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I think that this is the current functionality on the Air 2 - Lightroom Mobile can't work with RAW images but it will work with DNG format. No surprise since DNG is Adobe's proprietary format and Lightroom (non-Mobile) supports conversion from RAW to DNG. Bottom line, RAW is still not supported.
 
I think that this is the current functionality on the Air 2 - Lightroom Mobile can't work with RAW images but it will work with DNG format. No surprise since DNG is Adobe's proprietary format and Lightroom (non-Mobile) supports conversion from RAW to DNG. Bottom line, RAW is still not supported.

But raw is supported if you stick to the native apps. The iPad handles the canon cr2 file beautifully. It's just the Lightroom issue. If you want to cull images and share some instantly then it will be fine

Interestingly using photos and sending the image to email it puts the raw file in the email. If I send to messenger etc it renders out a JPEG.
 
RAWS are supported in iPads for about the longest time. The only issue I have had in processing is that if you use Photos, it uses a standard Apple RAW conversion process. If you use Photogene 4, it can process the RAWS separately in the app and you can have a different interpretation of the data. Lightroom for iOS is kind of junky at the moment. Photogene does a better job and supports the RAW right off the bat so it's kind of like Lightroom on OSX but without the custom filters and presets. I've used several different apps on the iPad in order to process photos already but I'm hoping that DxO makes Optics Pro for iOS soon. While I could import into iCloud Photos and then process the RAW from the Mac Pro using DxO Optics Pro remotely before sending a TIFF or JPG back to iCloud Photos for further edits in iOS, it is a bit of a pain. Adobe apps don't really support Adobe RAW in iOS as of yet so everything is down to  RAW processing or a separate app with RAW support such as Photogene.
 
Oh, there is also PhotoRaw which can do some very basic RAW edits and process the RAW directly instead of a JPG sidecar. If I need quick edits, I normally process RAW to JPG in my Olymous camera and then edit JPG in iOS before I send out the photo.
 
Then what does Apple mean with this (from Aug. 15, 2015):

When you import a RAW image to your iPad, iPhoto will display only the JPEG version of the image embedded in the RAW file. When editing a RAW image in iPhoto, the edits are derived from the embedded JPEG, and saved in JPEG format.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202428
 
Inside of each RAW file normally is what is a JPG sidecar which allows for fast previewing of the RAW file. If Apple is only loading the sidecar file inside of the RAW, it means that the amount of data it is pulling from is only a portion of the full RAW file. For this reason, you need a separate RAW converter app. The JPG inside of the RAW can still be post processed but you have less latitude to process the photo than if you took a RAW file and then processed it to display the maximum amount of detail and exposure before applying other post processing.
 
Inside of each RAW file normally is what is a JPG sidecar which allows for fast previewing of the RAW file. If Apple is only loading the sidecar file inside of the RAW, it means that the amount of data it is pulling from is only a portion of the full RAW file. For this reason, you need a separate RAW converter app. The JPG inside of the RAW can still be post processed but you have less latitude to process the photo than if you took a RAW file and then processed it to display the maximum amount of detail and exposure before applying other post processing.

Well this is what I always thought. But I can't explain why the stock iPad photos app seems to be using the sidecar info differently.

The file on the iPad shows as being a raw .cr2 file when I look at the images when the iPad is hooked to my Mac. Image capture shows the raw files only. No other files.

So I open photos on my iPad. Make some obviously outrageous edits and then wait a short while. Back on my iMac the edited image has appeared within the photos app, with the edits applied.

According to the file information this is the raw file.

So are both photos apps just adding the xml data alongside the raw files.?either way there is no JPEG on the iPad at any part of the process.
 
No surprise since DNG is Adobe's proprietary format and Lightroom (non-Mobile) supports conversion from RAW to DNG.

Adobe says

The Digital Negative (DNG) Specification describes a non-proprietary file format for storing camera raw files that can be used by a wide range of hardware and software vendors.
It's NEF, CR2, ARW, etc that are proprietary... Though as neither Canon nor Adobe are willing to add the functionality, you're still stuck.
 
RAW files require a separate sidecar file in order to retain post processing edits. In Lightroom or anything Adobe based, that sidecar file is called an XMP. In DxO Optics Pro, the sidecar file is called a DOP. In Aperture and Photos app, it's stored in the main library file/database/folder. When you import a CR2 RAW file from your Canon camera into an iPad, you are seeing the JPG preview built into the RAW file and when you edit from the iPad, you edit the JPG inside of that RAW file. When you save the edit, it will make a JPG that is separate from your CR2 file. When this synchronizes over iCloud Photos to your Mac, the main RAW file is still there but no edits take place on your RAW. You have to save the edits to another JPG before you can see what you did post process in the Photos App on your iOS device. This means that while you get the RAW in the Photos app on your Mac, you also get the JPG you did the edit on. You have to press on Duplicate and Edit to get that separate JPG. Inside of Photos App, you can only recover dynamic range so much as well as control noise. Either way, you are creating a JPG from the JPG preview in the RAW and that JPG is processed by Apple's RAW so that it gets a specific view of that photo before you even start post processing on it.
 
I'm hoping to get DxO Optics Pro ported over to iOS so we have their RAW processing and noise control abilities. Once we have that at whatever price they charge, iOS will be flat out awesome for Photographers.
 
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Just a note for anyone else looking at this old thread. Lightroom on iPad pro now supports canons cr2 format. I just exported from my flashair wifi card to my iPad pro and started editing in lightroom. It's a nice setup if you are on the go. The drawback is you need to subscribe to an Adobe CC plan ($9.99 a month? - not sure because I have one through work)
 
Just a note for anyone else looking at this old thread. Lightroom on iPad pro now supports canons cr2 format. I just exported from my flashair wifi card to my iPad pro and started editing in lightroom. It's a nice setup if you are on the go. The drawback is you need to subscribe to an Adobe CC plan ($9.99 a month? - not sure because I have one through work)

Close - $10.95/month. Thanks for the heads-up (I shoot Canon RAW).
 
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