CR2: fifteen years of Canon DSLR photography
CR2 (Canon Raw version 2) was Canon's RAW format for roughly fifteen years, from the EOS-1D Mark II in 2004 until the switch to CR3 around 2018. That span covers the cameras that defined the DSLR era: the 5D line that made full-frame mainstream, the 7D and 80D that filled camera bags of enthusiasts, and every Rebel that introduced someone to photography. The result is an enormous archive of CR2 files sitting on old drives and memory cards that Windows, macOS and phones often cannot preview without extra codecs. Each file holds the complete sensor readout, commonly 20 to 30 MB, which is exactly why it needs developing before anyone can view it. This page does that development in the browser; for other brands, start at RAW to JPG or jump to NEF to JPG for Nikon files.
The same decoder the open-source photo world trusts
Under the hood this page runs LibRaw, the library that darktable, RawTherapee and many photo applications rely on to read Canon RAW, compiled to WebAssembly so it executes entirely on your device. It performs full demosaicing of the CR2's Bayer data and applies the as-shot white balance, producing a developed image rather than extracting the small embedded preview that some quick converters settle for. The decoder is about 1.4 MB and loads only when you drop a RAW file. Nothing is uploaded, which matters twice over with CR2: client shoots stay private, and you skip uploading gigabytes of files before conversion can even begin. If your workflow ends in scans or 16-bit exports instead, the TIFF to JPG tool handles those the same local way.
Common questions
What does developing a CR2 file involve?+−
A CR2 stores the unprocessed readings from your EOS camera's sensor, where each photosite captured only one color. Developing reconstructs full-color pixels from that mosaic and applies the white balance recorded at capture. This tool runs that complete process with LibRaw, so the JPG you get is a properly rendered photograph from the sensor data, comparable to the JPEG your camera would have written alongside it.
My newer Canon saves CR3, not CR2. Will it work?+−
Not reliably yet, and we would rather say so than hand you a broken image. Canon switched from CR2 to the compressed CR3 format around 2018, starting with the EOS M50 and EOS R, and CR3 support here is not dependable. If a file cannot be decoded, the tool tells you clearly. Converting CR3 to DNG with Adobe's free DNG Converter, then using our DNG page, works well.
Which Canon cameras produce CR2 files?+−
Essentially every Canon DSLR from about 2004 to 2018: the EOS 5D series through the Mark IV, the 6D, 7D, 60D through 80D, the full Rebel and EOS xxxD line, and pro 1D bodies of that era. Many PowerShot G-series compacts also wrote CR2. If your camera predates the EOS R and M50 generation, its RAW files are almost certainly CR2 and will convert here.
Will the JPG match the one my Canon would have produced?+−
Very close. LibRaw applies your camera's white balance and standard tone rendering during development, which lands near Canon's own JPEG output in normal viewing. It does not replicate Canon Picture Styles like Landscape or Portrait, so heavily stylized in-camera looks will differ slightly. Colors, exposure and detail come from the same sensor data, and the default 90% JPG quality preserves them cleanly.