Errors with Panasonic LUMIX S1RII High Resolution mode (Adobe Only)

If you are working with the new Panasonic S1RII, and taking photographs with the High Resolution mode which will generate a 178MP raw file and attempt to use any of the current Adobe raw conversion software products (Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, or ACR) you will eventually get an error.  The error in Lightroom classic will state” Image appears to be unsupported or damaged”, ACR gives a different error but will not open the image.

Lightroom Error on High Resolution images from Panasonic S1RII

This is an example of what you will see.  Note the image is underexposed intentionally however since Lightroom cannot open the file no changes can be made.  This error will happen with all (3) of the High Resolution modes with the S1RII.  From the testing I have done with a S1RII, I have found this to be the case:

1.  Dxo Pure raw 5 will work via a stand alone or plug in for Lightroom,  this creates a dng, which Lr will work with.
2. Lightroom and ACR will open about 40 to 50% of the High resolution images the rest will fail with the above error.  (Lr 14.4) On Mac
3. Capture One (latest version 16+) has no issues with any of the 3 modes
4. ON1, will fail with all the modes currently.  However I have been told a fix is being worked up.

I have attempted several times to contact Panasonic Lumix Tech support on this issue, but so far, I have had no success, in fact I was surprised to find that Panasonic’s tech support is terrible.  No response to a ticket I opened over a week ago, and there is no real way to reach anyone.  Their Lumix website is great for marketing and discussion of the features of the various Lumix cameras, but for a pro series camera, they are terribly lacking in support.  

I have also reached out to the authors of the S1RII review on Dpreview.com to make them aware of this issue.  I have heard back from both of them and I hope that one of them will take the issue up to both Panasonic and Adobe.

I attempted to open a ticket with Adobe tech support also, that is a total waste of time.  My first contact was with a AI bot, totally worthless and I feel an insult to my profession.  The second time I was supposedly chatting with a real person, but got nowhere.  They could not understand this problem had nothing to do with computers, but instead was with Camera Raw.  Adobe tech support is also terrible.  No way to open a ticket and if there is a way to talk with a knowledgeable human being, after over 3 hours of trying I was not able to find any.

Written for Photosofarkansas by Paul Caldwell, please ask for permission before using this article in any other web based platform or written article.  All the information in this article is based on my personal experience and testing with the S1RII.