Windows Explorer Draws on Raw Support
Kurt Mackie, Redmond's news hound, alerted me by e-mail to this interesting find that might only be interesting to my fellow photographers who shoot in raw format. Microsoft now enables Windows Explorer to view raw files. I've installed the 32-bit version on my Windows Vista PC (it's here if you want to download it) and it works flawlessly with my files, many in the newer Canon .CR2 format. There's a bit of a lag as you open each new folder, since it's drawing up new thumbnails. I think you get the picture....
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Figure 1. Windows Explorer, sans Raw add-in, shows a generic icon for Canon raw files. (Click image to view larger version.) |
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Figure 2. Windows Explorer with Raw add-in installed now shows a preview of the raw image as if it were a native image file. No more hunting around these files with Picasa Picture Viewer or IrfanView or Adobe Bridge or whatever.... (Click image to view larger version.) |
(I don't have any other camera equipment to test it against, so if you come across this blog post, I'd love to hear about your experiences, Nikon shooters!)
Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/28/2011 at 11:59 AM