Change Log - MergeRAW

Version 2.5.4

September 17, 2026

Hot pixel removal catches warm and flickering pixels: the persistent hot-pixel map built from a night-sky or averaged burst now keeps a photosite that is hot in most of the sampled frames, not only in every one of them. Black foregrounds in long high-ISO sky stacks no longer fill with dots that a single frame's noise hid. Stars near the celestial pole and bright scene points stay protected, and a static daytime scene keeps the previous, stricter map.
Focus stacks accept shutter speed and ISO changes: a stack whose exposure drifted between frames, for example under auto exposure, is matched frame by frame instead of being refused. Only a change of aperture is still rejected, since it changes the depth of field.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.5.3

September 17, 2026

Unevenly lit frames are judged against their own stack: a frame lit differently from the rest of a focus stack (a flash caught by the shutter, a light that misfired) is held out again, now only when its lighting stands out from the other frames rather than crossing a fixed limit. Deep stacks whose lighting shifts gradually keep every frame; a lone strobe fault is still left out with a warning. -exposureTilt on the command line sets a fixed limit instead, and 0 keeps every frame.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.5.2

September 17, 2026

Focus stacks keep every frame again: the 2.5.0 check that held unevenly lit frames out of a focus stack also held out almost every frame of a deep 50-shot stack lit by one continuous light. It is now off unless requested on the command line (-exposureTilt).

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.5.1

September 17, 2026

Retain Extra Detail keeps more detail without rims: borrowed fine detail may now move a pixel toward the frames it comes from, never past them or away from them. Subjects on dark backgrounds keep the depth stack's clean edge instead of a darker band, fine hairs and threads at depth boundaries stay, texture the previous release flattened returns, and the mode adds less noise in smooth areas.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.5.0

September 17, 2026

Pixel shift + focus stacking: choose Pixel Shift alignment with either Focus Stacking blend to merge a focus bracket shot in pixel-shift mode. Each sequence is merged first, then the planes are focus stacked with focus-breathing correction only. Shots per plane come from the camera's focus metadata; the Advanced dialog can override the count. Large captures (16 or more shots per plane) export and merge one plane at a time under a single progress bar. Hot pixel removal works across the whole capture.
Unevenly lit frames are held out of focus stacks: a flash caught by the shutter or a light that misfired, leaving one frame bright on one side and dark on the other, is detected and left out with a warning instead of painting a shadow into the stack.
Cleaner Retain Extra Detail: fine detail is borrowed only where it agrees with the stack's broad structure and never beyond the range the source frames span. This removes dark rims around subjects on dark backgrounds, light fringes along leaf edges and banding in smooth areas.
Correct exposure matching for Lightroom lossy DNGs: Lightroom's lossy DNG exports carry a different black level in every file; MergeRAW now normalizes them at load, fixing contour-like bands and alternating brightness in focus stacks built from them.
Simpler settings: the Maximum concurrent DNG exports setting is gone; Lightroom exports run at full speed. Batch runs use one progress dialog. A 32-shot Nikon focus-shift capture no longer warns that a frame belongs to another sequence when its counter wraps.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.4.3

September 14, 2026

More neutral Sony shadows: Sharper demosaic reduces a slight green cast in shadow detail on Sony images.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.4.2

September 14, 2026

Control simultaneous DNG exports: a new Maximum concurrent DNG exports setting in File › Plug-in Manager › MergeRAW › Settings lets you limit how many photos MergeRAW exports through Lightroom at once. Automatic preserves the existing behavior; choose 1 to export one photo at a time. The limit is shared across merges and single-photo tools, including exports still finishing after cancellation. Lightroom's own limit still applies.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.4.1

