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Here’s a link to the incredibly boring and legal-marketing-speak announcement if you need a nap today. 🙂
But, since that announcement, I’ve received a bunch of messages asking my thoughts and what it could mean for us photographers, so I figured I’d let you know what I think (which isn’t much to be honest). 

I’d also be interested to hear your comments and what you think this all means so feel free to leave one below.

Don’t Expect Anything Soon

First, I think a lot of people automatically assume that every Topaz feature will magically appear in Lightroom next week. But I doubt that’s the case and remember that the press release reads “The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026”. In the short term, I don’t think you’ll see any changes.

Adobe Isn’t Buying a Photography Company

This is the first thing I think is easy for us photographers to overlook. Sure, Adobe makes Lightroom and Photoshop. Those are the products we use. But Adobe isn’t primarily a photography company.

It’s a global software company serving photographers, graphic designers, filmmakers, marketing teams, agencies, publishers, Fortune 500 companies, educators, and enterprise customers. Its decisions are driven by a much broader market than photography alone.

The same goes for Topaz.

Most photographers know Topaz for Photo AI, Gigapixel, and its sharpening and noise reduction tools. But Topaz has also invested heavily in AI models for video, web services, cloud infrastructure, and technologies that help large AI models run efficiently on local hardware. Those capabilities have value way beyond photography.

In fact, if you went through Topaz’s website menu you’d see: Photo AI, Web apps, Astra, Premier Panel, Topaz Video, Gigapixel, and Enterprise solutions. Of all of those Photo AI and possibly the web apps are the only things of interest to photographers – so basically 2 categories out of 7.

In other words, Topaz does A LOT more than photography. After watching their direction and product releases over time, I’d actually bet Topaz has been positioning itself for an acquisition for years now.

So I think Photography is definitely part of this acquisition, but it’s only one part and possibly a small one.

Why Adobe May Want Topaz

Adobe has obviously been aggressively investing in AI over the recent years.

Topaz seems to fit that strategy. Adobe has traditionally done well with building complete creative workflows and Topaz has done well with specialized enhancement models: Upscaling, Noise reduction, Sharpening, Video restoration.

In many of those categories, Topaz has some of the best results available. And as you probably know, Adobe has already partnered with Topaz by integrating some of its AI models into Photoshop and Lightroom (neither of which I like the implementation of). So the two companies were already working together before this acquisition. I’d guess that this acquisition simply brings more of that technology in-house.

Does This Mean Topaz Is Going Away?

Obviously I don’t know anything more than you do. But based on Adobe’s announcement, no I don’t think so. Adobe has said that Topaz’s products will continue to be available as standalone applications, and Topaz CEO Eric Yang will continue leading the team.  

“After the transaction closes, Topaz Labs customers of all sizes can expect continued support and investment in future innovation and Topaz Labs products will remain available as standalone offerings through the company’s website. Upon close, Topaz Labs CEO Eric Yang will continue to lead the Topaz Labs team.”

Could that change someday? Sure. But today there’s nothing I’ve read that Adobe plans to immediately eliminate the standalone products.

The Possibilities for Lightroom

This is where things could get interesting. Imagine opening Lightroom or Photoshop and finding:

• Better AI sharpening.
• Better AI noise reduction.
• Better image upscaling.
• Faster local AI processing.
• Higher quality detail enhancement.

Those improvements could absolutely come from Topaz technology. In fact, Adobe has specifically said it wants to expand Topaz’s enhancement models “across Firefly and the Creative Cloud”. Whether those improvements arrive this year or three years from now is another question. Large acquisitions usually take time before customers notice any impactful changes, if any at all.

What About Pricing?

This is probably the biggest concern I’ve heard and who the heck really knows right? It’s not like they’re going to announce an acquisition and tell everyone that pricing is going up.

I get it, and it’s understandable that people worry whenever software companies merge.

Sometimes acquisitions lead to better integration. Sometimes they lead to new subscription models. And Sometimes almost nothing changes. At this point, I have no idea.

My Biggest Hope

Personally, I’m more interested in seeing fewer reasons to leave Lightroom.

Today’s workflow for many photographers looks something like this:

• Lightroom
• Topaz
• Back to Lightroom

If Adobe can bring more of those enhancement tools directly into Lightroom, that makes editing simpler.

But here’s the big kicker… I don’t mean the crappy Vegas Slot Machine-like Generative Credit thing we have today.

Photoshop and Lightroom (not Classic) now have Topaz upsizing and sharpening as options. But they cost you a ridiculous amount of your credits for a poor experience. And if you haven’t heard my thoughts, just watch the last 2 minutes of this video (start video at 10:10).

I’ll save you the time though. I think it’s absolute junk and I hate to mention it because I don’t want to encourage anyone to use it. Don’t get me wrong… Lightroom and it’s developers are fantastic. I have to assume Topaz, and their developers, are great. And I doubt either side – if you asked them honestly – actually think this implementation is a good thing for you and I.

That’s not the integration I’m looking for. I want to click on Noise reduction or sharpening, natively and with a seamless experience, and have it work great and not have to worry about it costing me extra.

