CR3-CRAW & Older Macs

[DanH]

So I went out today with my new R6ii and photographed some wonder Hoar Frost. It was an exciting day! I hurried home to have a look at what I got, eager to see my photos. Here's where the next wrinkle surfaces... I run an older Macbook on OSX10.15 Catalina. I have a subscription to Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop, however because my Mac is limited to running Catalina, I am not able to run the latest version of Lightroom - I'm limited to Lr11.5. Can you guess what else doesn't work... yep CR3 files.
So I google around and download Adobe DNG Convertor, install that and try again. It reads a couple of images from the first card that were shot in RAW, but won't read the images from today's card, which were shot in CRAW.

What gives? Has anyone come across this odd issue?

Is there a third party app that will convert CR3/CRAW to DNG?

 

[Hali]

I'm a PC user so I'm not much help, but there is a program for PC called Fast Raw Viewer. I think it's for the Mac as well? It won't convert for you but it will let you see what you've shot.
As for DNG, DNG is open source I believe, it was developed by Adobe on the TIFF format IIRC. I don't know of any other software company that will convert to DNG. However - why not use the Canon proprietary software DPP to convert the ones you like to .tiff then you can open them in LR.

Here is the link for Fast Raw Viewer

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

I'm in the same situation as you, Dan, running a mid-2012 MacBook Pro so I can no longer update Lightroom (but I can update Camera Raw - more on that later). I don't think your issue has as much to do with cRAW as it does with the new R6ii raw files themselves. I don't shoot cRAW but I just tested importing both a RAW and cRAW image into Lightroom from an R6i with no issues. So I believe your issue has more to do with support for a new camera than it does with cRAW.

So I'm clear, are you only having issues with cRAW on the R6ii or is Lightroom failing to recognize RAW files as well? From your post it sounds like regular RAW files are readable, and if so I would just shoot them because you're never going to be able to import them directly into Lightroom until you upgrade your computer.

With that said you have a couple options. The DNG converter should work for you, it may just be that Adobe has yet to update it so it handles the R6ii RAW format. Until then the only option you have if your computer can't read the file is to use Canon DPP to generate a Tiff that can then be read by Lightroom. The DNG Converter should provide support more quickly than the rest of the Adobe system, but at some point Camera Raw will be updated for the R6ii, at which point the following may be a solution...

Instead of Lightroom download a Raw viewer. I use Photo Mechanic currently since it's significantly faster at viewing my R5 raw files and generating previews (saves a ton of time). I do my review and deletions in there and then import what's left into Lightroom, which you'll need to skip at this point. As mentioned, I've found you can still update Camera Raw on the old macOS even though you can't do Lightroom (at least that's been the case so far). If this is the case you could first open the image using ACR, do your Lightroom edits, open in Photoshop, and then save it as a PSD file which you could then import into Lightroom. The XMP file will stay with the RAW file in the directory and if you keep everything together if/when you eventually upgrade Lightroom will be able to find the paired files and pull them in too.

None of these are great solutions, but when you're stuck like we are the option is to do more work or buy another computer. Given that I expect there to be something announced in 2023 around a 60MP R5ii or something that will give me the reach of an R7 from an MP perspective with a better buffer and more powerful processor so the AF doesn't lose lock, I'm saving for the computer.

 

[Dave Williams]

I have a 2015 MacBook that has no storage space left on it and I'd love to know how to get rid of some too but that's another question. I can't upgrade to the latest Monterey so I'm also running Catalina 10'5'6 . No problems opening files from the R5, just no room to actually process them!
As suggested already, I think your problem is that Adobe haven't yet added the R6ii to their programme yet. The same happened when Canon introduced other mirrorless cameras I believe and you need to hang on in there.
I bought a new 2022 iMac to process things at home and I made sure I went for 16GB of memory to speed things up. I only use the MacBook for transferring files to an external hard drive when on a trip, but it's also nice to see on a bigger screen how the shots have turned out.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

I have a 2015 MacBook that has no storage space left on it and I'd love to know how to get rid of some too but that's another question.

