CR2 to AVCHD Converter

CR2 to AVCHD Converter

CR2 is Canon's second-generation RAW photo — the unprocessed sensor data a Canon DSLR writes before white balance or exposure is baked in — and AVCHD is the high-definition camcorder format Sony and Panasonic introduced in 2006. This converter renders one Canon photo and wraps it as an AVCHD-style video clip, which is what you need in the narrow case of dropping a still into an AVCHD-era editing or disc-authoring timeline. One thing to settle up front: the .avchd file this outputs is the same H.264 transport stream a camcorder would label .mts — AVCHD and MTS are two names for one recording — so CR2 to MTS is the identical conversion under the camcorder's own extension.

CR2 Format at a Glance

AVCHD Format at a Glance

How to Convert CR2 to AVCHD

1. Upload Your CR2 File: Drag and drop your .cr2 file onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to browse from your computer. You can queue several Canon photos at once.
2. Set Merge Strategy and Image Duration: Open Advanced Options. Use "Merge strategy" to choose "Merge images" (combine several photos into one clip) or "Video per image" (a separate file each), then set "Image Duration" to control how long the still is held on screen — from 1/60s per frame up to 10 seconds, with 5 seconds the default.
3. Set Quality Preset and Background Color (Optional): Leave "Quality Preset" on "Very High (Recommended)" and pick a "Background Color" (Black by default) to fill any letterbox bars; under "Show All Options" the "Video Codec" defaults to H.264, the codec AVCHD actually uses.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download your AVCHD clip. No sign-up, no watermark.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is AVCHD just MTS under a different name?

Yes. "AVCHD" is the recording format Sony and Panasonic introduced in 2006, and .MTS is the filename a camcorder writes when it records in that format — they are the same H.264-in-transport-stream data. This tool outputs a stream with an .avchd extension, which some AVCHD-era editors and authoring templates specifically expect; CR2 to MTS produces the identical stream under the camcorder's own .mts spelling. Pick whichever extension your software is looking for.

Will the AVCHD clip have any motion or sound?

No on both counts. The converter renders your single CR2 to one still frame and holds that motionless frame on screen for the duration you set — there is no panning, zoom, or transition. It is also silent: a photo carries no audio, so there is nothing to encode into the AVCHD stream, even though AVCHD itself supports Dolby AC-3 and linear PCM. If you upload several photos and choose "Merge images," they play back to back, each shown for its set duration — a sequence of stills, not a cross-faded slideshow. Add narration or music on your editing timeline after import.

Do I lose the RAW editing latitude when I convert CR2 to AVCHD?

Yes. A CR2 stores unprocessed 14-bit sensor data, which is why you can recover highlights and shift white balance long after the shot. To put the photo into a video, the converter must develop it first — demosaicing the sensor data and baking in white balance, exposure, and tone — because a transport stream has no concept of undeveloped RAW. Once that rendered frame is inside the AVCHD clip, the latitude is gone, exactly as it would be in a JPEG. Develop the RAW in a dedicated editor first if you want that control, and keep the original .cr2 as your master.

My Canon is 20 megapixels — what resolution does the AVCHD clip end up?

Lower than the photo, in practice. A 20-megapixel Canon sensor captures far more pixels than a video frame holds, so leaving "Video resolution" on "Keep original" still produces a video-sized frame, and choosing a 1080p preset downscales the rendered image to fit 1080p-class dimensions. AVCHD was built around HD recording, so 1920x1080 is the natural target. The detail that does not fit the frame is discarded — normal for putting a high-resolution photo into video. If preserving every pixel matters, keep the still as an image with CR2 to JPG instead of wrapping it in video.

Will this build a playable AVCHD disc structure I can burn?

No. This is a file converter — it outputs a single rendered stream, not the full PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM/ directory tree with the playlist and clip-information files that AVCHD players and Blu-ray authoring tools read. Building that structure is a disc-authoring task, much like a lone .vob file is not a finished DVD. Some software will only ingest the loose stream through its generic file import rather than its AVCHD path, so import the clip directly into your editor's timeline if the dedicated AVCHD importer does not see it.

Should I really convert CR2 to AVCHD, or to JPG or MP4 instead?

For almost everyone, AVCHD is the wrong target. If you only want a viewable, shareable picture, CR2 to JPG gives you a far smaller file that opens everywhere, and you keep the original .cr2 as your editable master. If you need a video clip for a modern editor, web upload, or phone playback, CR2 to MP4 carries the same H.264 in a container that plays natively almost anywhere, while AVCHD/MTS does not. Reach for AVCHD only when a specific camcorder-era editor or authoring workflow requires that container.

How are my files handled during conversion?

In our testing, a single full-resolution Canon CR2 held for 5 seconds at the "Very High" preset produced an AVCHD clip only a couple of megabytes in size, because a motionless H.264 frame compresses heavily. Your file is uploaded over an encrypted connection, rendered and packaged into the AVCHD stream on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after conversion — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public.