Users of Canon’s late-model digital SLR cameras were disappointed when, upon upgrading to Windows Vista, their RAW image thumbnails disappeared. Microsoft had an update for Windows XP that supported some RAW image formats, but said that any support in Vista would have to come from the camera manufacturer.
Thankfully, Canon has stepped up and released software that supports RAW image thumbnails and previewing in Windows Vista. Here is a direct link to the update (10 MB), but if it’s a dynamic link, it may not work for you.
If that link doesn’t work, here’s what you do (Canon’s site is all Javascript based, so I can’t simply link to the page with the file):
- Go to Canon’s main support page
- Select “EOS (SLR)” as the category, “Digital EOS Cameras” as the type, and “Canon RAW Codec Software” as the model.
- On the next page, click the “Drivers & Downloads” tab (this is now the default page)
- In the “Select OS” drop-down box, select Vista
- Under “Software” find the “Canon RAW Codec for Windows Vista”
- I think you can figure out the rest ;)
Enjoy having thumbnails of your RAW images with this update! Dynamic thumbnail size even works, and it seems to be a lot less resource-intensive than Microsoft’s .NET based software used in Windows XP.
Update Both versions 1.3 and 1.2 are listed, and 1.2 has a newer date, which is confusing. The reason for this is that they put 1.2 back on after discovering compatibility problems with 1.3 (specially with Microsoft Pro Photo Tools). So unless you are using that program, you should probably use the latest version. Otherwise, stick with version 1.2.
Update Jan 2009: Version 1.4 is out, replacing versions 1.2 and 1.3.
And by the way, other manufacturers have also offered codecs for their own RAW image formats, including Nikon, Pentax, and Olympus.
Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait to try it out at Vista. :)
It’s only for the 32-bit version, still waiting on 64-bit :(
That’s why I went with 32 bit when I switched to Vista ;)
If i wanted to stay 32-bit i’d have stuck with XP. Vista has too many silly little bugs to loose the supposed 64-bit speed increase over!
Still no RAW Codec for Vista x64.
We are working on a 64 bit codec for CR2 on Vista.
http://www.ardfry.com/cr2-codec/
don’t spam! Nobody wants to pay for something that should be in the software package provided by Canon! If you want to advertise go somewhere else…
The Ardfry software, whilst it does work on x64; does have compatibility issues with Microsoft Pro Photo Tools as well
Thank you for sharing this.
[...] Windows Vista doesn’t support Canon’s RAW codec – CR2. Thankfully, Canon does offer a CR2 codec for Vista. Unfortunately, it only supports the 32-bit flavour of the [...]
This is the answer regarding Vista-64 Canon RAW codes:
”
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding your Canon product.
There will not be a RAW Codec for Vista 64 bit.
Yours sincerely,
Canon Support Centre
“
LOL, Seriously? Thats what they said?
They must be pretty lazy or something, I was planning on switching back to Nikon anyway.
From what I hear, Nikon says the same thing.
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com/2007/03/08/nikon-raw-codec-updated-again-still-no-vista-x64-support/
All I want to do is use all my RAM and this is how the camera manufacturers treat us?
Nikon support is also for x86 only.
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/codecs.aspx
for vista 64 bit users, you can install canon raw codec for 32 bit vista anyway.. it works if you open manually windows photogallery from programs(x86) folder
Sorry to be a bit off-topic
We cannot get our Canon 300D Rebel to connect to our Vista 64 laptop at all: the automatic USB installation fails.
Any ideas ?
Canon 300D? Try upgrading or enabling PTP on your com if possible otherwise tuff luck.
new update:
rc140upd_7l.exe
thanks for sharing this with the community….. canon is not very well prepared to update itself ;)