September 13, 2026

New Output Options: the Advanced dialog can remove the lens profile during a merge and lets you choose whether to update exposure metadata. Choices are remembered; the simple dialog keeps its defaults. Pixel Shift, Darken and both focus-stacking modes always preserve source exposure metadata. See instructions.
Preserve your Lightroom edits: fixes finished merges losing the selected photo's develop settings. Its white balance now carries through even when As Shot is selected and sky alignment chooses a different reference frame.
Better light-painted star trails: qualifying light-painted exposures within the sky sequence now contribute their stars, reducing missing or dim trail segments. Consistent source color also fixes dark patches and color seams around the skyline.
Correct Sky Trails exposure metadata: retains single-frame ISO and sums exposure time from the frames contributing to the trails.
More useful split-RAF previews: extracted Fujifilm HDR RAFs get embedded previews that approximately reflect each exposure's brightness. Raw image data is unchanged; let Lightroom render each frame for the actual detail.
Improved alignment stability: fixes crashes from off-frame star lookups and invalid image-edge reads during rotation.
Website theme choice: a header toggle switches between dark and light themes and remembers your choice. Mobile download buttons and help links also fit more cleanly.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.4.0

September 12, 2026

Preserve highlight information: partly blown highlights retain their unclipped color channels, giving Lightroom more information for highlight recovery. Exposure brackets prefer unclipped sources and retain the least-exposed available measurements when every source clips. Same-exposure averages keep all eligible measurements for noise reduction.
Cleaner X-Trans Sharper output: localized repair reduces false color, moiré and jagged brightness patterns in fine repeating detail. It is enabled by the Advanced dialog's Sharper mode; Auto keeps its existing demosaic policy.
Merge every exposure in a Fujifilm HDR RAF: select the original multi-exposure RAF and MergeRAW extracts its frames before DNG conversion. Adobe DNG Converter is required. Auto and Safe use Adobe's demosaic when needed; Sharper uses MergeRAW's native X-Trans engine. Temporary frames stay out of the Lightroom catalog.
New Split Raw File tool: extract the exposures from a Pentax multi-frame DNG or Fujifilm multi-exposure RAF into separate raw files and import them into Lightroom. Available through File › Plug-in Extras or the Split Raw File export preset. The original stays unchanged. See instructions.
More reliable HDR alignment: corrects black-level handling in the initial alignment calculation, fixing large false offsets on exposure brackets.
Automatic ordering for manual focus stacks: uses supported lens-position or focus-distance metadata to put manually focused frames in depth order. Automatic camera focus brackets keep capture order. Both focus-stacking modes also retain source exposure metadata instead of reporting an averaged exposure.
Sony pixel-shift correction: uses Sony's own 4- and 16-shot sensor-shift pattern. Selecting a 4-shot and a 16-shot Bayer sequence together now gives a clear error instead of attempting the wrong assembly. Use one complete sequence per merge, or Merge Each Stack for a batch.
Find the finished merge in Lightroom: when the new DNG is hidden by the current source view, such as Previous Import, MergeRAW switches to its containing folder and selects it. An already-visible result leaves the active source unchanged.
Updated raw processing library: Adobe DNG SDK 1.7.1 build 2724.

Thanks to Horshack for the Sony pixel-shift report and sample files.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.3.8

September 11, 2026

Sharper focus stacks: reduces softening from out-of-focus neighboring frames, especially in small stacks with widely spaced focus planes. Transitions between frames remain smooth.
Retain Extra Detail: builds on the same improved focus blend before recovering fine texture.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.3.7

September 11, 2026

Signed Windows downloads: the Windows installer and both the x64 and ARM64 merge engines are now digitally signed.
Pixel-shift stability: fixes crashes when applying flat-field calibration to pixel-shift merges and when rejecting unsupported pixel-shift options.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.3.6

September 11, 2026

Updated command line help and standardized mask save/restore flags

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.3.5

September 11, 2026

Merge TIFFs from the command line: the engine now reads 8-bit and 16-bit RGB and grayscale TIFFs directly, without Adobe DNG Converter, and writes a Linear DNG.
Color-aware TIFF merging: standard embedded RGB and grayscale color profiles are honored, and pixels are converted to linear light before merging. See the TIFF instructions for supported formats and untagged-file defaults.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.3.4

September 10, 2026

Sharper focus-stack borders: fixes narrow blurred strips near image edges, including areas that need detail from the closest-focused frame. The improvement applies automatically to both focus-stacking options.

Thanks to Horshack for the report and sample images.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.3.3

September 10, 2026

Windows path fix: fixes merges stopping with “Failed to move exported DNG file” when using the default temporary folder. Troubleshooting can also find the log again.

