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Canon R7; RAW files always in a .CR3 format?

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Evan Atkinson

Evan Atkinson

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Hi all, I will be using an R7 on the weekend and the photos I will be getting will need to be used in college for an exam. The computers at college have Photoshop and Lightroom, but they are only updated to the 2021 version, which cannot load .CR3 files. In which case, I would have to shoot in RAW, but my friend who is using an R7 has come back to me saying that when shooting in RAW it creates .CR3 files, not .CR2 files like I was thinking. I do not yet have the camera but I just wanted to ask, what can I do to have the camera shoot in .CR2 when shooting in RAW?

Many thanks

Evan
 
You cannot shoot in .cr2, the R7 will only shoot raw in the cr3 format, so you'll need to use some up-to-date software to convert the files to tiff or dng.

You can use adobes (free) dng converter or canons free dpp.

Btw even if the R7 still recorded in cr2, there are more differences to raw files than it's extension. The older LR/PS couldn't process raw R7 files, even if they were recorded in .cr2
 
You’ll need a raw converter to change them to DNG files. All Canon’s with Digic 8 processors or newer shoot using the CR3 format. You can’t record raw files in camera in any other file type. Even CRAW are CR3 files.



I don’t think the issue is CR3 as that format has been around since 2018. But the R7 is newer than your schools software and uses the Digic X processor - so that’s likely the issue.
 
Evan Atkinson said:
Hi all, I will be using an R7 on the weekend and the photos I will be getting will need to be used in college for an exam. The computers at college have Photoshop and Lightroom, but they are only updated to the 2021 version, which cannot load .CR3 files. In which case, I would have to shoot in RAW, but my friend who is using an R7 has come back to me saying that when shooting in RAW it creates .CR3 files, not .CR2 files like I was thinking. I do not yet have the camera but I just wanted to ask, what can I do to have the camera shoot in .CR2 when shooting in RAW?
Click to expand...
Really surprised your college doesn't have industry standard software that can cope with the RAW files from the EOS R that I bought in 2018. If their IT department can't cope with that, the only thing you can do is to convert your, cr3 files to .dng or use an older less capable camera.
 
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R7 does not shoot RAW in CR2, only in CR3. So either you will have to shoot in JPG with all it disadvantages or you will have to convert CR3s to DNG or TIFF at home and bring them to school to process them.
 
Evan Atkinson said:
Hi all, I will be using an R7 on the weekend and the photos I will be getting will need to be used in college for an exam. The computers at college have Photoshop and Lightroom, but they are only updated to the 2021 version,
Click to expand...
2021 version? Of Lightroom? What is that?

Either the college has a subscription or it has not.

If it has a subscription, just ask them to update to the latest version of Lightroom/Photoshop+ACR and it will support CR3 from R7.

If not, you are out of luck (with that application).
Evan Atkinson said:
which cannot load .CR3 files. In which case, I would have to shoot in RAW, but my friend who is using an R7 has come back to me saying that when shooting in RAW it creates .CR3 files, not .CR2 files like I was thinking. I do not yet have the camera but I just wanted to ask, what can I do to have the camera shoot in .CR2 when shooting in RAW?

Many thanks

Evan
Click to expand...
--
- M
“I ain't afraid of no noise.”
 
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Evan Atkinson said:
Hi all, I will be using an R7 on the weekend and the photos I will be getting will need to be used in college for an exam. The computers at college have Photoshop and Lightroom, but they are only updated to the 2021 version, which cannot load .CR3 files. In which case, I would have to shoot in RAW, but my friend who is using an R7 has come back to me saying that when shooting in RAW it creates .CR3 files, not .CR2 files like I was thinking. I do not yet have the camera but I just wanted to ask, what can I do to have the camera shoot in .CR2 when shooting in RAW?

Many thanks

Evan
Click to expand...
You can always download a trial copy of a raw converter like DXO, affinity or LR, do the conversion at home, then finish at school.
 
I wonder what versions of Photoshop and Lightroom the college really has?

The last non-subscription version of Photoshop was CS6, released in 2012. (That's for retail users.) All subsequent versions require subscriptions to remain usable. AFAIK, there is no "2021" version that runs without a subscription.

