Add thumbnail and preview image to Canon CR3 files

[Hans Kraus]

Hi,
I have a lot of CR3 files without embedded thumbnail and preview images. I tried:

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exiftool "-thumbnailimage<=thumb8486.jpg" "-previewimage<=preview8486.jpg" 8486.CR3but got:
    0 image files updated
    1 image files unchanged
Are these commands not available/valid for CR3 files?
Regards, Hans

[blue-j]

hey hans, can you share a sample? - J

[Phil Harvey]

Currently ExifTool can't write these to CR3 files.  But I don't think I have any CR3 samples without both PreviewImage and ThumbnailImage, which I'm guessing is why blue-j suggested uploading a sample.

- Phil

[Hans Kraus]

Hi, thanks for your interest. The requested files are prepared for download under https://jottacloud.com/s/1169adcc51758064d6f9d81adc709cbef13
The problem I have: if I set the camera - a Canon EOS R5 Mark II - up to record both CR3 raw files and JPGs everything works. But when I record only CR3 raws they are pale and pink displayed, see Screenshot of Irfanview. This happens with image viewers, with explorer thumbnails, other tools which display thumbnails and so on. From one of the tool creators I got the reply that neither thumbnails nor previews are embedded. Therefore my question.
Searching in the net I found postings of some people who have also this pale and pink problem, but no solution.
This doesn't happen with CR3 files generated by my Canon EOS R7.
The system is a Windows 11 pc.
Kind regards, Hans

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Hans,

We've seen this before.

The file does have a PreviewImage and ThumbnailImage, but they are some sort of compressed data and not a stand-alone image format (like JPEG).  I'm guessing that they could be valid, but it seems that your software doesn't know how to display them.

- Phil

[blue-j]

FWIW

https://github.com/Vokinloksar/canon-cr3-to-jpeg

[Hans Kraus]

Hi, some more diagnosis input:
The problem shows itself if my EOS R5 Mark II is set to HEIF shooting (HDR Shooting (PQ) set to HDR PQ). The camera produces then files with the extension 'HIF', which are, according to the manual, HEIF images. I have installed the Microsoft HEIF extensions. Images from my cell phone with extension 'heic' are displayed correctly.  'HIF' images are not displayed. My assumption is that the Thumbnail/Preview images are in this unknown format also. Until now I found no possibility to show these 'HIF' files. Samples are again under https://jottacloud.com/s/1169adcc51758064d6f9d81adc709cbef13
Kind regards, Hans

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Hans,

I'm quite sure that HIF is just another extension for HEIF files, but your download link doesn't work for me so I can't look at your samples.

- Phil

[StarGeek]

Fixed the link. "Kind" was mistakenly appended to the link. (Edit: Bah, removed "Kind" from the text part, but not from the actual link, properly fixed now)

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C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s --system:all -file:all Y:\!temp\x\y\20250302_144047.170_CR5m2-8486.HIF
[File]          FileType                        : HEIF
[File]          FileTypeExtension               : heif
[File]          MIMEType                        : image/heif
[File]          ExifByteOrder                   : Little-endian (Intel, II)
[File]          ImageWidth                      : 8192
[File]          ImageHeight                     : 5464

[Hans Kraus]

@StarGeek: thanks, the correct link is: https://jottacloud.com/s/1169adcc51758064d6f9d81adc709cbef13
In the subdir 'pv1' are the two output files of

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exiftool -a -b -W pv1/%f_%t%-c.%s -preview:all 20250302_144047.170__R5m2-8486.CR3. The command is copied from the thread "https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=7227.0", ExifToolVersion: 13.32.
The output of

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exiftool -a -G1 -s 20250302_144047.170__R5m2-8486.CR3 >20250302_144047.170__R5m2-8486.CR3.txt is of course in the .txt file. The same for

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exiftool -a -G1 -s 20250302_144047.170_CR5m2-8486.HIF >20250302_144047.170_CR5m2-8486.HIF.txt. It is a guess by me that the format of the preview files is the same as that of the 'HIF' file.
I know that "It didn't work" is very vague. But I tried it with the GUI of Win 11, therefore I don't have any commands to show. And from the outputs only screenshots.
The output form "IrfanView" is: "Can't read file header! Unknown Image Format, empty/damaged file or file doesn't exist!" (translation by me).
The HIF file is only readable with Adobe Lightroom Classic. I tried IrfanView, CaptureOne, Photoshop too. And Adobe Lightroom Classic is the only tool which shows a correct preview of "20250302_144047.170__R5m2-8486.CR3". Only a pale and pink preview of the file "20250302_144047.170_CR5m2-8486.HIF" is shown by Adobe Lightroom Classic.
Kind regards, Hans

[Phil Harvey]

The extracted ThumbnailImage and PreviewImage .dat files are not complete HIF files.  They contain only a proprietary header plus the raw hvcC image data.

- Phil