But Let’s Keep Some Perspective

One thing I always try to remember is this: Software doesn’t make great photographs.

Great photographs still come from:

• Good light.
• Strong composition.
• Interesting focal points.
• Intentional and tasteful editing.

Whether Adobe owns Topaz or not doesn’t change those fundamentals. It may make certain tasks faster, or improve image quality and workflow. But it won’t replace the creative decisions that actually make an image compelling.

Wrapping Up

Overall, I think this acquisition has the potential to be positive for photographers. Adobe gains some great AI technology. Topaz gains the resources of one of the largest creative software companies in the world. And hopefully, all of that means we end up with better tools inside Lightroom and Photoshop while Topaz continues to innovate.

That said, I also think it’s important to remember that both Adobe and Topaz serve markets much larger than photography (Enterprise customers, video creators, AI services, cloud infrastructure, and commercial creative teams). 

As I wrote earlier, photography is an important part, but not the only one by far. 

Why This News Doesn’t Interest Me Much As a Photographer 

For me, I guess I’d say that overall this is interesting news, but that’s about it.

First, I started using Topaz apps for noise reduction in my wildlife photography. Eventually Adobe added this feature that does nearly as good as Topaz does in most cases. 

But I was always honest in saying Adobe’s noise reduction didn’t work as well for me for very high ISO photos that needed a lot of cropping – I felt the results looked a little painterly. So for those photos (maybe 10-20% of what I ever edit) I used Topaz – until they raised their pricing to crazy levels last year. That said, they did do right by their existing users and grandfathered them in to a good yearly price, so I can’t be too salty about it. Also, I’d suggest you don’t give up that pricing if you have it because you’ll never get it back. 

But for new users, I started recommending DxO PureRaw for noise reduction. It was cheaper and no subscription, and didn’t have a bunch of other features that I didn’t want that Lightroom already did better.

As for sharpening, I used Topaz a little but sharpening was never a big deal in my workflow. If the photo isn’t sharp, you can’t make it sharp. Now, Topaz did have some pretty crazy AI sharpening tools but a lot it was generative ai based. So the detail you added back wasn’t the real detail in your photo, and that doesn’t interest me (as a hobbyist photographer) very much.

Upsizing has never been high on my list of priorities as Adobe always did fine for that in my opinion. And I don’t do video, or work with AI art, or Premier – nor am I an enterprise business – so nothing else Topaz has really interests me. 

As a user that sometimes uses Topaz as a plug-in, I do hope this technology makes its way (NATIVELY) in to Photoshop and Lightroom to the point where I don’t have to worry about the very poor credit implementation system that they have now.

But that’s about it. I don’t want to sound negative but I’m just indifferent with very few expectations from this. I just believe whatever results come from it, I would have been able to get before pretty easily. So while this may be a great thing for Adobe and Topaz, it’s just not something I think affects our world that much.

And I’ll close by saying I could be 100% wrong. Everything you’ve read here is my opinion and I have absolutely zero information on this other than reading the same press release you did 🙂

Thanks and have a good one!

UPDATE: It looks like Adobe may have pulled the update due to the Duplicate feature removing photos that shouldn’t be removed. I don’t use the feature, and I use Lightroom (not classic) for my perusal photography – so I haven’t rolled back. But you can contact Adobe for help rolling back if you’d like. Alternatively, just don’t use the new feature – you won’t be able to anyway if you rollback to the previous version.

PS: If you see a “You must log in” message, this is on your side, not my website. Click here to read up on it and hopefully this helps. Alternative you can go directly to my YouTube channel to watch.

Click here to find out more about my Lightroom for Wildlife Photographers course.

Some background… I do own the original 100-400mm lens which is f/4.5 – 5.6 so when you zoom in to 400mm you’re shooting at f/5.6 not f/4.5. This new lens will allow you to shoot at f/4.5 across the range of the lens.

Also, I’ll be giving you my first thoughts on this lens from a wildlife photography standpoint only. I do shoot landscapes and cityscapes as well, but in my opinion you wouldn’t get this lens for that, so I’ll only be talking about this from a wildlife perspective.

Camera Settings and Editing

Gear: All of the photos below were shot with the new lens and the Sony a1 ii.

• I shoot on manual exposure mode.
• Typically the lowest f-stop number the lens will allow.
• Auto ISO turned on
• And varying shutter speeds depending on the light and movement of the wildlife.
• Also, all photos were taking using the Center Fix auto focus area, with tracking turned on.

As for editing, all photos were edited in Lightroom only, and most have Lightroom’s DeNoise applied to them. And I typically nudge the Sharpening slider to around 60-75 after applying noise reduction. No other plug-ins or programs were used.

Size and Weight

The first thing that surprised me, since I own the original 100-400mm lens, was the size. Typically, everyone I talk to wants smaller and lighter, I didn’t expect to see a larger lens. As you can see below, it’s definitely bigger than the original. But the weight did surprise me. The original is about 50 ounces and this one is about 65 ounces. Considering the size difference, you don’t expect to pick this up and it be as light as it was. It also feels balanced when on the camera, where is my 200-600mm (which is about the same size) definitely feels heavier.