I don't know what arrangements Adobe might have made with educational institutions.

Too bad that the OP's college can't afford to stay current, even with Adobe's major educational discounts.
 
Evan Atkinson said:
Hi all, I will be using an R7 on the weekend and the photos I will be getting will need to be used in college for an exam. The computers at college have Photoshop and Lightroom, but they are only updated to the 2021 version, which cannot load .CR3 files. In which case, I would have to shoot in RAW, but my friend who is using an R7 has come back to me saying that when shooting in RAW it creates .CR3 files, not .CR2 files like I was thinking. I do not yet have the camera but I just wanted to ask, what can I do to have the camera shoot in .CR2 when shooting in RAW?

Many thanks

Evan
Click to expand...
You can't. CR3 is Canon's current raw format. So, you'll have to use Canon's DPP or find an updated version of LR/PS. Another solution is to download Adobe's free DNG converter; convert to DNG and then import into PS/LR.
 
Thank you for all the replies everyone. It seems that my college is going to flat out refuse to update Photoshop from 2021-2023 because of money problems. Although I am able to use Photoshop 2023 on the Macbooks, they take a long time to load things and genuinely crash a lot, which would impact my exam. I could of course shoot with an older DSLR like the 1DX mkii but I would rather shoot mirrorless. Additionally, I could edit the JPEG's, but I want to be able to get as much details as possible, which I can't when shooting JPEG.

Evan
 
Evan Atkinson said:
Thank you for all the replies everyone. It seems that my college is going to flat out refuse to update Photoshop from 2021-2023 because of money problems. Although I am able to use Photoshop 2023 on the Macbooks, they take a long time to load things and genuinely crash a lot, which would impact my exam. I could of course shoot with an older DSLR like the 1DX mkii but I would rather shoot mirrorless. Additionally, I could edit the JPEG's, but I want to be able to get as much details as possible, which I can't when shooting JPEG.

Evan
Click to expand...
Which college would that be? Just so that would-be students have the information before committing themselves before the new academic year.

There are any number of free cr3 to dng converters but few IT I've come into contact with tolerate freeware. You could bulk export cr3 images to 16 bit TIFF using Canon's DPP4 then work on the tiffs on Photoshop, but I'm surprised that a two-year old edition of Photoshop can't use a six-year old RAW file format.
 
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Evan Atkinson said:
Thank you for all the replies everyone. It seems that my college is going to flat out refuse to update Photoshop from 2021-2023 because of money problems. Although I am able to use Photoshop 2023 on the Macbooks, they take a long time to load things and genuinely crash a lot, which would impact my exam. I could of course shoot with an older DSLR like the 1DX mkii but I would rather shoot mirrorless. Additionally, I could edit the JPEG's, but I want to be able to get as much details as possible, which I can't when shooting JPEG.

Evan
Click to expand...
Ask if you can install Canon’s DPP (free), or use it on your own device. It’s a bit slower which only really matters if you are processing a lot of files, and produces excellent output as it is tailored to Canon’s RAW file content, including white balance settings, distortion correction, diffraction correction, noise reduction etc. Output these initial RAW conversions as tiffs then any further work can be done in PS.
 
I have just found out that the Canon R5's .CR3 files are compatible with the version of Camera Raw and Photoshop that I have so it is likely I will be using an R5 over the R7 now.
 
So it's more that Adobe isn't offering updates for newish cameras unless the software is up to date. I'm still getting free updates for new cameras and bug fixes for my copy of PhotoLab 5 even though I didn't upgrade to PhotoLab 6 last year.
 
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Sittatunga said:
So it's more that Adobe isn't offering updates for newish cameras unless the software is up to date.
Click to expand...
False, Adobe is constantly updating its software - and there is no reason whatsoever to stick with an old and less capable version. The college IT is incompetently run, that's why they have an outdated version which will not continue to run anyways.
Sittatunga said:
I'm still getting free updates for new cameras and bug fixes for my copy of PhotoLab 5 even though I didn't upgrade to PhotoLab 6 last year.
Click to expand...
That's not viable in the long run, backporting new camera support to a more and more outdated software package has practical (keeping old build environments around is a real pain in the proverbial...) and monetary implications that no company can ignore.
 
