Converting cr2 files

[bradzo66]

Could somebody tell me a program to use to convert cr2 files to an acceptable format for posting as i have recently taken all my shots in raw and they cant be uploaded as is ,sorry for my ignorance but at this stage its where im at .Also are there any side effects to converting eg loss of quality etc. Thanks in advance , help is much appreciated in all its forms .

[lputman]

The file type you mentioned is Canon and they supply the necessary software on disk that would allow you to convert your file. If you don't have the software, it would depend on what type of photo editing software you use. The degrading of the file happens with repeated savings of the jpg type.

[bradzo66]

Originally Posted by lputman

The file type you mentioned is Canon and they supply the necessary software on disk that would allow you to convert your file. If you don't have the software, it would depend on what type of photo editing software you use. The degrading of the file happens with repeated savings of the jpg type.

Thanks Lori , I generally just let the canon software automatically download my images and it didnt occur to me that they may have supplied this type of software as well , I will look into it a little more closely and see what else is available there ,thanks for yr time and patience ,newbies are such a pain hey lol + !!!

[Farkled]

Digital Photo Professional (DPP) comes free with all Canon DSLR cameras. It's on the utilities disk. Be sure to go to the Canon site and D.L the latest version.

DPP is a competent RAW converter. As a general rule, you always want to edit your RAW file (or a copy) because the edits are non-destructive. In essence, edits simply create a list of instructions that are applied when you do something to the file for output. The original data is never changed.

You need only save a file in TIF or JPG formats for specific reasons; i.e., printing or uploading to the web/email. TIF does not lose quality, but if further editing is needed, it may not have all the data that the original CR2 files does. You pretty much have to create JPG files in order to upload to the web and/or email so that someone else can see them. Creating a JPG will directly from a RAW file will not lose apparent quality, but any additional editing of the file will quickly lose data and quality. A JPG is only 8 bits instead of the 12, 14 or 16 of the RAW & TIF formats.

[Swisstony10]

I didn't like DPP to start with - I do all my RAW-to-anything conversion in Photoshop (CS3). The only trouble is that CS3 is just too much for my aged laptop to cope with, while DPP, being much less hungry, runs quite happily on it.

Recently, it was necessary for me to do some quick conversion and minor editing on the laptop, so I got properly stuck in to DPP, and although it's still not quite up to what PS does, it's actually pretty good.

The only thing that irks me about DPP is that it doesn't appear to recognise shared network resources, like shared hard drives or printers. I'm pretty sure I'm running the latest version of it - a bit of network support from it wouldn't go amiss.

Russ.