Full RAW conversion or the camera’s embedded JPG?
Every ARW holds two pictures: the sensor data, and a JPG the camera made when you pressed the shutter (that is what you see on the camera’s screen). The two modes give you one or the other:
- Full RAW conversion decodes the sensor data with LibRaw at the camera’s full pixel count, using the white balance the camera recorded, in sRGB. It takes a few seconds per photo.
- Camera’s embedded JPG saves the camera’s own picture, with its Creative Look and corrections, in a fraction of a second. When it is already upright and you keep it full size, it is saved without re-compressing. Its size depends on the camera.
What we measured with this page (quality 92, full size):
| Sample ARW | File | Full RAW conversion | Time | Embedded JPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| α6000 (24 MP) | 24.4 MB | 6,024 × 4,024 px, 6.0 MB | about 3 s | 1,616 × 1,080 px, 1.1 MB |
| α6700 (26 MP) | 41.7 MB | 6,240 × 4,168 px, 6.7 MB | about 3 s | 6,192 × 4,128 px, 6.9 MB |
| α7 IV (33 MP), Lossless Compressed | 46.9 MB | 7,028 × 4,688 px, 7.0 MB | about 4 s | 7,008 × 4,672 px, 7.1 MB |
| α7R V (61 MP), Lossless Compressed | 82.0 MB | 9,566 × 6,374 px, 12.6 MB | about 7 s | 9,504 × 6,336 px, 10.9 MB |
So on recent Sony bodies the embedded JPG is nearly full size and is the quickest way to get the camera’s own look; on older ones such as the α6000 it is small, and the full RAW conversion is the one to use. Timings are from a desktop PC; phones and older laptops take longer. A 61-megapixel photo is about 183 MB of pixels once decoded, before the decoder’s own working memory, so very large files may fail on a phone.
Convert ARW to JPG without losing quality: what is kept and what is not
No ARW to JPG conversion is lossless. Sony’s α7 IV help guide says its RAW images “have a resolution of 14 bits per pixel” (12 bits in some modes), while a standard baseline JPG holds 8-bit samples (ITU-T T.81), and JPG compression discards fine detail. What the converter keeps:
- the full pixel dimensions (unless you choose Half or Web size);
- quality 92 by default — high enough that the difference rarely shows, at a fraction of the size of 100;
- the camera details: make, model, lens, date and time, exposure, aperture, ISO and focal length are copied into the JPG’s Exif;
- sRGB, the colour space browsers and most sharing services assume.
GPS location is left out unless you tick Include GPS location, so a shared photo does not reveal where it was taken. Keep the ARW files: they hold the extra bit depth that lets you rescue highlights and shadows later, which a JPG cannot.
Why the JPG may not look like the camera’s
A RAW file stores what the sensor saw; the look is applied when it is developed. Sony’s own Imaging Edge help warns that “if you set a picture profile and shoot RAW images … the settings in the picture profile will not be correctly reflected”, and that depending on the model a Black & White setting may show in colour. The same applies here: the full RAW conversion uses the white balance the camera recorded and LibRaw’s automatic brightness, not Sony’s Creative Look, lens corrections or picture profile. In our side-by-side test it came out very close to the camera’s JPG, with slightly lower contrast.
If you want the camera’s look, choose Camera’s embedded JPG. On Stack Exchange, a photographer with 1,000 ARWs from an RX100 IV asked for JPGs “as good as the camera” — the top answer suggested Sony’s Imaging Edge, noting that manufacturers’ own RAW software usually applies the in-camera settings by default.
Sony RAW file types, and what they mean for the JPG
| RAW File Type (camera menu) | What Sony says | For the JPG |
|---|---|---|
| Uncompressed | The largest files (α7 IV) | Full resolution |
| Lossless Comp (L) | “No deterioration in image quality”, smaller files; L only in full frame | Full resolution — tested on the α7 IV and α7R V |
| Lossless Comp (M / S) | Lower resolution than L | A smaller JPG, matching the camera’s M or S size |
| Compressed, Compressed(HQ) | About half the size of Uncompressed (α7 IV); HQ on newer bodies such as the α7 V | Full resolution |
In APS-C (crop) mode a full-frame body records a smaller RAW — the α7 V’s help guide says it matches the JPG “M” size. The converter reads whatever the file holds; it cannot add pixels that were not recorded.
Which cameras work
The decoder is LibRaw 0.22.1. LibRaw’s list of supported cameras covers Sony bodies up to the α7R V, α9 III, α7C II, α6700, ZV-E10 II and FX2, and older models back to the DSC-F828. It does not yet list the newest bodies — the α1 II, α7 V and α7R VI — so their ARWs may not open here until the decoder is updated. For those, Apple’s list of supported RAW cameras (version 27 of macOS and iOS, current as of October 2026) includes all three, and Adobe Camera Raw lists them as preliminary support. The same decoder also opened Canon CR2, Nikon NEF and iPhone DNG files in our tests.
Other ways to convert ARW to JPG: Imaging Edge, Mac, Windows, Photoshop
- Sony Imaging Edge Desktop (free): for one photo, open it in Edit and choose File → Output…, then set the file type, compression, colour space and size. For many, select them in Viewer and choose File → Export…. To give a whole batch the same edit, save the image-processing settings in Edit, then in Export tick “Apply the selected image processing settings to each RAW file” and browse to the settings file.
- ARW to JPG on Mac with Preview: open the file, choose File → Export, pick JPEG in the Format menu, set the quality and save. For several files, open them in one window, select them in the sidebar and export. This works when your macOS version supports your camera.
- ARW to JPG on Windows: Microsoft’s free Raw Image Extension “adds native viewing support” for RAW files in File Explorer and Photos (Windows 10 version 1903 or later) — it is built on LibRaw too. For converting, use Imaging Edge Desktop or this page.
- Photoshop: File → Scripts → Image Processor converts a folder of RAW files to JPEG, with quality on Adobe’s 0–12 scale. Lightroom Classic exports selected photos as JPEG from its Export dialog.
- ARW to JPG on iPhone: this page works in a mobile browser — choose the ARW from Files. If the browser cannot handle an image that large in one piece, the tool saves it at half size and says so. We have not yet tested it on an iPhone.
Can you convert JPG to ARW?
No. An ARW holds 12- or 14-bit sensor data from before the photo was developed; a JPG holds 8-bit developed pixels. Changing a file’s name or format cannot bring back what was never in it — as a highly voted Stack Exchange answer puts it, “there is no way to convert a jpeg to raw”. If you need editing room later, keep the original ARW, or save edits as 16-bit TIFF.
Why nothing is uploaded
Many online converters send your photos to their servers and keep them for a while. Here, the RAW decoder (LibRaw compiled to WebAssembly) is downloaded once from this site and runs in your browser tab; it is only allowed to connect to this site, to load its own files. In our test of nine RAW files, the page made no request to any other site. You can check: open your browser’s developer tools on the Network tab while converting.