Canon RAW Codec for Windows Vista Released

I used to be a Nikon guy, but I decided to dabble with the Canon Rebel XT a couple of years ago, and so far, I'm pleased. Most of my newer wallpaper images were taken with the Canon camera and a 60mm macro lens. Unfortunately, until now, all of those wonderful .CR2 files sitting in my picture folders didn't display thumbnails, and they weren't viewable in the Windows Photo Gallery. The good news is that Vista provides an extensible platform for camera manufacturers to add support for their RAW file formats directly into the operating system (as an aside, if you want to read more about writing a custom codec, check out the Windows Imaging Component Overview article on MSDN).

Canon released the first version of their RAW codec today, and a few others are also available:

  • Canon RAW Codec 1.0 - choose your digital camera, then click Drivers / Software to find a link to the codec. According to the site, this version works with .CR2 files from the following cameras: EOS-1D Mark III, EOS-1Ds Mark II, EOS-1D Mark II N, EOS-1D Mark II, EOS 5D, EOS 30D, EOS 20D, EOS Kiss Digital X / EOS DIGITAL REVEL XTi / EOS 400D DIGITAL, and EOS Kiss Digital N / EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT / EOS 350D DIGITAL. No support is currently mentioned for files with a .CRW extension.
  • Nikon RAW Codec 1.0.1 - works with .NEF files from the following cameras: D1, D1H, D1X, D100, D2H, D2Hs, D2X, D2Xs, D200, D40, D50, D70, D70s, D80, COOLPIX 8800, COOLPIX 8700, COOLPIX 8400, COOLPIX 5700, COOLPIX 5400, COOLPIX 5000.
  • Sony RAW Codec - works with .SRF and .SR2 files, but I'm not sure which camera models are specifically supported.
  • Olympus RAW Codec - work with .ORF files from the following cameras: E-1, E-300, E-330, E-400, E-500,E-10, E-20, C-70 ZOOM, C-5050ZOOM, C-5060 Wide Zoom, C-7070 Wide Zoom, C-8080 Wide Zoom, SP-310, SP-320, SP-350, SP-500UZ, SP-510UZ.

As an alternative, you can open up Windows Photo Gallery, choose File/Options, then click on the Check for updates button in the General tab. This will lead you to any added/updated codecs too.

For more information on Microsoft and photography, visit the Microsoft Photography Blog.