Although many people still aren't thrilled with the subscription model of Adobe's Creative Cloud, it's difficult not to be happy with the regularity with which they are now able to roll out major updates to the software. Last month, Adobe released a comprehensive list of new features that would be added in the 7.1 update of Premiere Pro CC, new features like native support for CinemaDNG and RED DRAGON footage, and a legitimate roundtrip process between Premiere and SpeedGrade. This evening, Adobe released the update, and it is available and ready for download. Before you start playing with the upgraded software, however, check out reTooled.net's awesome video overview of these new features:

Here's the comprehensive list of new features in Premiere Pro CC from reTooled.net:

There are some tremendous new features in this updated version of Premiere. Perhaps the biggest and most timely of these features is the native support for CinemaDNG files. With a slew of cameras from the likes of Blackmagic and Digital Bolex, and with Magic Lantern RAW (plus Ikonoskop is still alive), CinemaDNG has become a fairly prolific production format. That's a trend that doesn't look to slow down anytime soon, so it will be important for software developers to continue to find ways to support CinemaDNG natively.

Of course, editing natively with CinemaDNG files might not be the easiest option for your computer, so it still might be beneficial to adopt an offline/online workflow when dealing with these RAW files. Still, in situations where the full offline/online workflow might not be practical, it's extremely nice to know that you can pull your CinemaDNG's directly into Premiere and start editing.

The other massive feature that is now available in Premiere is one that we have been asking for since the day that CS6 was released: a legitimate dynamic link workflow between Premiere and SpeedGrade. In past versions, the "Send to SpeedGrade" option in Premiere would generate a beastly DPX image sequence from your timeline and send it to SpeedGrade, at which point you would have to export that media from SpeedGrade and re-import it back into Premiere to complete the roundtrip. That workflow literally had no benefits over exporting and EDL and then grading in Resolve, which many people did.

With the 7.1 update, however, Adobe has finally introduced a legitimate "Direct Link" between Premiere and SpeedGrade, much in the same way that Premiere is able to link back and forth with After Effects and Audition. With this link in place, Adobe is incentivizing that people actually use SpeedGrade over Resolve or Baselight for their high-end color work, since the direct linking can potentially shave time off of the existing processes. Whether or not more people begin incorporating SpeedGrade into their workflows, however, remains to be seen.

Beyond these major features, Adobe has also added native support for RED DRAGON footage, as well as a multitude of minor improvements that should serve to make the editing process quicker and more intuitive. The 7.1 update to Premiere Pro CC is now available for download through the Creative Cloud application.

What do you guys think of these new features, and what features would you like to see in future updates? Do Adobe's semi-frequent major updates leave you more impressed with the Creative Cloud? Let us know in the comments!

Link: New Features in the Premiere Pro 7.1 Update -- reTooled

[via ProVideoCoalition]

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Editing & Post-Production