Can we have raw file previews?

[Walking Postpro]

After so many years working with photographers, who store loads of pictures in server, Dropbox is still not previewing RAW files... It is more than urgent fix for Dropbox. Every time i get the link  - i have to download hundreds of Gb just to locate one file...

Is this issue getting to be fixed in the near future?

[Megan]

This idea has been closed as it has reached the end of the Share an Idea process.

[Richard P.]

"RAW" currently covers about 4,000 different file formats, most of which are proprietary and undocumented - which would you like Dropbox to work with, exactly?

[Walking Postpro]

Mostly used in my sphere are .nef and .cr2 or .crw from Nicon and Canon. 

[Richard P.]

All of which are not single file formats.

.nef is the extension Nikon use for its RAW files, but the actual contents of those files can be one of about 200 different formats.

Same goes for the Canon RAW extension - its not one format, its many using the same extension.

RAW is the uncompressed, raw output from the image sensor - these outputs differ across sensors (which change when camera companies update their camera bodies, or change suppliers), which is why there are so many of them.

They also aren't well documented - you typically have to pay Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic et al for the documentation for each sensor, or you have to work it out yourself.

[Walking Postpro]

It doesn't answer my question - will it be fixed in the near future? I kind of feel strange when urging photographers who I work with to move to dropbox busines account, but in the end I'm the looser, who has to cope with all these piles of files which i have to download to locate the ones i need.

[Richard P.]

will it be fixed in the near future?

I highly doubt it, its a massive massive job that is never ending (as new camera bodies are released all the time, which means new formats to support).

[Rob W.14]

Walking Postproductions. I totally agree with you that Dropbox needs to sort this out. And whereas I appreciate what Richard is saying about the infinite number of formats etc... you only have to look to Google Drive (Dropbox's main competition) to see that it is indeed quite possible. At the end of the day, this is Dropbox's job. That's what they do.

If it's any use to you, my workaround is to create a very low res jpeg thumbnail index which I upload with all my images to Dropbox. I do this as part of my batch processing workflow in Lightroom. 

[DependaCoat L.]

NEF and CR2 (and I assume other raw files) can be viewed on Windows by downloading camera specific "codex' files. Couldn't this be done in Dropbox too? 

[Juan Antonio S.]

I totally agree, previewing of raw files should be a feature. This and only this, is the reason why I'm moving from Dropbox to Google Drive, as I bet many photographers will do too.

[sebastienbarre]

Since "RAW" can cover a lot of formats (as somebody pointed out), I created a more specific suggestion to support "DNG Preview"; this won't make everybody happy but could cover many users (at the very least Adobe Lightroom ones).

Thanks

[tomachas]

Yet ggogle drive msanaged to impliment this feature  .ct .nef tiff are among most popular. Not a rocket sciene rather flexiblebility. Thats why i found google drive using more often and don't care getting paid dropbox.