Sunday, July 31, 2011

Microsoft Camera Codec to view RAW files in Windows Explorer

For many of us who are “stuck” in the Microsoft platform and shoots photographs in the RAW format, it is a bane to have to load up specialized software for a quick view of the photographs that we have taken.  Microsoft has made available the “Microsoft Camera Codec” to assist us in this.  The overview (taken from Microsoft’s site);

Overview

  • The Microsoft Camera Codec Pack enables the viewing of a variety of device-specific file formats in Window Live Photo Gallery as well as other software that is based in Windows Imaging Codecs (WIC).
  • Installing this package will allow supported RAW camera files to be viewable in Windows Explorer.
  • This package is available in both the x86 and x64 versions .
  • The Microsoft Camera Codec Pack provides support for the following device formats:
    • Canon: EOS 1000D, EOS 10D, EOS 1D Mk2, EOS 1D Mk3, EOS 1D Mk4, EOS 1D Mk2 N, EOS 1Ds Mk2, EOS 1Ds Mk3, EOS 20D, EOS 300D, EOS 30D, EOS 350D, EOS 400D, EOS 40D, EOS 450D, EOS 500D, EOS 550D, EOS 50D, EOS 5D, EOS 5D Mk2, EOS 7D, EOS D30, EOS D60, G2, G3, G5, G6, G9, G10, G11, Pro1, S90
    • Nikon: D100, D1H, D200, D2H, D2Hs, D2X, D2Xs, D3, D3s, D300, D3000, D300s, D3X, D40, D40x, D50, D5000, D60, D70, D700, D70s, D80, D90, P6000
    • Sony: A100, A200, A230, A300, A330, A350, A380, A700, A850, A900, DSC-R1
    • Olympus: C7070, C8080, E1, E10, E20, E3, E30, E300, E330, E400, E410, E420, E450, E500, E510, E520, E620, EP1
    • Panasonic: G1, GH1, GF1, LX3

You can download it from the site link above and the file for the x86 platform is just 4MB.  Below is a short video on the codec.

Hurrah for Microsoft!