Thanks to Horshack for reporting this issue.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.3.1 / 2.3.2

September 10, 2026

More detail in focus stacks: the new Focus Stacking - Retain Extra Detail option recovers fine texture while keeping smooth transitions between focus distances. Standard Focus Stacking remains available and uses less time and memory.
Clearer controls: both focus options have concise tooltips and natural translations in every supported language. The instructions explain when to use each one. Your choice of Tripod or Auto Align still controls alignment.

macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.3.0

September 9, 2026

Smoother out-of-focus backgrounds: Focus Stacking makes better depth choices when no frame brings the background into focus, reducing hard seams when the stack does not reach infinity. Improved handling of weak detail and outer image borders keeps transitions cleaner.
Automatic hot-pixel repair for focus bursts: the combined exposure time qualifies a focus stack for repair even when individual exposures are shorter than one second. Eligible stacks of eight or more frames also remove persistent colored specks. This burst-based rule was introduced in 2.2.3.
Help where you need it: concise tooltips explain the merge controls and settings in every supported language. The guide also explains when to use each star-trail workflow.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.2.3

September 8, 2026

Focus breathing correction on a tripod: Focus Stacking now corrects changes in magnification even with No Alignment - Tripod selected. Tripod adjusts scale around the image center; Auto Align also corrects camera shifts and rotation. This gives you a choice when moving foliage confuses alignment.
Automatic hot-pixel repair for focus bursts: short exposures now qualify when their combined exposure time reaches one second. Eligible stacks of eight or more frames also use a persistent hot-pixel map, removing colored specks that can turn into trails after alignment.
Lower memory use and faster merges: unused image buffers are skipped, reused or released sooner across alignment and blend modes. Focus merges ran 5–14% faster in the measured sample sets; several large-image merge configurations saved roughly 1–1.5 GiB of peak memory.
More reliable cancellation and retry: Lightroom commands and DNG exports use separate temporary folders for each job. Cleanup waits for active writers to finish, preventing one canceled job from interfering with the next.
Sky coverage crop fix: the command-line combination -alignSky -noClip -cropToCoverage now applies the requested reversible crop.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.2.2

September 7, 2026

More stars through foreground gaps: Star Trails automatically preserves more faint trails when a well-lit foreground frame is available, while keeping stronger noise suppression for dark foregrounds.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.2.0 / 2.2.1

September 6, 2026 (2.2.1 update: September 7)

Star trails over a sharp foreground, light painting that survives the stack, and seven more languages.

AI Mask - Star Trails & Foreground: the fourth Align Stars blend combines trailing stars with a still, averaged landscape.
Light painting keeps its brightness and color. A well-lit foreground frame contributes in full, under its own white balance, and stays out of the sky. Exposure matching no longer darkens the stack because of that frame.
Clearer blend names: Fixed Stars, Fixed Stars & Foreground, and Star Trails & Foreground, with Basic or AI masking where applicable.
Seven more languages: Traditional Chinese, Dutch, Korean, Russian, Thai, Polish and Norwegian. Long translated labels now fit. Machine-drafted translations cover every Lightroom interface language; corrections to mergeraw@mackman.net are welcome.
2.2.1 update: a noise estimate based on the sensor preserves dim stars and trail edges, including stacks with a longer foreground exposure. Auto and Safe keep compact raw mosaic output for Bayer Star Trails merges. Expected foreground-frame notices stay in the log without a warning dialog.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.1.0 / 2.1.1

Saturday, September 5, 2026

Ten translated interfaces (2.1.1): Simplified Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Hindi and Bengali. Select a language or edit translations in the Plug-in Manager; native-speaker corrections are welcome.
Windows fix: resolved “attempt to concatenate a nil value” after export when Lightroom cannot resolve a redirected Documents folder. Thanks to the user who traced and verified it.
Cleaner astro merges: clipped highlights stay white, demosaicing avoids colored ringing, and sky masks recognize canopy gaps while retaining thin branches.
Less memory, faster merges: a 62-frame Align Stars stack used about 6 GB instead of 8; plain averaging was about 15% faster.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.0.1

Thursday, September 3, 2026

Star-trail color repair stays on the trail, without tinting nearby sky. Capture-order processing joins the seams on both sides of the selected frame.
Lighten star-trail merges run about twice as fast; large median stacks finish in about a third less time. Demosaicing is faster and uses less memory.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 2.0.0

