MIME Database / Compare Formats / canon-cr3 vs Canon-CRW

canon-cr3 vs Canon-CRW Format Comparison

canon-cr3

Canon RAW 3

image/x-canon-cr3

Canon Raw Format

image/x-canon-crw

Canon-CRW

A complete technical comparison of Canon RAW 3 and Canon Raw Format — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature	canon-cr3	Canon-CRW
Transparency (Alpha)	✕ No	✕ No
Animation Support	✕ No	✕ No
Progressive Loading	✕ No	✕ No
HDR Support	Yes	Yes
EXIF Metadata	Yes	Yes
ICC Color Profile	Yes	✕ No

Canon RAW 3

image/x-canon-cr3

Extension

.cr3

Container ISOBMFF (ISO/IEC 14496-12)

Compression Lossless / Lossy (C-RAW)

Algorithm

Canon Proprietary LosslessCanon Proprietary Lossy (C-RAW)

Color Depth 14-bit (Per Channel)

Developed by Canon Inc.

Released 2018

Magic Bytes

00 00 00 18 66 74 79 70 63 72 78 20

Full canon-cr3 reference →

Canon Raw Format

image/x-canon-crw

Extension

.crw

Container CIFF (Camera Image File Format)

Compression Lossless JPEG (ITU-T81)

Algorithm

Lossless JPEG

Color Depth 10-bit (Per Channel), 12-bit (Per Channel)

Developed by Canon Inc.

Released 1998

Magic Bytes

49 49 1A 00 00 00 (Header) / 48 45 41 50 43 43 44 52 (HEAPCCDR signature near end)

Full Canon-CRW reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser	canon-cr3	Canon-CRW
Chrome	✕	✕
Firefox	✕	✕
Safari	✕	✕
Edge	✕	✕
IE (Legacy)	✕	✕

canon-cr3

canon-cr3 Strengths

Maintains 14-bit uncompressed sensor data, offering massive flexibility for recovering shadows and highlights in post-production
The new C-RAW format offers roughly 40% smaller file sizes than uncompressed raw with virtually indistinguishable quality loss
Utilizes the modern and extensible ISOBMFF container, moving away from archaic TIFF limitations

Limitations

Being a proprietary format, it requires frequent software updates to third-party editing tools (like Lightroom or Capture One) every time a new camera model is released
Completely unsupported in web browsers and standard operating system image viewers without specialized raw codecs
Larger file sizes than in-camera JPEGs, requiring more storage space and processing power

Canon-CRW

Canon-CRW Strengths

Preserves original raw sensor data from foundational early digital SLR cameras, allowing for modern noise reduction and demosaicing algorithms to extract better images than software could in 2003
Files are remarkably small (often 6-8 MB) compared to modern 40MB+ raw files due to the lower megapixel count of early sensors

Limitations

Completely obsolete and utilizes the idiosyncratic CIFF structure rather than the modern, standardized TIFF/EP structure
Cannot be natively viewed in web browsers or standard operating system image viewers without specialized codecs
Less robust metadata support compared to modern CR2 or CR3 formats