This is a one-way trip: dng keeps what it can of cr2 and drops the rest. Keep the source file.
The part that is easy to get wrong
- Check the result by its header, not by its name, before you send it.
- Keep the original until the recipient has confirmed the converted file opens.
- Leave the colour profile alone unless the receiver has asked for a specific one.
Nothing here is lossless. The question is only how much you are willing to lose.
Related library page: .cr2. Tools: File Converter.
Notes on this guide
The guide describes one source file, one output file, and the container that comes out of the conversion. It is written against the format page for the same extension, so a guide and a format page always describe the same catalogue entry.
Before converting anything, read the header of the source file against its format page. An extension and a header that disagree is the most common reason a conversion produces a file that will not open, and it is the reason most entries in the format library exist.
Guides and format pages are rebuilt together with each release. Where a format page marks its header as not yet seen in a real file, the guide for it carries the same mark. If a guide does not match a file you have, send the first sixteen bytes and the build number to the support address.
Reviewed 2026-10-12 by R. Okonkwo.