CR3 is Canon's in-camera RAW
CR3 is the raw sensor data a Canon camera writes at the moment of capture. It's produced by the camera's own hardware and firmware — software can read it, but nothing can manufacture a genuine CR3 from a finished ARW.
Looking to convert ARW to CR3? Here's the honest answer — and what works instead.
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ARW is Sony’s raw photo format, storing unprocessed sensor data from Alpha cameras for full editing latitude.
ARW opens in Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture One and Sony Imaging Edge.
CR3 is Canon’s newer, more efficient raw format used by recent EOS cameras — smaller than CR2 with the same flexibility.
CR3 opens in recent Lightroom, Photoshop, Canon DPP and modern raw editors.
No. CR3 stores the raw signal a Canon sensor recorded at capture. A ARW is a finished image with that data already baked in and discarded — there's nothing for a converter to reconstruct.
RAW formats like CR3 give maximum editing latitude — but only when they come straight from the camera. Converting a ARW to CR3 would just wrap a finished image in a RAW container, with none of the benefits.
DNG is an open RAW container. You can convert a camera's own RAW (including CR3) into DNG, but you still can't turn a regular ARW into CR3 or any real RAW.
ARW converts cleanly to PNG, JPG, TIFF and WEBP — free, no sign-up, no watermark.