Top 10 Free CR2 Viewer Alternatives for Windows/macOS/Online
Last Updated on May 16, 2023 by Peter Wood
When you take shots with Canon Camera, you can find photo files in CRW format. CR2 file type is a short name for Canon RAW version 2 file format. It uses some popular Canon digital cameras, such as some EOS series and Digital Rebel XT. When the default JPEG viewer cannot open CR2, you need to find a suitable CR2 viewer. The article has compiled a list of free and best CR2 viewer software.
Why do you use CR2 viewer instead of JPEG? The data saved in CR2 and other RAW files are lossless formats, which provide an area for editing. CR2 also saves data as seen by the camera sensor without making modifications to the image when captured. The CR2 viewers or other RAW image viewers are the way to access the data of CR2 and make any change. Although you have purchased Photoshop, you will find it hard to create a simple photo album with CR2 files. Just check what the top 10 CR2 Viewers can do for you as below.
Top 1: WidsMob Viewer Pro - CR2 Viewer for Windows and macOS
WidsMob Viewer Pro is more than a CR2 browser for Canon cameras but also enables you to browse everything from your Canon cameras, including CR2, CR3, DNG, JPEG, MP4, animated GIF, and more. It enables you to browse media files with different modes, thumbnail, EXIF, full screen, and slideshow. You can copy the media files, delete unwanted photos, compare different photos, and check the EXIF information.
1. Preview most file formats, including CR2, most RAW formats, MP4, AVI, MKV, and even PDFs.
2. Provide fundamental editing tools to rotate, flip, zoom, and crop the files in a lossless method.
3. Copy the photos, remove unwanted files, sort the desired ones, and even make slideshows.
4. Convert CR2, CR3, DNG, TIFF, GIF, AVIF, Webp, RAW, and other file formats to JPEG/PNG/BMP.
Step 1: Download and install WidsMob Viewer Pro and launch the program on your computer. If you have already set up the program as the default media viewer, you can simply click any media file to launch the program and browse all files in thumbnails within the same folder. It enables you to view CR2, CR3, MP4, PDF, and other file formats.
Step 2: Once you have imported CR2 files, you can press the Ctrl + C keys to copy the CR2 images and paste them into the desired folder. Click the View menu and choose the Sort button to find the desired photo via name, size, and time. Moreover, you can also choose two similar images and click the Compare button to select the desired one.
Step 3: Double-click any CR2 file to browse the CR2 image in full screen. Switch to the desired one to check the photos and videos. You can also delete the unwanted ones, cut off the unwanted part, or find the EXIF of the CR2 image. It enables you to further edit the images, such as rotating, flipping, cropping, moving to trash, and more.
Top 2: Microsoft Camera Codec Pack - CR2 Viewer for Windows 8/7
Microsoft Camera Codec Pack is the photo viewer of CR2 and other Camera codec packs to view various device-specific file formats. It is compatible with most of the popular camera types of your PC.
1. Turn the Windows Photo Viewer into the CR2 photo viewer with the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack. You do not have to use another CR2 viewer for previewing photographs of Canon.
2. The CR2 viewer allows you to view CR2 camera files on Windows Explorer.
3. It supports Canon Digital Rebel XT cameras, EOS series cameras, and Powershot cameras.
The free CR2 viewer of Windows should be a popular option of the Windows Operation system but still lacks some batch functions and editing features.
Top 3: IrfanView - CR2 Viewer for Windows 10
IrfanView is a free CR2 viewer for Microsoft Windows to view, edit, convert image, video, and audio files. There are many add-ons to broader the usage of the CR2 viewer.
1. The CR2 viewer supports many formats, including graphic and RAW files, video formats, and audio files.
2. Powerful editing tool to correct colors, convert to grayscale, resize images and adjust features of images.
3. Export the edited format to various formats. Some have advanced saving options too.
4. Check more plug-ins to make sure the CR2 viewer can do more than you can.
You might have to use some plug-ins to be compatible with more photo files and restart the program.
Top 4: Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition - Open CR2 File in Windows
Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition is a CR2 viewer that makes it easy to use the photograph. The program also includes some editing package for photographers to enhance the images. The CR2 photo viewer is available for Windows only.
