darktable, one of the best open-source applications for editing RAW files under a Linux kernel-based operating system has been updated recently with a great number of changes, several bug fixes, RAW support for more cameras, white balance presets from several Panasonic cameras, as well as new standard/enhanced matrix and noise profiles. darktable 1.6.3 is available for download right now from Softpedia.

According to the official release notes, darktable 1.6.3 adds RAW support for several Canon and Panasonic digital cameras, including Canon 1DX, Canon A630, Canon SX110IS, Panasonic FZ1000, Panasonic TZ60, and Panasonic LX100. In addition, the application supports RAW images from the KODAK EASYSHARE Z1015 IS camera.

However, please note that non-standard aspect ratio modes are currently missing from Panasonic LX100 RAW support, only CHDK RAW is supported for the Canon A630 and SX110IS cameras, and sRAW modes are missing from the Canon 1DX RAW support included in the 1.6.3 version of darktable.

White balance presets have been added to the Panasonic FZ1000, Panasonic LX100, and Panasonic TZ60 digital cameras, standard matrix support has been added for the Canon 1100D (also known as Canon Rebel T3) digital camera, enhanced matrix support has been added for the Nikon D750 full-frame (FX) digital camera, and noise profiles have been added for Canon EOS 1DX.

The darktable 1.6.3 release adds many other features and fixes annoying bugs

As mentioned, the darktable 1.6.3 update is a major one, as it adds many other features and fixes annoying bugs, such as making the camera import window transient, fixing a buffer overrun issue in SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions) clipping loop for highlight handling, repairing soft boundaries for black in exposure, and addressing the no tooltip issue when dragging in monochrome.

Furthermore, it now allows soft limits on radius, fixes aspect ratios issues in rotate and crop, adds a MIME handler for non-RAW images, supports chromaticity reading and writing in OpenEXR, no longer exports files when an invalid storage or export path is selected, changes the order of the intent/profile combo in the export dialog, default to :memory: db in the configuration, and improves detection of lens model name for Sony SAL lenses.