How to open a DCR file when nothing on your PC recognizes it
A DCR file is a Kodak camera raw image. Kodak's professional DCS bodies wrote them, and many people now meet them on an old memory card, a backup drive or a relative's photo archive, long after the software that came with the camera stopped running. Double-click one on a current PC and, more often than not, nothing useful opens.
DCR Viewer is a small Windows app that opens the file directly. Set it as the default for .dcr and a double-click shows the picture, or drag a file onto the window, or press Ctrl+O. There is no library to import into and nothing to catalog first.
When a DCR carries a large embedded JPEG, that is what appears, so the photo is on screen quickly. When it does not, the sensor data is developed with LibRaw instead, which takes a little longer on a big file but gives you the full picture rather than a thumbnail.
Convert DCR to JPG or TIFF, one photo or a whole card
Old raw files are only useful once they are in a format the rest of your software accepts. Open any DCR, choose Convert image from the More menu, and decide whether the conversion covers This image or the Whole folder.
Pick a Format, set Quality between 50 and 100 for a JPG, and choose what happens under Existing files: Skip, Keep both or Replace. A folder run converts the images in that folder, not its subfolders, and a file that will not decode is counted as failed in the closing summary instead of stopping the run.
- TIFF suits an archive or a print shop, where a large file matters less than keeping detail.
- JPG at 85 to 90 is a sensible size for email, sharing or a family photo site.
- ICO and PDF are there too, for an icon or a one-page document; BMP and ICO skip the quality slider.
Kodak raw photos and the shooting data inside them
Press I to open the info panel. Next to the file name, size, pixel dimensions, folder and dates, it lists the camera, lens, shutter speed, aperture, ISO and focal length read from the file. For a box of unlabeled images that is often the quickest way to work out which camera and which year they came from.
Press T for the folder ribbon, a strip of thumbnails along the bottom, and use the arrow keys to step through a shoot. The plus and minus keys zoom, F fits the photo back to the window, R rotates, and H and V flip it.
Sorting an old DCR archive
The optional Professional Pack adds tools for working through a large set. Compare puts up to four frames side by side and zooms them together. Focus & Keep groups bursts, scores each frame for sharpness, and lets you mark keepers and rejects with K, X and U. Stars and color labels are saved in a matching .xmp file, and an edit panel writes a title, caption, keywords and copyright for each photo.
