Converting RAW camera files (CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG) to web-friendly formats

RAW files are the digital equivalent of film negatives. Where a JPEG straight out of the camera is a fully processed, white-balanced, sharpened, contrast-adjusted, lossy-compressed image, a RAW file is the unprocessed sensor data — every photon's worth of information your camera's sensor captured at the moment of exposure. The trade-off is enormous file sizes and the need for specialised software to view, edit, and convert.

This guide covers the dominant RAW formats, what makes them different, and how to convert them to web-friendly formats while keeping as much of the photographic flexibility as possible.

The major RAW formats

CR2 / CR3 (Canon)

Canon's RAW format. CR2 is the older format used by Canon cameras from roughly 2004 to 2018; CR3 replaced it for newer mirrorless and DSLR bodies. Both are based on TIFF internally but with Canon-proprietary metadata and image data sections. Most photo editing software (Lightroom, Capture One, DxO PhotoLab, RawTherapee, darktable) supports CR2 widely; CR3 support took longer to mature but is now nearly universal.

NEF (Nikon)

Nikon's RAW format. Like CR2, NEF is based on TIFF with proprietary additions. NEF files preserve white balance settings, picture-control parameters, and various metadata fields that Nikon's own software (NX Studio) can use natively but third-party software approximates. Conversion to standard formats works well in major photo editors.

ARW (Sony)

Sony's RAW format. Used by Sony Alpha mirrorless cameras and DSLRs. ARW files include rich metadata about the lens, focus point, and shooting parameters. Compatible with all major RAW processors.

DNG (Adobe Digital Negative)

Adobe's open RAW format, designed as a vendor-neutral alternative to manufacturer-specific RAW formats. Some cameras (Pentax, Leica, some Ricoh and Hasselblad models) write DNG natively. Others can be converted to DNG using Adobe's free DNG Converter, which produces a vendor-neutral file with the same image quality as the original RAW. DNG is the format most likely to remain readable in 30 years, because the spec is open and broadly implemented.

Other RAW formats

Most camera manufacturers have their own RAW format: ORF (Olympus), RAF (Fujifilm), RW2 (Panasonic), PEF (Pentax — though Pentax also writes DNG), 3FR (Hasselblad), IIQ (Phase One). All store similar data with similar trade-offs. Modern photo editing software supports most of them.

Why RAW matters: dynamic range and white balance

The biggest practical advantage of RAW over JPEG is the room you have to fix exposure and colour after the shot. A JPEG straight from the camera locks in white balance, exposure, contrast, and sharpening at the moment of capture — those decisions are baked into the pixel values. If the white balance was wrong, you can't really fix it without introducing colour casts or banding.

A RAW file gives you the full sensor data, typically at 12 or 14 bits per channel (versus JPEG's 8 bits). That extra bit depth means you can recover detail in shadows that look black in the JPEG, or pull back highlights that look blown-out. White balance can be reset entirely without quality loss because the colour interpretation hasn't been applied yet.

This is why professional photographers shoot RAW and process selectively. The flexibility of RAW lets you make decisions during editing that aren't reversible if the camera made them at capture time.

Converting RAW to JPEG: what you give up

Converting RAW to JPEG bakes in all the processing decisions (white balance, exposure, contrast, sharpening) and applies lossy compression. Once you've converted, you can't go back — the RAW's flexibility is locked into the JPEG's fixed values. This is fine for finished photos that you're sharing, distributing, or archiving as 'final' versions, but it means you should always keep the original RAW alongside any JPEG conversions.

MegaConvert's RAW-to-JPEG pipeline applies sensible default processing: standard sRGB colour profile, white balance read from the camera's metadata, gentle sharpening, no aggressive contrast or saturation boost. The result is a JPEG that closely resembles the camera's own JPEG output — useful for previewing, sharing, or generating web-friendly copies of an archive of RAW files.

Converting RAW to TIFF: keeping the bit depth

TIFF is a lossless raster format that supports 16-bit (or higher) per channel storage — meaning a RAW-to-TIFF conversion preserves the bit depth and dynamic range of the source RAW. The TIFF is editable in any image editor, and editing in 16-bit mode (rather than 8-bit JPEG) preserves the flexibility for further adjustment.

Use this path when: you want to do further editing in software that doesn't read your camera's specific RAW format, you're feeding the photo into a tool that prefers TIFF input (some DTP and print workflows), or you're producing a high-quality intermediate file before final JPEG export.

Converting RAW to DNG: vendor-neutral archival

DNG is the right archival format if you're worried about long-term readability. Twenty years from now, will Canon's RAW format still be supported by the software you're using? Probably yes, but the open DNG spec is a safer bet. Adobe's DNG Converter (free download, runs on Mac and Windows) batch-converts proprietary RAW files to DNG without any quality loss.

DNG files are typically slightly smaller than the source RAW (the format includes more efficient compression options) and contain identical image data. You can convert RAW to DNG and continue editing as if the original were intact.

Practical workflow recommendations

• Shoot RAW + JPEG. Most cameras can record both simultaneously. The JPEG gives you a quick-share copy; the RAW gives you the editing flexibility. Storage is cheap; lost flexibility is not.
• Store RAWs in their native format unless you're worried about long-term readability. For most photographers, the camera's RAW format will be supported by editing software for decades. DNG is the conservative choice for very long-term archival.
• Convert to JPEG only at the moment of distribution. Don't convert RAW to JPEG just to free up space — keep the RAW. Convert when you're ready to share or print a specific image.
• Use TIFF as a working format for further editing in non-RAW-aware software. Editing in TIFF preserves the bit depth that JPEG can't carry.
• Keep your RAWs backed up in two places. The unprocessed sensor data is irreplaceable — the JPEGs you can always regenerate, but a lost RAW means lost editing flexibility forever.

Converters

CR2 to JPEG, NEF to JPEG, ARW to JPEG, DNG to JPEG, and other RAW-to-output conversions — free, sensible default processing, full sensor metadata preserved in the output.