LyteByte

Probably you are done with all the summer vacation and maybe not yet but you would have taken a lot of pictures while you enjoyed. If you are a beginner in Digital SLR photography like me then probably you also would have taken the images in RAW format to retain the original features of the image. By default these files are not supported in Windows 7 and Windows Vista. But you can download these DSLR RAW formats to support these so that you it can show the thumbnail view of the image and also full view. It works well in both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7.

For the beginners, first lets see what is RAW Format in Digital SLR Photography?

RAW formats are nothing but unprocessed or very minimally processed data from the digital camera. They are equivalent of negatives used in film photography and from this negative format other positive formats like TIFF or JPEG for storage, printing and other manipulation(More from Wikipedia).

When a picture is taken, the light goes through the lens and they are captured by the image sensor and they are converted from analog to digital signal. This initial unprocessed content is called as RAW image. This is then processed based on the other parameters given to the camera such as White Balance, Contrast, Sharp, Saturation, special image effects etc and then they are compressed using some algorithm like JPEG and stored. Since they are compressed, it loses most of the data and therefore the unprocessed RAW format usually holds a large memory space.

This RAW format varies from camera manufacturer to another, some of them are

Canon – .cr2, .crw

Nikon – .nef, .nrw

Kodak – .dcs, .dcr, .drf, .k25, .kdc, .tif

Sony – .arw, .srf, .sr2

So how to view download RAW format codec and View RAW format images in Windows?

First you need Windows Live Photo Gallery to view these RAW formats and to enable the thumbnail view when you view them in the Windows Folder.

Download Windows Live Photo Gallery if you don’t have one yet.

When you include the library or the folder which has these RAW format pictures for the first time, it will ask you to install the codec to view these formats. Click Download.

Depending on the RAW format, it will take you to the particular website to download the codec. I have a Canon Rebel Eos and the RAW format was .cr2 and it took me to the following Canon codec.

If you want direct link, click here to download Canon RAW Codec 1.5.0 to .CR2 Format

Now, you will be able to find what those images are in the RAW format when you view them in the Windows Folder though thumbnail and without opening them in Adobe Photoshop or high end photo editors.