What To Do When Your RAW File Cannot be Read by Your Software

If you buy a newly released camera, you may find that the RAW files from that camera cannot be read by your post processing software -- Lightroom, Capture One, On1 Photo RAW, etc. In this tutorial, I explain your options.

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Links mentioned in the video:

Luminar Not Reading RAW Files:

Adobe DNG Converter:

Canon Software:

Fuji SilkyPix:

Fuji RAW Studio:

Nikon Capture NX-D:

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At least one Non-Destructive RAW Editor:

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Thank you!

[AnthonyMorganti]

If you buy a newly released camera, you may find that the RAW files from that camera cannot be read by your post processing software -- Lightroom, Capture One, On1 Photo RAW, etc. In this tutorial, I explain your options.

Image in the video captured with:

**As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases:

Links mentioned in the video:

Luminar Not Reading RAW Files:

Adobe DNG Converter:

Canon Software:

Fuji SilkyPix:

Fuji RAW Studio:

Nikon Capture NX-D:

Anthony Morganti’s MUST HAVE applications:

At least one Non-Destructive RAW Editor:


At least one FULL Editing App:


My MUST HAVE Plugins:

*Save 15% on all Topaz Labs apps — use the Promo Code: AMDISC15

Save 15% off the Nik Collection with Promo Code: Anthony15 - Valid until 2/2/2021

My MUST HAVE Mac Utility:


To save 10% on your purchase of CleanMyMac X:

2. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click on "Enter it now" under "Already have a coupon code?"
3. Paste the promo code TONY10 and hit "Verify"
4. The prices will be reduced and you’ll be able to select the license and proceed with the payment

** Note that all of the promo codes listed above may not work on sale product.

*** I am an affiliate for all of the companies listed EXCEPT Affinity Photo. Please read my Code of Ethics Statement:



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

I use this software to record my screen and make parts of my screen enlarge and zoom out so you can see it:

Unsure of how to price your photography? Check the 2019 Guide to Pricing Your Photography:

I am an affiliate for all of the companies listed EXCEPT Affinity Photo. Please read my Code of Ethics Statement here:


Thank you!

[bptrials]

Good tips ! I would add that you could make a copy of your raw files and change their metadata to make them appear as being taken with a different camera model that lightroom recognizes. When i bought my latest camera i could not open the raw files in lightroom so i changed the exif data to the closest model from the manufacturer that lightroom recognizes and sure it worked.

[briancarlisle]

so what is so weird, i just bought my new Z63. only jpegs are showing up, but the pure raw files are not being read. adobe / scandisk recovery pro... none will open the raw only file. heck, i can't even view the raws in the camera. but i can view all the jpegs. any thoughts?

[alangibson]

One minute you are talking about Nikon then Fuji then Nikon. What camera are you talking about?

[gwine]

The price of living on the "bleeding edge".

[whamni]

If you convert to DNG, you can not go back to the original camera RAW file ! Quite a few photo software programs out there will not show your camera details if it's Adobe DNG, I also think a DNG is a Tiff in a wrapper lol and Tiffs don't show any camera details

[shastapaul]

When I used Adobe dng converter on my Sony files it reduce the file by 50%

[miguelcoelho]

Lightroom also doesn't read files from my Nikon D5600.
I use Adobe DNG Converter successfully.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
I have learned a lot from them.

[ivyproduction]

Please, I bought canon m50 mark ii and I took some shots in Raw and lightroom is not reading it . Please what should I do? Thanks

[MarioCastillion]

Even in Finder/Preview on my Mac I cannot view my RAW photos taken from the Panasonic S5.
I run Mac OS Catalina and this is a very frustrating thing!

[robdlain]

Matt Irwin on his YT channel mentioned a way to rename the Z6 II files and they will open with the current RAW processors. Check him out. It's from two weeks ago or so.

[EliteGuard]

I tried Adobe DNG, but couldn't install because I run Mac OS 10.13 and software needs 10.14 to run. So I tried an older verson of the software, but it still didn't read my CR3 Raw files. Then I tried Cannon's software, only to get a completly dead end program, which refuses to install because it needs "administrator privileges", which I have but the program gives you no options but to close the software.

[jamesshrouds]

I will be purchasing the Canon R6 camera soon. I have a 2015 iMac which has the High Sierra operating system. I use Apple’s Photos program to edit my photos. Do you know if that program will open the RAW files from the Canon R6?

[PLATO]

So if I understand correctly even old versions of Lightroom would be able te recognize Dng files from more recent camera’s ?

[barrylees]

I have some old Pentax PEF Raw images from a camera (K100D) which for some reason DXO Photo Lab does not support. I tried converting to DNG but still did not work in Photo Lab. DXO said that the software would not support a DNG converted from an unsupported Raw format! Kinda made DNG (and Photo Lab) a bit pointless to me

[barryobrien]

There are a few 3rd party python scripts that change the metadata to z6. The files them open in all apps. Since the files are based on the same z6 sensor they look perfect until an update comes

[taair]

Hi great informative video I have just baught an Olympus OMD M1 mk 3 and installed the Olympus software that does open the raw file s on my Mac but doesn’t show the files as ‘images’ (thumbnails) in the folder. only icons any idea why cheers.