BobKnDP said:
I wonder what versions of Photoshop and Lightroom the college really has?

The last non-subscription version of Photoshop was CS6, released in 2012. (That's for retail users.) All subsequent versions require subscriptions to remain usable. AFAIK, there is no "2021" version that runs without a subscription.

I don't know what arrangements Adobe might have made with educational institutions.

Too bad that the OP's college can't afford to stay current, even with Adobe's major educational discounts.
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And, the last stand-alone version of LR was December of 2017. So it really doesn't make sense that the college won't update, unless Adobe is still releasing stand-alone versions only for education.
 
charlyw64 said:
Sittatunga said:
So it's more that Adobe isn't offering updates for newish cameras unless the software is up to date.
Click to expand...
False, Adobe is constantly updating its software - and there is no reason whatsoever to stick with an old and less capable version. The college IT is incompetently run, that's why they have an outdated version which will not continue to run anyways.
Click to expand...
Are you telling me that Adobe are still updating older versions of Photoshop? Evan's reply "It seems that my college is going to flat out refuse to update Photoshop from 2021-2023 because of money problems" is surprising because i didn't think Photoshop would run without a subscription in place, but that sounds more like Finance than IT. Or an odd sounding excuse.
charlyw64 said:
charlyw64 said:
I'm still getting free updates for new cameras and bug fixes for my copy of PhotoLab 5 even though I didn't upgrade to PhotoLab 6 last year.
Click to expand...
That's not viable in the long run, backporting new camera support to a more and more outdated software package has practical (keeping old build environments around is a real pain in the proverbial...) and monetary implications that no company can ignore.
Click to expand...
Backwards compatibility is why I've given up on Apple and continued with Canon. With DxO's architecture it's sensible to keep the formats of the camera and lens modules constant between the annual iterations of their program and it's no skin off their nose to make them available to people with licensed previous versions. If people skip a year because of the expense they will still be more likely to come back for a discounted future version than to join an equally expensive subscription version that tries to lock you in for life.
 
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charlyw64 said:
Sittatunga said:
So it's more that Adobe isn't offering updates for newish cameras unless the software is up to date.
Click to expand...
False, Adobe is constantly updating its software
Click to expand...
Sure if you're on a subscription plan. I know the stand-alone version of LR stopped getting updates after 2017, and that's what finally nudged me to go the subscription route when I couldn't process R6 raw files. TBH though I'm not sure how long they support older versions of PS Elements.
 
Sittatunga said:
charlyw64 said:
Sittatunga said:
So it's more that Adobe isn't offering updates for newish cameras unless the software is up to date.
Click to expand...
False, Adobe is constantly updating its software - and there is no reason whatsoever to stick with an old and less capable version. The college IT is incompetently run, that's why they have an outdated version which will not continue to run anyways.
Click to expand...
Are you telling me that Adobe are still updating older versions of Photoshop? Evan's reply "It seems that my college is going to flat out refuse to update Photoshop from 2021-2023 because of money problems" is surprising because i didn't think Photoshop would run without a subscription in place, but that sounds more like Finance than IT. Or an odd sounding excuse.
Click to expand...
The money problem’s could be the willingness to pay the IT people to make the rounds and manually complete updates? But that seems like an odd place to save a few dollars. Especially when the students could just as easily hit, “Check for Updates”. But they’ve probably limited it to admin approval and password protected to run updates
Sittatunga said:
Sittatunga said:
Sittatunga said:
I'm still getting free updates for new cameras and bug fixes for my copy of PhotoLab 5 even though I didn't upgrade to PhotoLab 6 last year.
Click to expand...
That's not viable in the long run, backporting new camera support to a more and more outdated software package has practical (keeping old build environments around is a real pain in the proverbial...) and monetary implications that no company can ignore.
Click to expand...
Backwards compatibility is why I've given up on Apple and continued with Canon. With DxO's architecture it's sensible to keep the formats of the camera and lens modules constant between the annual iterations of their program and it's no skin off their nose to make them available to people with licensed previous versions. If people skip a year because of the expense they will still be more likely to come back for a discounted future version than to join an equally expensive subscription version that tries to lock you in for life.
Click to expand...
 
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