.CRW To .RAW Conversion...Quality Of?

Well...

I did it...I went with a Canon G5. (Got a sensational price at BestBuy.)

My question is...in converting .CRW's to .RAW's, is the conversion quality the same if I use the Canon software provided with the DigiCam, as it would be if I went with the app "BreezeBrowser"?

Thanks very much,

mark4man

I don't think the quality is an issue, but BreezeBrowser is more versatile, easier to use and faster.

By the way, CRW is a RAW-format and when converting it's converted into JPG or TIFF

CRW is RAW. You have to convert to JPEG or TIFF.

Choice of program is difficult and depends on a lot of factors. Start with the programs you have and take it from there until you find an appliation that suits your needs.
I started with Breezebrowser, followed by YarcPlus and the Adobe plugin. Now I'm devoted to Capture One.

Don't let people make you crazy so that you spend more time behind the computer than behind the camera!

The jury is out on whether or not breezebrowser is better. But you can download the trial version and test it for yourself. I think you will find a lot of people on this forum like breezebrowser a lot.

I use the Photoshop RAW conversion for my CRW files and that works nicely for me.

Canon knows their own CRW format well, so their program does a very good job in the conversion. The Canon program also supports custom white balance if you decide to go that way with your CRW (Raw) files. I don't know if breezebrowser does. Photoshop does NOT recognize the custom whitebalance settings.

I tried Capture One (C1) with my G3, but it does not support this camera.

What?

I'm talking about converting to .RAW in order to open the image file in Photshop 6 *as a* .RAW (since Photoshop 6 can't open a .RAW.)

If Canon gives me the ability to capture an image in a lossless format (.RAW)...& that format consists of only the pure pixel data...which is (I'm told) the best approach for editing & retouching in Photoshop...then, yes...I want to take the .CRW from the G5 & convert it into a .RAW for use in Photoshop.

I just wanted to know if the conversion is of the same quality in Canon's ZoomBrowser as it is in BreezeBrowser.

Thanks,

mark4man

RAW is stored in a file with the extension CRW. You need to convert that file (TIFF or JPEG) before you can edit it in PS6.

There is no '.RAW'.

There was another post about this a couple of days ago:
here
CRW is Canon RAW format.

Canon RAW is .CRW
Nikon RAW is .NEF
Olympus RAW is .ORF
Fuji RAW is .RAF
Minolta RAW is .MRW

Here's the kicker: Photoshop RAW is .RAW!

(From FAQS.org)

Regardless, you can not edit a camera RAW image file until you convert it, or as part of the conversion process. TIFF is the preferred conversion format for many people because it is lossless and can be read by other applications besides PS.

P.S. Welcome to the forum, and congrats on your camera purchase!

Breezebrowser was developed using the Canon SDK, so it uses the Canon DLL's for conversion.

If you set the parameters the same in the BB software as the Canon software you'll get the same result.

BB adds a better interface and a lot of other enhancements for controlling parameters, but the underlying conversion 'engine' is the same.

I'm not certain about version 6 but yes, in the lastest version, CS, you can open a .crw file, without converting it to jpg or tif.
I believe that with a conversion plugin, you can do this in version 7 also.

I have not used Breezebrowser, so I can't compare it to other methods, but yes, you can open crw files in Photoshop without converting to jpg or tif.

Hope this helps.

henkbos, tonymac, slejhammer, dtrayers, Brian Tiley...

Thanks all...I'm gettin' it, I'm gettin' it (wasn't gettin' contentious there...I just mistakenly assumed I could go from Canon RAW to standard RAW from within the proprietary software.)

Just one more question; & I'll leave you guys alone for awhile.

I went through this when I had my Nikon CoolPix...but it's still a bit difficult to get my brain around. The resolution *settings* in a DigiCam are field-based, right? (i.e., 2592 X 1944 pixels, 1600 X 1200 pixels, etc.) The resolution *base* of most DigiCams is 72 ppi, right? This is why we wind up with a 36" wide image at a 2592 setting (right?)

So...If in ZoomBrowser...prior to conversion (.CRW to .TIF)...in Preferences, when the app asks for the specified resolution of the output file...why is the default set to 96 ppi?

Wouldn't that mean then that the image will be resampled in the conversion?

Or . . . Is 96 ppi the resolution base of the G5?

I'm a bit perplexed here. I should stay with the camera's base res during conversion, so as not to cause resampling within in a lesser app (ZoomBrowser as opposed to Photoshop), right?

So I should set my output file res to 72 ppi in Preferences, so as to not alter the pixel data during conversion, right?

If someone could point me in the right direction, it certainly would be appreciated.

Thanks very much,

mark4man

I don't think the image will be resampled if you have it set to 96ppi, the picture would just be smaller (in inches) but the same number of pixels in the image.

For example, if you have an image that is 800x600 pixels:
at 100ppi the image will print 8x6 inches
at 200ppi the image will print 4x3 inches

Right! Stop there. So if you tell the software that you want it at 300 ppi then it'll be 2592/300 = 8.64". It doesn't re-sample it. Re-sampling will make it 300 ppi AND 36", or 300x36 = 10,800 pixels wide.

Resampling changes the pixel count. Re-sizing doesn't. Changing the pixel count may affect quality. Just telling the computer how many PPI, and not changing the pixel count, does not affect quality.

Dave,

So the Output Resolution setting in ZoomBrowser is simply an initial spec...a target resolution (much in the same way as DigiCams have an initial spec of 72 ppi)? No resampling occurs?

If so...Great!

Thanks,

mark4man

Yup!