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Star-trail repairs: Lighten restores light at frame boundaries and reduces false color on thin trails. The faintest trails may still bead.
Optional AI foreground mask: better separation of sky, trees and landscape. Uses Meta’s DINOv3 locally after a one-time 86 MB download and license acceptance; photos stay on your computer.
Better Basic Mask: cleaner canopy edges and fewer passing-light streaks. Long foreground exposures light the ground without confusing sky alignment.
Clearer blend names and better tripod alignment with stabilization left on. Thanks to Igal for the samples.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.9.3

Sunday, August 9, 2026

Added Leica M and Q Monochrom support in every blend mode. Single-channel sensor data now produces a true monochrome DNG, fixing crashes and damaged output.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.9.2

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

More dependable alignment on difficult bursts. Added Output compatibility settings: Common (DNG 1.7.0) lets DXO PhotoLab open merged mosaics; Compatible (DNG 1.4.0) supports older software. Fixed false alerts from Adobe DNG Converter and macOS paths containing $ or backticks. Unsupported X-Trans dark-frame subtraction now reports that it was skipped.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.9.1

Monday, August 3, 2026

Fixed a misaligned bottom strip on Night Align bursts with a shaky start: alignment now uses only retained frames. Routine alignment notices no longer interrupt bursts already certified as steady.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.9.0

Sunday, August 2, 2026

Night Align - Smart Frame Selection picks the steadiest stretch, drops unalignable frames, and keeps the selected photo’s identity. Blend choices now offer an outlier-rejecting average, Normal - Blur Motion, or Deghost - Freeze Motion. Alignment messages explain what went wrong and what to try. Added CLI controls for frame selection, clipping, feathering and experimental bicubic alignment.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.8.1

Saturday, August 1, 2026

Auto Align distributes tracking points across high-contrast scenes, avoids extending corrections beyond their supporting points, and favors the in-focus subject when scene depth prevents perfect alignment everywhere.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.8.0

Friday, July 31, 2026

Added experimental Fujifilm GFX support, fixing magenta aligned merges on unusual Bayer layouts. Demosaic Mode became Auto, Sharper and Safe for every camera; Safe now uses Adobe DNG Converter for Bayer too. Added automatic flat-field matching by aperture, fixed color shifts in unchanged tripod mosaics, and accelerated deghosting.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.7.3

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Added calibration folders, remembered disk choices, a Clear button, and nearest-aperture flat-field fallback. Fixed ignored flat fields in Median, Night Mode, Sky Tracking and Focus Stack; pixel-shift deghosting near blown highlights; and artifacts at aligned image edges. Missing masks and other failures now give clearer errors.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.7.2

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Faster large sky and focus stacks with identical output. Batch merges now ask how to handle loose photos among stacks, and match flat fields by aperture. The Plug-in Manager can open the troubleshooting log. Thanks to the tester whose reports shaped the batching changes.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.7.1

Friday, July 24, 2026

Deghost now measures noise when camera-original DNGs lack a noise profile, including Pentax HDR and Pixel Shift files. Recovered HDR highlights are no longer mistaken for motion, and moving subjects near clipped highlights or throughout foliage get cleaner deghosting.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.7.0

Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Added native Fujifilm X-Trans demosaicing with Sharper and Protect Grey choices alongside Adobe conversion. Large night stacks can reread frames when scratch space is tight, and dropping a blurry frame no longer leaves a bright edge.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.6.2

Friday, July 17, 2026

Lightroom brush masks now survive the merge. Added File on Disk calibration pickers and Merge Each Directory batching. Pixel shift with flat fields uses less time and memory; focus stacks use the nearest-focus frame as their base.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.6.0 / 1.6.1

Wednesday, July 15, 2026 (1.6.1 bugfix: July 16)

Split the simple and Advanced merge dialogs. Advanced adds batch processing, hot-pixel controls, and dark/flat selection by file, folder, color or rating. Process Each Photo applies corrections individually; calibration frames are shared across batches and matching flats are averaged. Thanks to the users whose testing and requests shaped this release.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.5.4

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Fixed X-Trans conversion through symlinked macOS temporary folders. Added a Photoshop location setting, made output to non-Latin paths faster, and updated Adobe DNG SDK to 1.7.1 build 2652.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.5.3

