Affordable Photo Editting Software that supports SONY .ARW (RAW) format

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Just treated myself to the Sony A7 III full frame camera but mortified to find it is not supported by my version of Adobe's Lightroom (4.4). Despite spending my life savings on my camera (& lens), I don't have the cash to spend a fortune on Adobe's Cloud Based Lightroom monthly subscription option and cannot find a standalone version to buy that supports the .ARW extension. I've found and tried some free software from Sony but I miss some of the features of my (old version) of Lightroom. Some forum has told me I need Lightroom Classic CC 7.3 but cannot find it available online. Does anyone know where I can get this version of Lightroom - does it exist? Are there some good alternatives?
 
Cloud based Lightroom isn't a fortune and is well worth it in my experience.

Don't Capture one to a free Sony Express version?
 
The last standalone version of Lightroom was 6.14. You are supposed to be able to convert your files to dng files and then process them in LR as previously but I couldn't vouch for that. If you up to trying that out its probably worth updating to LR6.14. there's a world of difference between v4 and v6.
 

Agreed.

Also DXO Photolab https://www.dxo.com/dxo-photolab/supported-cameras/ (see page 2)

Those 2 would be my choice, but as mentioned above, IIRC there was a free cut-down version of Capture1 that was available with all Sony cameras, and is well worth trying. Sony also used to supply their own RAW processing software that you could use to convert ARW into DNG or 16bit TIFF etc.
 
The last standalone version of Lightroom was 6.14. You are supposed to be able to convert your files to dng files and then process them in LR as previously but I couldn't vouch for that. If you up to trying that out its probably worth updating to LR6.14. there's a world of difference between v4 and v6.

My copy of LR 6.14 certainly handles .ARW files without any user conversion beforehand.
 
My copy of LR 6.14 certainly handles .ARW files without any user conversion beforehand.
Just to be clear that the issue isn't going to be relative to the files being .ARW, but to their particular iteration (or vintage) ...

The DNG converter is free.

https://briansmith.com/lightroom-6-14-final-update-adds-sony-a7r-iii-fe-24-105-f4-g-support/

You would find LR 6 quite an improvement over your V4 & it can be still as far as I know hunted down and bought new from Adobe, probably for about £100.

Or there are the recent alternatives of DxO, On1 raw, etc for about the same cost.
 
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Before DxO upgraded DxO Optics into DxO Photolab they had a habit of releasing the older version of DxO Optics free when they did a major upgrade. Those should still be available and will process your RAW files. Their strategy worked on me. I used DxO Optics v9 free, upgraded it to v11 when that became free, and ended up being sufficiently impressed that I bought the full price DxO Photolab. Still learning it, and even more impressed :)

You should also check out GIMP and Darktable, two free open source image editors which claim to offer most of the facilities of Adobe's stuff. I've always turned to GIMP when I find I want to do something which Photoshop can do, and which my usual editor of the time couldn't do.

I've always avoided Adobe because I don't like giving financial support to companies run by profiteering accountants.
 
It looks like the A7 III (ILCE-7M3) is not supported by any non-subscription (perpetual licence) version of Lightroom:

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

(Lightroom Classic 7.x is only available as part of the subscription).

However, the free DNG converter should allow you to import the new files into earlier versions of Lightroom (but adds an extra step to your workflow):

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/using/adobe-dng-converter.html

Not sure which Sony package you tried, but you might want to look at the free Capture One Express:

https://www.phaseone.com/en/Capture-One/Download/Capture-One-Express-Sony.aspx

You could then save as tiff and import into Lightroom.
 
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Capture one is IMO the best free one for Sony RAW. The pro version is quite cheap too as long as it's just for Sony RAWs.
 
Cloud based Lightroom isn't a fortune and is well worth it in my experience.

Don't Capture one to a free Sony Express version?

This. If you buy a year's worth of Adobe CC subscription up front you can get it for about £75-£95 if you shop around online. It's less than a tenner a month for the subscription if you want to pay monthly, and well worth it if you shoot regularly. I find the cloud aspect of it and the ability to do quick edits on my phone which sync back to proper Lightroom on my laptop invaluable. You also get a free website builder and Photoshop included as well.
 
That's still not a great deal compared to the old pricing if you are only interested in Lightroom, don't edit on your phone/tablet, and don't change your camera very often. The perpetual licence wasn't much more than that for earlier versions of Lightroom, you got a couple of years of updates included, and there were reduced price upgrades to the next major version.
 
What about Sony's "Imaging Edge" edit program? It converts Sony RAW data into JPGs etc and of course provides for editing. (I have not really tried it as I have been using P.S. Elements.)
 
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That's still not a great deal compared to the old pricing if you are only interested in Lightroom, don't edit on your phone/tablet, and don't change your camera very often. The perpetual licence wasn't much more than that for earlier versions of Lightroom, you got a couple of years of updates included, and there were reduced price upgrades to the next major version.

This. I don't want PS, don't want to edit on my phone and don't have a new camera: the going rate for LR 5 when I bought it was about £75. CC is a poor deal for an amateur photographer who doesn't need all the extra bits, although it's a really good deal for Adobe who need a steady and guaranteed income stream.
 
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