Sony Raw Viewer – 6 Best Methods to View ARW/SR2/SRF Files from Sony Digital Camera
Last Updated on March 30, 2023 by Peter Wood
Is there a Sony RAW viewer for the latest 8K 4:2:2 10bit recording and a Lossless Compressed RAW for still images? When you take shots with Sony DSLR, Sony RAW photos are the best choices you can consider. It will provide you with more control over your photos and more freedom for post-editing. How to open and view Sony RAW photographs on Windows and Mac? What is the best Sony RAW viewers to browse the ARW, SR2, and SRF files, especially for the flagship Alpha 1 full-frame mirrorless interchangeable lens camera? The article shares the 6 best image viewers for Sony digital cameras with an intuitive interface and super-fast speed you should know.
Part 1: Best Sony Viewer to Browse and Manage ARW/SR2/SRF
If you are a professional photographer, Lightroom and Photoshop are the desired choice for editing Sony RAW photos. What should be the best Sony RAW viewers to browse and manage ARW, SR2, or SRF? WidsMob Viewer Pro is a versatile image viewer to browse different RAW files, JPG, and video files from Sony’s digital camera. It has an advanced algorithm with a 6X fast speed for the photo viewing experience. Besides browsing Sony RAW files, you can also manage, edit, and apply image effects for photos/videos/PDFs.
1. Browse RAW from Sony, Canon, Nikon, and others with 6x fast speed.
2. View RAW in various mods, EXIF, slideshow, full screen, thumbnail, etc.
3. Provide editing features, manage, organize, edit, rotate, crop, and more.
4. Convert, rename and resize the Sony RAW photos with batch process.
How to Browse and Manage Sony RAW Files
Step 1: Once you have installed WidsMob Viewer Pro, you can launch the program to import the RAW files, including the latest 8K 4:2:2 10-bit recording and Lossless Compressed RAW. Drag-and-drop Sony RAW photos and videos into the program. Just double-click any image to open all the RAW files, JPEG, and videos from the same folder.
Step 2: Click any image to view all Sony RAW photos, videos, and PDFs within the same folder via the Thumbnail mode. It enables you to copy the photos, search for photos via name/size/time, and even compare similar photos to choose the desired one. You can search for the desired one with the synchronous mode.
Step 3: If you want to view the detail of some photos, double-click any photo to enter the Full Screen mode. Zoom in to view the details of the Sony RAW image. Scroll down to the bottom of the user interface, you can navigate to the desired RAW photo. It also enables you to play videos taken with the Sony camera.
Step 4: Click the View menu and choose the Information button to go to the EXIF mode of the Sony RAW file, such as the camera model, exposure time, and more. Moreover, you can also delete unwanted photos, rotate/flip/crop the RAW files, and even open them in the folder on your computer accordingly.
Step 5: Select the Slideshow option in the View menu, and your photos will start playing. You can also view the detail sheet for the RAW images. Go to the Preferences button from the Full Screen mode, you can set up the mouse wheel settings, browse photos only, remove cache, and others as desired.
Part 2: 3 Professional Sony RAW Viewers for Windows/Mac
1. Sony Creative RAW Viewer
Sony Creative RAW Viewer is the RAW viewer developed by Sony for its digital camera users. It can handle Sony RAW and X-OCN files produced by VENICE, F65, and other models. Many professionals use it to check, view and control Sony RAW files.
Pros:
1. Work well on Windows 8/8.1/10 and Mac OS X.
2. Free of charge to view, edit and manage the Sony RAW files.
3. Support Monitor Out Device to output high-quality photos to monitors.
4. Full control of the appearance and information of RAW files.
Cons:
1. It is large and takes space.
2. The hardware requirement is pretty high.
2. RawTherapee
RawTherapee is another Sony RAW viewer that supports most Sony RAW files. It contains extensive tools for editing non-destructive RAW photos and applying sharpness. It can process many images and edit the RAW images within a few clicks.
Pros:
1. Provides reliable RAW management and editing.
2. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
3. Open source so everyone can use it for free.
Cons:
1. Users reported the occasional lagging issues.
2. The RAW editing tools are limited.
3. Capture One Pro (for Sony)
Capture One Pro is one of the most popular Sony RAW viewers you can consider and enables you to edit, organize and view the RAW photos. It works more efficiently by designing a workflow to suit you. It is a solution to shoot directly to your computer.
Pros:
1. Integrate an excellent RAW file converter.
2. Offer a set of photo adjustment toolkits.
3. Work well on noise reduction.
Cons:
1. It lacks online sharing functions to share files.
2. It is expensive compared to features.
Part 3: 2 Free Sony RAW Viewers
There is 2 Sony RAW viewer freeware you can use to open a small number of RAW files. You can get a direct review of free RAW viewers for reading Sony RAW files.
1. Free RAW Viewer
Free RAW Viewer is a free Sony RAW viewer for Windows. You can view multiple RAW images on PC for free. The Sony RAW Windows viewer allows users to create a slideshow to play RAW photos automatically. Many users complain that it takes forever to load the software and view RAW files with Free RAW Viewer.
Pros:
1. Create slideshows to view images in RAW and other formats.
2. Require low system resources to keep the Sony RAW image viewer running.
Cons:
1. Free RAW Viewer is slow to load RAW images.
2. It is not supported to select an individual RAW image in slideshows.
3. The interface is outdated and does not support the latest Sony RAW.
2. ARW Viewer
To open Sony Alpha RAW files, you can run ARW Viewer to read files with the .arw file extension. ARW Viewer is a free Sony RAW image viewer. You can open, convert and resize ARW images from Sony. You can convert Sony ARW files to JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, or TIFF on Windows Server 2003/2008 and Windows 7/XP/Vista.
Pros:
1. Open Sony RAW ARW images and get basic editing features.
2. Contain no malware, spyware, viruses, or other unsafe packages.
Cons:
1. Open a Sony RAW image per time.
2. The Sony ARW viewer has been updated for many years.
Conclusion
Here are the 6 best RAW viewers for Sony digital cameras to browse and view photos. They can help you open and display RAW files produced by Sony cameras on Windows and Mac. These programs all have unique benefits and advantages. WidsMob Viewer Pro, for example, provides rich features in a way that everyone can learn quickly.