How do you open a .cr2 file on Windows 10?

[GAMINGGUY]

I've been doing photography on my Canon camera but I can't open the photos on my pc because the file is .cr2. Is there anyway I can open them? I would prefer to be able to use the MS Photos app instead of third party services, but whatever works is fine. Thanks!

[badreg]

You need a RAW converter to do anything meaningful with a RAW file. If it is an old enough camera, you will be able to view it in Explorer, but there is no way that you are doing anything with it.

 

If you're going to shoot RAW, then use the proper tools, be it Adobe Camera Raw, or Capture One or your camera manufacturer's own software.

[LyondellBasell]

On 3/19/2019 at 9:21 PM, GAMINGGUY said:

I've been doing photography on my Canon camera but I can't open the photos on my pc because the file is .cr2. Is there anyway I can open them? I would prefer to be able to use the MS Photos app instead of third party services, but whatever works is fine. Thanks!

If you're shooting in Canon's raw format, then you're shooting to edit your photos. MS Photos is not going to be an appropriate app to work on your images.

 

I'd suggest Adobe Lightroom as one of the more beginner-friendly applications for editing. It's simple enough to learn, and powerful enough to grow into as you expand your skills.

There are absolutely other awesome, free alternatives if you'd rather not come to the CreativeCloud dark side.

 

Alternatively, if you'd rather just get your images straight out of the camera with no editing, change your camera file format to shoot in .jpg. These files can be viewed directly in Windows, require no processing, and are ready to post to any site you might like.

 

Best of luck, happy to answer more!

[GAMINGGUY]

On 3/23/2019 at 12:28 AM, LyondellBasell said:

If you're shooting in Canon's raw format, then you're shooting to edit your photos. MS Photos is not going to be an appropriate app to work on your images.

 

I'd suggest Adobe Lightroom as one of the more beginner-friendly applications for editing. It's simple enough to learn, and powerful enough to grow into as you expand your skills.

There are absolutely other awesome, free alternatives if you'd rather not come to the CreativeCloud dark side.

 

Alternatively, if you'd rather just get your images straight out of the camera with no editing, change your camera file format to shoot in .jpg. These files can be viewed directly in Windows, require no processing, and are ready to post to any site you might like.

 

Best of luck, happy to answer more!

1

Thank you for the help! I do shoot in canons raw format. That is because I want the image in the highest quality, as .jpg uses a compression algorithm to lower the size of the file. I have always wanted to get lightroom but unfortunately, it is a little out of my budget right now. I guess I'm going to look for an alternative. Thanks again!

[LyondellBasell]

3 hours ago, GAMINGGUY said:

Thank you for the help! I do shoot in canons raw format. That is because I want the image in the highest quality, as .jpg uses a compression algorithm to lower the size of the file. I have always wanted to get lightroom but unfortunately, it is a little out of my budget right now. I guess I'm going to look for an alternative. Thanks again!

If you're not editing the photos, then the lossy compression of .jpg is not going to affect your images. The image will still be 6000X4000, or whatever your initial sensor readout is. Data is only lost when you open and *resave* the image

[D13H4RD]

12 hours ago, GAMINGGUY said:

Thank you for the help! I do shoot in canons raw format. That is because I want the image in the highest quality, as .jpg uses a compression algorithm to lower the size of the file. I have always wanted to get lightroom but unfortunately, it is a little out of my budget right now. I guess I'm going to look for an alternative. Thanks again!

Well, a general rule is that you save in RAW if you intend to edit your photos afterwards as it saves much more information which makes it much more flexible for editing. 

 

Honestly though, if you're just shooting to share for social media, out of camera JPEGs are more than fine. 

[Hackentosher]

I'm able to open my .CR2s in the native windows photo app, but if you actually want to do anything with them you need Lightroom or an equivalent. If you don't want to edit your photos, just shoot .JPG.

[YellowJersey]

I recommend irfanview (free) for viewing raw photos like cr2. I believe you need the plugin set (also free) for cr2s... but I'm not sure. I use irfanview as a viewer.

https://www.irfanview.com/64bit.htm

 

 Also, did your camera come with Canon's Digital Photo Professional (free) raw conversion and editing software? It's a bit crude compared to Capture 1 and Lightroom, but I used it for basic raw conversion for years and got great results. If it didn't come with your camera, you can probably download it, though you need a serial number for that (which is on your camera so it shouldn't be a problem) http://pdisp01.c-wss.com/gdl/WWUFORedirectSerialTarget.do?id=NGE4MjA5ZTgx&cmp=ABR&lang=EN

[kirashi]

On 3/27/2019 at 2:35 PM, LyondellBasell said:

If you're not editing the photos, then the lossy compression of .jpg is not going to affect your images. The image will still be 6000X4000, or whatever your initial sensor readout is. Data is only lost when you open and *resave* the image

Yeah, not quite how it works. There is quite a large difference between shooting RAW compared to shooting JPG aside from resolution. RAW doesn't write white balance data directly over the image, and allows for much more granular editing in a professional image editing software - something that JPG is not capable of handling. You can learn more in the following video below.

 

 

[LyondellBasell]

On 3/29/2019 at 12:29 AM, kirashi said:

Yeah, not quite how it works. There is quite a large difference between shooting RAW compared to shooting JPG aside from resolution. RAW doesn't write white balance data directly over the image, and allows for much more granular editing in a professional image editing software - something that JPG is not capable of handling. You can learn more in the following video below.

I know very well how it works (source: am a photographer)

 

 BUT

 

for the purposes of GamingGuy's uses (he's not editing the photos, he just wants to open them and look at them)

he doesn't care about the white balance data, or the extra information included that allows that granular editing.

So the extra information is wasted.

 

My point was simply to reassure him that he's not losing any *quality* (the image isn't losing any sharpness or resolution) by shooting .jpg versus .cr2. That information is only lost if the .jpg is opened and resaved.

[GAMINGGUY]

On 4/1/2019 at 2:21 PM, LyondellBasell said:

I know very well how it works (source: am a photographer)

 

 BUT

 

for the purposes of GamingGuy's uses (he's not editing the photos, he just wants to open them and look at them)

he doesn't care about the white balance data, or the extra information included that allows that granular editing.

So the extra information is wasted.

 

My point was simply to reassure him that he's not losing any *quality* (the image isn't losing any sharpness or resolution) by shooting .jpg versus .cr2. That information is only lost if the .jpg is opened and resaved.

Not particularly true, I do photography and I do post-production on my phone. 

[Crosseyed Sniper]

Give Image Viewer 7.0 or MaxView a try https://www.faststone.org I've been using MaxView for many years, and like it very much. MaxView does cost about $20 US dollars, though, but you can still test it out for about 40 days.

[TheDelphiDude]

Your best bet for opening .CR2 files is using the supplied software from Canon, ie, Digital Photo Professional. This allows you to view, edit and (batch) convert RAW images.

If you don't have the original installation media (ie, CDROMs), you can download the software from Canon's website, but it'll ask for the serial number of your camera body in order to access the download.

[m4n14c]

On 4/7/2019 at 6:10 AM, Crosseyed Sniper said:

Give Image Viewer 7.0 or MaxView a try https://www.faststone.org

I agree with Crosseyed Sniper for Image Viewer for viewing the photos and you can try Darktaple (https://www.darktable.org/) for editing, it's free.