Change Log - MergeRAW

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