CR3 Converter
FileFlip converts CR3 files into 62 other formats entirely inside your browser, using ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc compiled to WebAssembly. The CR3 file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. There is no file-size limit and no account to create.
How do I convert a CR3 file?#
- Drop your CR3 file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer.
- Choose the format you want out of it. FileFlip downloads the engine that conversion needs, once, and your browser caches it.
- Conversion starts the moment you pick the format, and the result is yours to download. The work happens in this tab, so nothing is uploaded and nothing is queued.
Is it safe to convert CR3 files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts CR3 files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What happens to a CR3 file#
FileFlip converts CR3 into 62 formats with ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc, all of it inside the browser tab. Each conversion below names the engine it uses, what it downloads, and exactly what that conversion keeps or drops.
| Category | Image Files |
|---|---|
| File extension | .cr3 |
| FileFlip support | Read only, so it is a source rather than a target |
| Conversions available | 62 |
| Engines | ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc |
| Downloaded to your browser | 14.1 MB on the first conversion, then cached |
What is a CR3 file?#
A CR3 file holds raw sensor data in Canon Raw 3, a container built on the ISO base media file format that MP4 also uses, with the image itself coded by Canon's crx codec either losslessly or in the smaller C-RAW mode.
CR3 is what a current Canon EOS camera writes in raw, and the real decision in the menu is whether to shoot standard CR3 or the smaller C-RAW.
Convert CR3 to JPEG when a photo needs to leave your editor for sharing or printing, or to DNG when an older piece of software refuses to recognize the format.
The CR3 file format reference covers the specification, the programs that open one, and what each conversion keeps or drops.
CR3 questions people ask#
What is C-RAW and should I use it?
C-RAW is a compressed mode inside the CR3 format rather than a separate file type, and a C-RAW shot still comes off the card with a .CR3 extension. It cuts file size by roughly 40 percent using lossy wavelet compression, which is hard to see at normal viewing sizes but leaves slightly less room for heavy exposure recovery than standard CR3.
Why will my copy of Lightroom not open CR3 files?
CR3 arrived in 2018 with the EOS M50, and versions of Lightroom or Camera Raw older than that have no CR3 decoder, since Canon changed the container from CR2's TIFF layout to the ISO base media file format. Updating Lightroom or Camera Raw is the fix, and converting to DNG works for software that will never be updated.
Does converting CR3 to DNG lose anything?
Converting a CR3 file to DNG keeps the sensor data as it was captured, so image quality does not change. Canon-specific extras are what fall away, including the Dual Pixel autofocus data, which only Canon's Digital Photo Professional can use in the first place.
Why does Canon use CR3 instead of DNG?
Canon uses CR3 so it can put camera-specific data in the file, such as the Dual Pixel second image and its own lens correction information, without depending on a shared specification maintained by Adobe. Canon EOS cameras have no in-camera DNG option, so any DNG version of a CR3 is made afterwards on a computer.