lightroom Classic in terms of features and scalability, nondestructive workflows, and is showing more active investment by the company?  I'd consider an alternative, but I don't know of anything that really stacks up at this point...

270 / 53 until Luminar. Happy Friday everyone!

I wonder why motivation for change might be low 😉

I stand corrected.
Which really doesn't change the situation (our complaint). That there is no support for it in Lightroom CC classic is a cause of angst, for those wishing to incorporate it in their workflow.
As to my other comments (it's a dying product) and those of others (that the delay for implementing this is difficult to believe) - I'll keep this thread open and revisit it in the coming months.

I stand corrected.
Which really doesn't change the situation (our complaint). That there is no support for it in Lightroom CC classic is a cause of angst, for those wishing to incorporate it in their workflow.
As to my other comments (it's a dying product) and those of others (that the delay for implementing this is difficult to believe) - I'll keep this thread open and revisit it in the coming months.

If a new format is so hard for your developers - use freelancers 🙂 Or better hire more qualified developers and management.

It's clearly obvious that they have better engineers.

In that case I wonder why on earth they can't just do a quick blog post, tweet or something to let us know. "Hey everyone, we know you want to have all your iphone photos as part of your main catalog. We're working as hard as we can but there are some legal issues that will still take X weeks to clear up". 

On another forum I saw Tom Hogarty say they were trying to get more engaged & transparent with the community but so far I have not seen evidence of that.

In addition, Luminar 2018 already supports it. I'd be hard pressed to believe they have better engineers and resources than Adobe.