CR2, CRW, DNG, NEF: A Photographer's Guide to RAW Formats and When to Convert

Your camera shoots in RAW. Your editor opens it fine. Then someone asks for the photo and nothing works on their end. Sound familiar?

RAW formats are powerful and proprietary, which means they can be a pain to share, archive, and manage. This guide breaks down the main RAW formats — CR2, CRW, DNG, NEF, and more — and explains when converting to JPG (or DNG) actually saves you time.

The Main RAW Formats

RAW is not a single format. It is a category. Every camera manufacturer has their own flavor, and some have changed formats over time. Here is what you will encounter most often:

CR2 (Canon RAW 2) Canon's standard RAW format from the mid-2000s through around 2018. If you shoot with a Canon EOS Rebel, 5D Mark II or III, or similar DSLRs from that era, your files are CR2. It is a mature, well-supported format with broad software compatibility.

CRW (Canon RAW) The older Canon RAW format, predating CR2. You will find CRW files on early Canon DSLRs and the original Canon Digital Rebel. Software support is narrower than CR2, which makes conversion more common for these files.

CR3 (Canon RAW 3) Canon's current format, introduced with the EOS M50 and used across modern mirrorless and DSLR bodies. CR3 uses a different container structure than CR2 and is not yet supported in all older applications.

DNG (Digital Negative) Adobe's open RAW format. No single camera brand owns it, and many manufacturers (Leica, Pentax, Ricoh, Hasselblad) shoot DNG natively. It is also the standard archival format that many photographers convert their proprietary RAW files into for long-term storage. DNG files can embed the original RAW data and the processing recipe in one file.

NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) Nikon's RAW format, used across all Nikon DSLRs and Z-series mirrorless cameras. NEF files are well-supported in Lightroom, Capture NX-D, and most professional editing software.

ARW (Sony Alpha RAW) Sony's RAW format for Alpha-series cameras (A7, A9, ZV-E series, and more). ARW files include Sony's own metadata structure and support lossless and lossy RAW compression options.

RAF (Fujifilm RAW) Fujifilm's format. RAF files contain the sensor output from Fujifilm's X-Trans sensor, which uses a non-Bayer color filter array — this makes demosaicing more complex and means not all software handles RAF files with the same quality.

ORF (Olympus/OM System RAW) Used by Olympus and OM System Micro Four Thirds cameras. Compact files with good compatibility in major editing tools.

RW2 (Panasonic RAW) Panasonic's RAW format for Lumix cameras. Supported in Lightroom and Capture One.

Why Convert RAW to JPG?

RAW files are not for everything. Here is when converting to JPG is the right call:

Sharing. Most platforms — social media, email clients, messaging apps — cannot display RAW files. Sending a CR2 to someone without Lightroom means they see nothing. A JPG works everywhere.

Storage. A typical RAW file is 20–40 MB. A high-quality JPG of the same image is 3–8 MB. If you are archiving thousands of images or sending files over a slow connection, size matters.

Compatibility. Older software, web applications, and many business workflows expect standard image formats. JPG is the universal language of photos.

Client delivery. Unless you are handing off files for retouching, most clients want JPGs. Converting is part of the delivery workflow.

The tradeoff is editing latitude. RAW files retain all the sensor data — highlights, shadows, white balance — which you can recover in post. Once you convert to JPG, that data is baked in. Convert only after you have finished editing if quality is the priority.

How to Convert RAW Files Online

You do not need Lightroom or Photoshop to convert RAW files. FileCrank handles conversions directly in your browser — no software to install, no account required.

• Convert CR2 to JPG using the CR2 to JPG converter
• Convert CRW files using the CRW to JPG converter
• Convert DNG to JPG using the DNG to JPG converter
• Convert any RAW format to JPG using the RAW to JPG converter
• Inspect embedded metadata with the RAW Metadata Viewer

Files are processed on the server and not stored. Upload, convert, download.

DNG vs Manufacturer RAW: Which to Keep?

If you are thinking about long-term archiving, DNG has a real argument. Manufacturer RAW formats (CR2, NEF, ARW) are proprietary — the companies that own them could theoretically change or drop support. DNG is an open standard maintained by Adobe, with a published specification. Many archivists and working photographers convert their libraries to DNG precisely because of this.

That said, manufacturer formats are not going anywhere soon. CR2 and NEF files from 2008 still open fine in current software. If you use Lightroom, converting to DNG on import is a reasonable workflow. If you prefer to keep originals untouched, storing NEF or CR2 alongside sidecar XMP files works just as well.

The practical answer: for everyday shooting and sharing, convert to JPG. For archiving, DNG is a solid choice. For active editing, keep the manufacturer RAW and work from that.

Start Converting

If you have a folder of CR2, CRW, NEF, or ARW files and need JPGs — for a client, for social media, or just to clear space — FileCrank's RAW converters get it done in the browser. No installation, no subscription.

Browse the FileCrank photography tools to find the right converter for your format.

RAW File Sizes in Practice: What the Numbers Mean for Your Workflow

Understanding file size is not an academic exercise — it shapes how you back up, travel, and deliver work.