Now, the new lens internally zooms where the old one telescopes out, so while shooting it’s not much of a change. But if you traveled with your 100-400mm a lot, packing this new one will definitely have you rethink your space.

Sharpness and Image Quality

Of course the quality and sharpness is always a hot topic. To me, just about any lens a big camera manufacturer makes these days is sharp. So it’s not anything I really look for. I guess I just expect it to be sharp, especially considering how much these lenses cost these days. But the sharpness was similar to my 200-600mm which I absolutely have always loved and is the lens on my camera most of the time. I did some comparisons but you really have to zoom in to 800% and pixel peep so to me it’s as sharp as you’d ever need.

Below are some close up detailed shots so you can see for yourself.

Autofocus Speed and Reliability

Like you’d expect from a lens like this and a price point of over $4000, auto focus was great. I can’t say I noticed it to be any faster or slower than my 200-600mm or the original 100-400mm, but it’s hard to be nearly perfect. It acquired and locked on to what I needed it to really fast.

This scene happened while I was chimping photos and I looked up, saw it, pointed and shot a burst that was all in focus. I don’t know if that’s because of the camera or the lens (or both), but technology today is incredible. To have this shot while fumbling around with my camera and not being prepared for it is pretty amazing.

Does f/4.5 Through the Range of the Lens Really Matter?

One of the big improvements of the lens is that it shoots at f/4.5 throughout the range of the lens where the old one was variable (4.5 – 5.6). This is one of those subjective things. What do you gain from having f/4.5? It let’s more light in so your ISO levels will be lower. The same photo at ISO 5000 was around ISO 3200 for me. Not a huge difference on the Sony a1 ii, but noticeable.

It also gives you some better background blur (bokeh) while zoomed in. Again, is it noticeable? It depends on you. For me, I simply can’t see the difference that much. However, it is a very pleasing bokeh. While not my best photography, I included this photo to show some of the depth and blur you can see.

Teleconverters?

I didn’t shoot it with a TC on. But the old 100-400mm performed really well with a TC, and Steve Perry who is one of the only reviews I trust on the internet, mentioned that it performs really well. Plain and simple… if Steve says it, it’s true. I don’t know of a better or more seasoned wildlife photographer on the internet today.

One thing about teleconverters… I’ve said this in my lens reviews before and I’ll say it again. It’s a bit of a miss here to not have an internal TC built in to the lens. Other lenses have had this for a while now, and I keep hoping we’ll get something similar in the Sony world.

Will I Add This to My Kit?

After doing a review the question I always get asked is whether or not I’ll be adding this to my kit. At this point, I don’t think so, but I’ve learned never to say never 🙂

My existing 100-400mm took a back seat when the 200-600mm came out because (for wildlife) I always want more reach and zoom – not sometimes… always! And the quality I get with the 200-600mm is outstanding, so I find myself not needing anything else (including the 600mm f/4 I own, that I rarely reach for anymore).

(I did write about the Sony 400-800mm here as well)

So at this point, I’m just not sure I’ll be placing an order for this one any time soon. I think the lens, for the size and weight is fantastic, but I just don’t see myself wanting to use a 100-400mm much. If I take a landscape trip, I’ve always loved taking the older 100-400mm because it let me bridge the gap of shooting detailed landscapes but also some wildlife if I wanted. But since this lens is so large, I’d need a new and much larger travel bag to carry it.

Now, if I did use that focal length a lot, I would have to ask myself what I gain from the new one? If you’re always shooting in low light, then f/4.5 through the range of the lens can make a difference. Lower ISO’s and some nicer backgrounds could make it worth it. And the lens handles fantastically. Much like the 300mm, it just feels perfect when you handhold it and I can’t say that about the 200-600mm.

Thanks and Don’t Forget To…

Thanks for stopping by. I know my reviewers aren’t really technical in nature, but they’re how I see camera gear for better or worse.

Also, don’t forget to check out my newly released Lightroom for Wildlife Photographers course. Wildlife editing has come a long way in the last 5 years and this course gives you a good solid workflow to make your photos look as good as you envisioned them. Enjoy!

But that’s changed in the most recent update a couple of weeks ago. Now you can create a Depth Range mask for all of your photos and it can be a fun tool to help work with things in your photo from a depth perspective (front, middle, back). 

We’ll take a much deeper look in to this feature in this week’s video. Enjoy!

PS: Click here for more info on the Lightroom Summit 2026

Adobe recently released some new Photoshop features this week. One of the bigger features is a new way of finding and removing distractions which is always one of the main reasons we even go in to Photoshop in the first place (as a photographer). 

In this week’s video we’ll take a look at what’s new and which ones I think you should pay attention to. 

Click Here to Find Out More About the Art of Masking course

Click Here to Find Out More About the Art of Masking Course

Enjoy!

Click Here to Find Out More About the Art of Masking Course

On-Demand Bird Photography Webinar: https://event.webinarjam.com/channel/MattK-Bird-Photo-Web

Matt’s Wildlife Editing Secrets: https://mattk.com/wildlife

Check out my free On-Demand Bird Photography Webinar: https://event.webinarjam.com/channel/MattK-Bird-Photo-Web