I would run out of storage on my 512GB MacBook every other month if I didn't offload pics to an external USB hard drive. Currently I have a pair of 2TB SSD drives that hold my photos (primary and backup). I offload to them via Lightroom so they remain in my catalog a month after they're shot (at the beginning of a month I offload the photos from 2 months prior, so I just did November). If I'm shooting a lot I may do more. Once offloaded to the primary I copy from the primary to the secondary. I also back up to a non-SSD third drive that sits in a firebox just in case.

 

[Dave Williams]

I bought 5TB HDD external hard drives for less than the price of a 1TB SSD drive. They are of course slow compared to the latter but to compensate I ordered a new iMac with 1TB of storage. I can download a card on to the Mac in double quick time, do what I want with the file then transfer it to the external hard drive for permanent storage and delete what's left on the Mac. I was a cheaper solution that works well for me. My 512GB memory card wouldn't take long to fill up a 1TB hard drive

 

[DanH]

So I'm clear, are you only having issues with cRAW on the R6ii or is Lightroom failing to recognize RAW files as well?

Yes Jake, it’s just the R6ii cRAW files I’m having trouble with. The RAW files form my EOS 60D and 5Diii work fine.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

I bought 5TB HDD external hard drives for less than the price of a 1TB SSD drive. They are of course slow compared to the latter but to compensate I ordered a new iMac with 1TB of storage. I can download a card on to the Mac in double quick time, do what I want with the file then transfer it to the external hard drive for permanent storage and delete what's left on the Mac. I was a cheaper solution that works well for me. My 512GB memory card wouldn't take long to fill up a 1TB hard drive

I hear what you're saying about filling a smaller drive, so the key for me there is culling. If I saved every frame I ever took I'd have already bought two Macbooks worth of external drives. If I were to fill a 512GB card I'm going to wind up with at best 50GB in images. Now I shoot mainly wildlife so I'm often shooting at 15-30fps and looking for the 3-5 images in a several second burst that best show the bird or critter. But even if I were shooting an image at a time, there's no way I'd ever go back to 80-90% of them four months from now, let alone years from now. The cumulative total of my keepers in 2021 and 2022 totaled 330GB and 380GB respectively, which includes saved PSD files. I have the last 3 years on an SSD drive that easily slides into my laptop bag. I know conventional drives are cheaper, and they are what I use for archiving, but if I'm traveling I don't want to drag a mechanical drive with me.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

Yes Jake, it’s just the R6ii cRAW files I’m having trouble with. The RAW files form my EOS 60D and 5Diii work fine.

I'm good with RAW files through the R7, but I will likely be unable to work with anything from the R6ii forward unless I use one of the workarounds I mentioned. Today's a day for listing a bunch of stuff on eBay and elsewhere to finance that new MacBook.

 

[Dave Williams]

I hear what you're saying about filling a smaller drive, so the key for me there is culling. If I saved every frame I ever took I'd have already bought two Macbooks worth of external drives. If I were to fill a 512GB card I'm going to wind up with at best 50GB in images. Now I shoot mainly wildlife so I'm often shooting at 15-30fps and looking for the 3-5 images in a several second burst that best show the bird or critter. But even if I were shooting an image at a time, there's no way I'd ever go back to 80-90% of them four months from now, let alone years from now. The cumulative total of my keepers in 2021 and 2022 totaled 330GB and 380GB respectively, which includes saved PSD files. I have the last 3 years on an SSD drive that easily slides into my laptop bag. I know conventional drives are cheaper, and they are what I use for archiving, but if I'm traveling I don't want to drag a mechanical drive with me.

I agree with you 100% and wish I could be as efficient in reducing files. Personally I don't want to spend much of my holiday trip culling files, much better to wait until I get home but then the effort involved is so tedious I tend to just abandon the whole process and end up keeping everything! I bought 5TB LaCie drives which are very robust and well protected. Good enough for my travel needs anyway.