Image: Adobe Adobe has announced Premiere 26, the latest version of its video editing software that brings a useful feature out of beta, adds support for the R3D NE Raw files that Nikon introduced with the video-focused ZR and comes with a subtle change to the program's name.
The flagship new feature of Premiere 26 is Object Masks, which the company started publicly beta testing late last year. It updates the editor's built-in masking tools to make it much easier to select a specific subject in your video, such as a person or object, and cut it out so you can apply effects to it independently from the background (a process video editors will know as "rotoscoping"). Like Final Cut's similar "Magnetic Mask" feature, Premiere can then track the mask forwards and backwards through the footage, so it follows the subject and adapts its shape as it or the camera moves. Of course, the program allows you to tweak the mask it generates, if the AI behind it doesn't create a perfect cut out.
While it took a long time for Premiere to get support for Nikon's proprietary NRaw video codec, things have moved a little faster with the company's latest format, R3D NE. Just a few months after the camera that debuted the format launched, Adobe has added native support for it to Premiere, letting you edit and color grade R3D NE footage.
The updated Adobe Stock panel.
Image: Adobe
The update also brings updated versions of the Frame. io and Adobe Stock panels, making it easier to pull media from your own projects and elsewhere into your edit. However, perhaps the most interesting (though most superficial) is that Adobe seems to have taken a cue from The Social Network and Final Cut by dropping a word from the program's name: the app, formerly known as Premiere Pro, is now simply Premiere. During a briefing, Adobe representatives said this subtle rebranding doesn't signal a move away from it being a tool for professionals; instead, it seems to be Adobe just accepting that most editors were already just referring to it as "Premiere" anyways.
Premiere 26 is available for Creative Cloud subscribers to download starting today.
. dpreview.com2026-2-4 17:00