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Removed the 100-photo limit; selections over 1000 ask for confirmation. Large merges now put all working files in the configured scratch folder, reducing traffic beside photos stored on a NAS.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.5.2

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Fixed Windows merges from accented and non-Latin file paths. Thanks to the user who reported it.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.5.1

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Added Merge Each Stack batching and a configurable scratch folder in the Plug-in Manager. Settings are chosen once for the batch; loose photos process individually. Both came from a user’s workflow suggestions — thank you.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.5.0

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Added native Fujifilm X-Trans Pixel Shift Multi-Shot: all 20 frames produce double the resolution in each dimension, or the first five give full measured color at native resolution. No Adobe DNG Converter needed. Frame-grid checks warn about movement, and exposure flicker is compensated.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.4.0 / 1.4.1

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Added experimental focus stacking for handheld or tripod captures, including in-camera bracketing and manual rails. Neighbor-to-neighbor alignment handles focus breathing; the output combines the sharpest regions and trims uncovered edges.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.3.0

Monday, July 13, 2026

Night mode detects subtler blur and picks a sharp alignment anchor while preserving the selected photo’s identity. Automatic hot-pixel maps use eight or more light frames; supplied dark frames take precedence. Exposure metadata now counts only retained frames.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.2.0 / 1.2.1

Saturday, July 11, 2026 (1.2.1 bugfix: July 12)

Added X-Trans merging through Adobe DNG Converter and linear DNG input across core modes. Unchanged tripod alignments now stay lossless raw mosaics. Failures report their cause. Version 1.2.1 preserves recovered HDR highlight detail instead of clipping it.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.1.2

Saturday, July 11, 2026

Added handheld Night Mode with blurry-frame rejection, better alignment for shutter skew and parallax, and direct merging of Pentax multi-frame DNGs. Deghost measures actual noise, and output records the merge’s noise reduction. Fixed bracket color artifacts, large Lightroom stacks failing at completion, and macOS merges falsely reporting success.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 1.0.1

Friday, July 10, 2026

MergeRAW 1.0. Sky Tracking uses capture times to recover cloud-obscured frames and removes the old sky-drift limit. Added live progress, cancellation without a Windows console, pixel-shift grid checks, and warnings for dropped or off-grid frames. Sky Tracking runs about 10% faster.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 0.12.0

Thursday, July 9, 2026

Added signed, notarized macOS packages and a Windows setup wizard, replacing manual installation. Separate platform downloads and refreshed MergeRAW branding.

Download: macOS (.pkg) · Windows (.exe)

Version 0.11.0

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Added aligned Median, Pixel Shift deghosting, cancelable progress, and fast-load DNG previews. Improved hot-pixel repair and editable foreground masks. Sky Tracking and large pixel-shift merges run faster with less memory. Remove Built-in Profile also clears develop metadata.

Download version 0.11.0

Version 0.10.0

Monday, July 6, 2026

Added Sky Tracking, Freeze Foreground with editable masks, and transient hot-pixel repair. Dark subtraction rejects cosmic-ray hits in dark frames. Sky output keeps the selected photo’s capture time.

Download version 0.10.0

Version 0.9.0

Sunday, July 5, 2026

Auto Align gained sub-pixel rotation and perspective correction. Dark-frame subtraction now targets genuine hot pixels without losing shadow detail or leaving dark pits.

Download version 0.9.0

Version 0.8.0

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Median blend uses a fraction of the memory

Download version 0.8.0

Version 0.7.0

Monday, June 8, 2026

New "Fix IR PDAF Banding" plugin removes periodic row banding from full-spectrum/IR-converted cameras
Smaller DNG output using JPEG XL compression
Updated to Adobe DNG SDK 1.7.1 and libjxl 0.11.2
Improvements to Windows installer

Download version 0.7.0

Version 0.6.0

Saturday, November 23, 2025

Add dark frame subtraction option

Download version 0.6.0

Version 0.5.0

Monday, November 17, 2025

Add flat field correction option
Add new plugin to Edit Raw File in Photoshop
New multi-pass MHC/VNG demosaic algorithm removes dependency on Adobe DNG Converter for demosaicing

Download version 0.5.0