TIFF to CR2 Converter

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is the professional standard for lossless image archival, print production, and film scanning. It stores pixel data without quality loss, supports 8-bit and 16-bit color depth, and is accepted by every professional imaging application. CR2 is Canon's proprietary RAW format used by Canon DSLR cameras from 2004 through 2018 — models including the 5D Mark II, 5D Mark III, 7D, 7D Mark II, 70D, 80D, and the full Rebel series (1100D through 800D). The AT USE TIFF to CR2 Converter wraps TIFF pixel data in a CR2-compatible container, producing a file that Adobe Lightroom Classic, Canon Digital Photo Professional, and Capture One accept as Canon RAW input.

This is useful when you maintain a Canon-oriented Lightroom catalog and need to import TIFF-sourced images — scanned film negatives, TIFF deliverables from other photographers, retouched TIFF exports, or archival TIFF scans — into the same workflow as your Canon RAW files. Converting to CR2 avoids a mixed-format catalog and applies your existing CR2 develop defaults to TIFF-sourced content without creating a separate import workflow.

What the conversion does and does not do

The output is not genuine camera RAW data. A TIFF is a completed, rendered image with color space, white balance, and tone values fully encoded. Wrapping the TIFF pixel data in a CR2 container does not recover unprocessed 14-bit sensor data from a Canon camera. What you get is a 24-bit RGB rendered image stored in a Canon-compatible RAW container. Lightroom will open it and apply its default CR2 camera profile, which may shift colors relative to the TIFF's original appearance. Use the Camera Calibration panel in Lightroom's Develop module to adjust if color accuracy is critical.

Bit depth and color profile handling

TIFF supports 8-bit and 16-bit per channel. The CR2 container stores a 24-bit (8-bit per channel) rendered RGB image in its standard image section. A 16-bit TIFF's additional bit depth is reduced to 8-bit in the CR2 output. For workflows where 16-bit precision matters, keep the TIFF. Convert to CR2 only when RAW-software compatibility and catalog format uniformity are the priority over bit depth.

The source TIFF's embedded ICC color profile (sRGB, AdobeRGB, ProPhoto RGB) is read during decode. Pixel data is converted to sRGB before writing to CR2. If the source TIFF was in AdobeRGB or a wide-gamut profile, some colors at the edges of the sRGB gamut will be clipped. For TIFF files in sRGB, the color profile conversion is a no-op — all pixel values carry over without change.

TIFF file size and the 20 MB limit

Uncompressed RGB TIFFs at print resolutions are large: a 300 DPI A4 RGB TIFF at 8-bit is approximately 24 MB — above the 20 MB upload limit. Compressed TIFFs (LZW or ZIP) at typical photographic sizes are generally 8–18 MB and fall within the limit. For large TIFFs, reduce pixel dimensions in GIMP, Photoshop, or the AT USE Image Resize tool, then convert. Alternatively, save a compressed TIFF variant from your editing software before uploading.