1. Easily import and edit most image formats, including the CR2 and other RAW files.
2. Basic functions to straighten and crop pictures or RAW files in a couple of clicks.
3. Provides simple editing features, such as the red-eye and face blemish removal.
The CR2 viewer focuses on photo editing instead of photo viewing. And you might have to upgrade to Serif PhotoPlus with US$70.00 to unlock some features.
Top 5: FastStone Image Viewer - View CR2 File in Windows 11/10/8/7
FastStone Image Viewer is a popular CR2 viewer, which is free and lightweight. It is not only a CR2 viewer but also the CR2 converter and CR2 editor. The latest version of FastStone Image Viewer is for Windows Operation System only.
1. The CR2 viewer supports all the major camera formats like CRW, CR2, and others.
2. View images of CR2 and other formats. Support manage, resize, crop, color adjust red-eye removal, and email images.
3. Batch conversion can turn CR2 files into JPEG and other files. It should be a nice feature to handle multiple photo files.
4. Add multiple effects and adjustments to the photos within the CR2 viewer.
The CR2 viewer supports about only 20 photo formats and is for the Windows Operation System.
Top 6: File Viewer Lite – Open CR2 File for Free on Windows
File Viewer Lite is free. CR2 file opener that allows you to view the raw image. In addition to the Canon Raw Image file, File Viewer Lite can open over 150 file types, including Digital Negative Image files, Ogg Vorbis Audio files, MPEG-4 Video files, Microsoft Word Documents, and more.
1. Free file viewer, which can view over 150 file types on Windows PC.
2. Combine the functionality of several programs into one simple utility.
3. The program includes zoom and rotate controls for documents, PDFs, and images.
4. Support media playback controls for audio and video files.
Top 7: File Viewer Plus – Open CR2 Image Files in Windows
File Viewer Plus is a universal file viewer for Windows, which supports over 300 file types. File Viewer Plus also enables you to edit, save, print, and quickly convert your files.
1. Offer image-editing features include custom controls and effects and resizing and cropping tools.
2. Batch convert CR2 images to JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, and BMP formats.
3. Open, edit, and convert CR2 files without Canon image viewing software.
4. The Text and Hex views let you see inside the file, providing valuable information, especially for unknown file types.
You can edit CR2 files with File Viewer Plus and save edited CR2 files in another format, such as JPEG, PNG, or TIFF.
Top 8: FastRawViewer - CR2 Viewer for macOS and Windows
FastRawViewer is the first and the only dedicated tool specifically designed and developed for fast display, visual and technical analysis, basic corrections, sorting, and setting aside or directly transferring for further processing of RAW images.
1. Support a variety of RAW, JPEG, TIFF, and PNG formats.
2. Provide tools for rating, labeling, and sorting photos, and filtering any number of RAW images.
3. User-friendly and seamlessly integrates into any existing RAW workflow.
4. Unique features for the rapid and reliable technical evaluation of RAW shots.
Top 9: Raw.pics.io – View CR2 Image Online
Raw.pics.io is an in-browser RAW files viewer and converter. You can browse images, pictures, and photos from DSLR RAW camera format. It allows converting PDF, CR2, NEF, ARW, ORF, PEF, RAF, DNG, and other files into JPEG, PNG, and other formats online.
1. Support Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus, and Pentax raw formats directly.
2. Convert your images, photos, or other pictures on your desktop computer into JPG or PNG file format.
3. Edit, compress and change the pixel size of your picture as you convert an image.
4. It is free for five first conversions.
Top 10: Fviewer – Online CR2 File Viewer
Fviewer can view CR2 files online for free. The CR2 format stores images from Canon's digital cameras. It stores raw data and takes up more storage space.
The cloud viewer can integrate into your project or website. This service provides an API by passing in the URL of the document to view the file content online without writing any code.
This free online cloud file viewer supports 12 file formats such as AI, PSD, DICOM, SVG, TIFF, VSD, CR2, OFFICE (DOC, XLS, PPT, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX), EPS, XPS, CDR, DJVU, and EPUB.
Conclusion
To view the Canon photos on a computer, you can learn more detailed information about the best CR2 viewers from the article. What is more important, you can also get the features of these programs. Just choose the desired program according to your requirement. When you need to touch up CR2, JPG, and videos from your Canon cameras, WidsMob Viewer Pro should be the versatile choice you should try.