EOS 7D Raw Files.

[charliark]

Advice needed please. I have recently purchased a Canon EOS 7D. I nearly always take shots in the raw format. I have found Photoshop Elements 7 will not recognize the raw files taken by the 7d. There does not appear to be a patch available. I have been lead to believe that I will have to purchase Elements 8 to get around this problem. Ideas welcome thx.

[Shelley]

I am not sure if this can help you Charliark, but check out converting your cr2 files to dng file and then opening up in elements. That is what I did in cs2 before getting cs5 for the 50d raw files.

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=106&platform=windows

check out Adobe and see if its of any help

[etherial]

Now this is strange. I was about to post that it works fine for me and I thought I would go and test it to get the steps right when I posted. To my disbelief it isn't working for me. I'm sure it did in the past when I used Windows XP. Now I use Lightroom so I don't open the raw files in PSE. I'm also now using Windows 7 so maybe that has something to do with it as well.

I'm absolutely sure that it did work, when you open them it would open up Camera Raw window where you could do your image wide edits then when you click ok to progress into PSE it would convert to 8 bit tif from memory. I did all my PP like this before I got onto Lightroom.

The last thing I can think of is the Camera Raw plugin that does come with it normally. I'll try (and maybe you should) to install that and see if it works then. :confused013

[charliark]

Thx Shelly, I will have a read. I am trying to stay with Elements as the more programs you try and process your photos with the more confusing it can become.
Regards.

[Shelley]

Thx Shelly, I will have a read. I am trying to stay with Elements as the more programs you try and process your photos with the more confusing it can become.
Regards.

Its really your only option to convert Charliark, unless you update Elements. I used the canon software as well process to my raw files to jpeg and any other pp in photoshop, such as cropping. That is your freeware with the camera - its pretty good for raw files too.

ps. congrats on the 7d - i hear only good things about it for birding. :)

just noted etherial has the answer to your probs. - so probably ignore this post..

[etherial]

OK, I have it sorted. You need to update the version of the Camera Raw plugin for your photo shop elements program. I just checked and the version that comes with mine was Version 4.5 and it wouldn't recognise the cr2 files from the 7D.

I updated the plugin to version 5.7 (I think that is now old, but was the last version I have downloaded) and now the cr2 files open no problem as I described above.

[charliark]

Thx people for all the help and advice. Will read up some more and try the suggested upgrades. It would be nice if the industry worked on a standard. Having paid for a program it can be very expensive to keep upgrading, especially when it’s a passion and hobby and not a money spinner.
Thx once again.

[etherial]

Camera raw is a free plug in for PhotoShop that is frequently updated to cope with new model. Just download it from Adobe and install and you're good to go.

[Riverlander]

Adobe do not make their programs backward compatible - ever! You need to have the Adobe program that was current at the time your camera was released if you want to use their program/s to process RAW files from your camera. In this case your Elements 7 will never be updated - you need Elements 8 - or CS4 or CS5.

Of course there are many work arounds, including using the free Canon Softwar (Digital Photo Professional) to convert your files to JPEG - it is a good converter.

[etherial]

Adobe do not make their programs backward compatible - ever! You need to have the Adobe program that was current at the time your camera was released if you want to use their program/s to process RAW files from your camera. In this case your Elements 7 will never be updated - you need Elements 8 - or CS4 or CS5.

Of course there are many work arounds, including using the free Canon Softwar (Digital Photo Professional) to convert your files to JPEG - it is a good converter.

This is simply not true. The PSE7 comes with Camera Raw 4.5 built in which does not recognise the 7D raw files (and probably plenty others). Therefore they release updates to the Camera Raw plug in very frequently.

All you need to do is update the Camera Raw plugin which is a free download, and then do the 5 minutes install, and then you are fine to open the newer files with PSE7.

[Riverlander]

All you need to do is update the Camera Raw plugin which is a free download, and then do the 5 minutes install, and then you are fine to open the newer files with PSE7.

OK I am saying it will not work. It may be that I am wrong.

[etherial]

I'm saying that it does work. I am doing it right now.

[Riverlander]

I'm saying that it does work. I am doing it right now.

So - did you get Elements 7 to open a 7D Raw file? That is the task.

[etherial]

Yes it will open it as I described above into camera raw where you can do global adjustments and then it will convert it to tif or dng 8bit to get it to the main pse screen.

Remember that raw files are just that, raw, they can't be edited, only adjusted and then converted to a file type that can be edited.

[Analog6]

Charlie, if you use a PC download the free Fast Stone Image viewer and it will let you do a batch conversion to png (or any other format you fancy, such as tiff) which you can then use as normal in elements. But check the Adobe site and ask at the support link about a patch for Adobe Camera Raw for Elements, as there should be one.

[Riverlander]

Yes it will open it
Looks like I have made another foolish error!!! :( I just checked and Elements 7 was still the currrent version of Elements when the Canon 7D was released and thus Adobe did do an update for it. Elements 8 was not released until about 3 weeks later. My big error :eek: :lol2: