Canon CR2 files not scrollable and some edit areas is unavailable ie Select

[ardy]

Hi Guys, sure this is simple but I just bought a S/H Canon 600D for fun and I cannot edit photos in irfanview. The RAW images only open one at a time, will not scroll and it will not recognise the file.
Any ideas what I am missing?

[Jiri]

I'm afraid to get a warning from moderators for such comment, but it seems that what you're missing is a better CR2 viewer/editor as IrfanView does not perform to desired level?
I don't know how exactly you'd like to edit your images, also I don't have my own CR2 files to test, but if you're open to trying other viewers (not sure if they can edit CR2) with declared support of this format, then here are few free:

https://www.nyam.pe.kr/dev/imagine/

https://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/#features

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Whilst IrfanView may be fine for viewing RAW files, I would recommend proper photo-editing tools for editing them.

To browse through CR2 images, install the CAMRAW.DLL plugin and check that CR2 images are listed in the files of types to include while browsing folders.

[ardy]

I'm surprised as a long time user of IV. I am an Oly m4/3rds user as my main cameras but I never expected this second hand Canon, which I bought for next to nothing just to play with, to be an issue.
Thanks very much for your honest replies, I will use another solution but I'd bet it won't be as quick as IV or as simple to use.
I may have to use Affinity that I have mucked around with but, like PS, it is too slow when I come back from a dive trip with several hundred exposures.

[Kuki Dent]

I don't have a Canon camera nor has anyone else I know to ask, but hasn't Canon some suitable software you can download?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I have no problem browsing CR2 and other RAW images, like RAF, etc. In Settings, Extensions, make sure that CR2 images are included in Load Custom File Types:

JPG|JPEG|JPE|GIF|BMP|DIB|TIF|TIFF|PNG|PCX|TGA|JXL| QOI|PCD|SUN|RAS|ICO|AVI|IFF|PPM|PGM|PBM|LBM|WMF|EM F|WAV|PSD|MPG|MPE|MPEG|MID|RMI|MOV|CUR|ANI|DCX|EPS |CLP|CAM|G3|AIF|AU|SND|PSP|PSPIMAGE|ICL|SFW|RA|MP3 |DCM|ACR|FPX|XBM|XPM|DJVU|SWF|FLV|IMG|IW44|WBMP|SG I|RGB|RLE|MED|RLE|SFF|JP2|JPC|J2K|JPF|CRW|B3D|WMA| WMV|TTF|SID|MNG|JNG|RAW|ECW|ASF|TXT|WAD|ICS|IDS|CD R|CMX|NEF|NRW|ERF|ORF|RAF|MRW|DCR|X3F|SRF|ARW|PEF| RW2|RWL|SRW|MOS|3FR|OGG|DWG|DXF|DDS|JPM|PLT|CR2|CR3|DNG|PS|PDF|AI|CGM|SVG|DCM|FITS|HDP|WDP|JXR|EXR|WS Q|JLS|WBZ|WBC|MP4|MKV|MTS|M2TS|TS|M2T|M4V|3GP|VOB| MPO|PDN|XCF|WEBP|WEBM|HEIC|AVIF|DPX|CIN|FLIF|FLAC| PSB|JFIF|

[Jacal]

Raw photo formats are actually not images, they have to be demosaiced etc. to be viewable, so they have a preview jpeg image included, that enables easy fast browsing with default IV settings (Settings - PlugIns - Try to load embedded preview image). Canon's cameras like yours embed full-size jpegs with decent quality. When IrfanView is set to render actual raw files (you need to have the IV plugins installed for this), this takes time and you have no control of the process. This can perhaps be useful in some cases, but IV is still a very bad choice for a raw photo editor (the same is true for Xn, FastStone and similar). These programs don't support 16-bit (or more) colour depth and lack all the tools and control that raw editors provide, so you lose all the benefits of raw shooting.

If you are new to raw editing, you can start with Canon's freeware program with a very boring name Digital Photo Professional (Win and Mac only, you can insert 123412341234 as camera's serial number, if asked before downloading). There you have a starting point, matching your camera settings (that only Canon's software can understand) and can easily try many kinds of improvements, having all the captured data at hand, much more than can be squeezed in a jpeg.

For more advanced raw editing, the two very capable open-source editors are RawTherapee and darktable. With plenty of documentation and fine videos available.