A 24-megapixel Canon sensor produces a CR2 file in the range of 25–30 MB per shot. The same scene saved as a high-quality JPG typically lands between 5 and 8 MB. That is a 4x to 5x size difference per image. Shoot a 500-image wedding and your RAW folder is 13–15 GB. The same shoot in JPG is closer to 3 GB.

The practical implications:

Storage. Two high-capacity SD cards that hold 3,000 JPGs hold roughly 600 RAW files at the same quality level. For travel or event photography, this matters. A full day of shooting RAW on a 64 GB card can fill it; the same day in JPG leaves room to spare.

Backup time. Backing up 15 GB over a hotel Wi-Fi connection to cloud storage after a shoot is a different experience than backing up 3 GB. Serious photographers running RAW workflows keep local backups on fast external SSDs and cloud backup running in the background — and budget time for both.

Culling speed. Preview generation for RAW files takes longer than for JPG. In Lightroom, importing 500 CR2s and generating standard previews can take 30–60 minutes. JPG previews render almost instantly. If your post-processing time is limited, this overhead is real.

Client delivery. Clients do not receive RAW files as a rule. The delivery folder is always JPG. Factor in rendering time when quoting turnaround — exporting 500 edited RAW files to JPG at full resolution can take 20–40 minutes depending on your machine.

For photographers who shoot RAW primarily to protect editing latitude, the RAW-to-JPG step is the final one in every project. Tools like FileCrank's RAW to JPG converter and the CR2 to JPG converter handle this conversion step without requiring Lightroom or any local software install.

RAW Processing Software: An Honest Comparison

Not all RAW editors are equal, and the right choice depends on your budget, volume, and how much control you need over the raw data.

The honest verdict: Lightroom Classic is the default for working photographers because the library, export, and client delivery tools are mature. Capture One justifies its price for commercial work where color is critical. darktable is a serious free alternative — it handles CR2, NEF, ARW, and DNG natively and the processing quality is high, but budget time to learn it. Camera manufacturer apps are worth having installed for edge cases but rarely become the primary workflow.

DNG Conversion for Archiving: Future-Proofing Your RAW Library

Proprietary RAW formats are a long-term compatibility risk — not an immediate one, but a real one. Companies change, software gets discontinued, and format support eventually narrows. DNG is different: it is an open, published specification that any software developer can implement without a licensing agreement.

Converting your CR2 or NEF library to DNG now is an insurance policy.

Adobe DNG Converter is the standard tool for this and it is free. It runs on Mac and Windows. You point it at a folder of RAW files, choose your settings, and it produces DNG versions. The key settings worth understanding:

• Embed original raw file. This bundles the original CR2 or NEF inside the DNG container. The resulting file is larger (you are essentially storing two files in one), but you retain the proprietary original as a fallback. Enable this if storage is not a concern.
• JPEG preview size. DNG files can embed a JPEG preview at full, medium, or no size. Full-size previews make the DNG display faster in any browser or preview app, but add file size. Medium is a reasonable default.
• Lossy vs lossless compression. The default is lossless — all pixel data is preserved. Lossy DNG reduces file size significantly but discards some sensor data. For archiving, always use lossless.

What metadata is preserved in DNG? EXIF data (camera model, lens, focal length, shutter speed, ISO, GPS if present), capture date and time, and embedded IPTC copyright fields all survive conversion. What does not survive automatically: proprietary in-camera metadata specific to a manufacturer's tools, and Picture Style or Creative Style settings — those are baked into the embedded preview but the instructions themselves are discarded. Lightroom adjustments you have applied before exporting to DNG are embedded as XMP and survive.

One workflow note: Lightroom Classic has a built-in "Convert to DNG" option on import. If you are already using Lightroom, enabling this on import means your library converts automatically without a separate step.

Shooting RAW+JPG: The Best of Both Worlds

Most cameras produced in the last decade support simultaneous RAW+JPG capture. The camera writes two files for every shutter press: one RAW for archiving and editing, one JPG for immediate use.

This workflow resolves the most common practical tension in RAW shooting.

The problem it solves. A client asks you to share a few selects from the shoot by end of day. You shot RAW. You do not have time to edit. With RAW+JPG, you already have camera-processed JPGs on the card — shoot them over now, deliver the edited versions later.

Where it shines:

• Event and wedding photography, where same-day previews are expected
• Travel photography, where you want to post to social media the same evening
• Sports and news work, where turnaround time beats image perfection

The tradeoff. You are writing roughly 1.5x–2x the data per shot, which fills cards faster and slows write speed slightly on burst shooting. On older camera bodies, the buffer can become a bottleneck. On most modern cameras this is a non-issue.

The workflow in practice. Keep the RAW folder as your archive and editing source. Copy the JPG folder to a separate directory for delivery or sharing. After editing, export final versions from RAW and replace the camera JPGs in your delivery folder if quality matters for that project.

For projects where you only need to convert and share after the fact — no time for a full edit — the CR2 to JPG converter converts individual files quickly. If you want to understand the tradeoffs between conversion approaches more broadly, the guide on lossy vs lossless file conversion covers when quality loss matters and when it does not. For context on how RAW fits into the broader image format landscape, the PNG vs WebP vs AVIF comparison is useful once your RAW-to-JPG workflow is settled and you are thinking about web delivery formats.