RW2 to MOV Converter

Convert RW2 to MOV Online

MOV is Apple's QuickTime container — the format Final Cut Pro, iMovie, QuickTime Player and macOS Preview treat as native, and the file layout that ISO later standardised as MP4. This tool develops a Panasonic LUMIX RW2 RAW photograph into a viewable image and writes it into a .mov as a still video clip, so you can drop a RAW frame straight onto a QuickTime-based timeline without a separate render step. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours.

The output is silent by design: a photograph carries no audio, and the Audio Codec menu is hidden for image sources.

How to Convert RW2 to MOV

1. Upload Your RW2 Files: Drag and drop your .rw2 files or click "+ Add Files". One RW2 becomes a freeze-frame clip; several become a sequence in the order you add them.
2. Set Merge strategy and Image Duration: Merge strategy is preselected to Merge images, which joins the whole batch into one MOV; Video per image writes a separate .mov per photo. Image Duration is preselected to 5 seconds per frame, adjustable from 1/60 s to 10 s.
3. Choose Video Codec, Background Color and Video resolution: Video Codec is preselected to H.264, with H.265, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MS MPEG-4, Xvid, DivX, MJPEG, HuffYUV, Theora, H.261, H.263, H.263+, WMV 1, WMV 2, FLV and Flash Video also listed. Background Color is preselected to White and fills letterbox or pillarbox bars. Video resolution is preselected to Keep original.
4. Set File Compression and Convert: File Compression opens on Quality Preset at Very High, alongside Constant Quality and Constraint Quality; bitrate and target-size modes are hidden for still sources. Click Convert and download. No sign-up, no watermark.

What the Default Settings Produce

Measured end to end on a 20-megapixel Panasonic DC-GH5 RW2 (24.2 MB source).

The avc1 tag matters: it is the QuickTime-standard identifier for H.264, so Final Cut, QuickTime Player and Preview open the file without a codec prompt. Moving the index to the front is what lets a MOV start playing before the whole file has arrived, which is useful if you are serving the clip over a network share or the web.

MOV vs the Other Video Targets for a RAW Still

If the destination is a phone, a website or a social upload, RW2 to MP4 is the safer container even though the encoded video is identical. If you need a codec MOV will not carry cleanly, use RW2 to MKV.

Codec Choices That Backfire on a Photo Source

Not every entry in the Video Codec list is a sensible destination for a 12-megapixel still, and a few misbehave without warning:

• MPEG-4, Xvid and DivX are capped at 2048 pixels on the long edge. We measured the same source arriving at 2048 × 1532 instead of 4096 × 3070, with nothing in the interface saying so. On a photograph that is a visible loss.
• MPEG-2 rejects any frame whose width or height is an exact multiple of 4096, and the default clamp lands on exactly 4096, so it fails outright at Keep original. Set an explicit Fixed Resolution first.
• H.261, H.263 and H.263+ force the frame down to legacy videoconferencing rasters — 352 × 288 for H.261 and H.263+, and one of H.263's fixed sizes up to 1408 × 1152.
• MJPEG and HuffYUV store every frame as a complete picture, so a 5-second clip becomes enormous. They are intermediate formats, not delivery formats.
• Quality Preset is inert on all of the bitrate-based codecs above when the source is a still, because the preset works by scaling the source's own bitrate and a photograph has none. Use Constraint Quality with an explicit Max bitrate on those codecs, or stay on H.264 where the preset genuinely works.

QuickTime's own ProRes and Animation codecs are not offered here; if you specifically need ProRes for a finishing timeline, export a JPG or TIFF still and import that into your NLE instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does one RW2 produce a motionless clip with no sound?

Because an RW2 is a single photograph. It has no timeline, no motion and no audio track, so the conversion develops the picture and holds it on screen for the Image Duration you chose — five seconds by default — as identical frames at 1 fps. The Audio Codec menu is hidden for image sources, so the MOV is written with a video track only and no audio stream at all. Upload several RW2 files with Merge images selected if you want a clip that changes over time.

Will this MOV open in Final Cut Pro and QuickTime Player without extra software?

Yes for the default settings. The file is written as H.264 with the avc1 sample-description tag inside a QuickTime container, which is the combination Apple's own tools expect, and the index is moved to the front of the file so playback can start immediately. If you change Video Codec to something QuickTime does not decode — Theora, VP-family, WMV or the Flash codecs — the container will still be built but Apple's players will refuse it. Keep it on H.264 or H.265 for macOS work.

Why is the video 4096 pixels wide instead of my camera's full resolution?

Every still is clamped to 4096 pixels on its long edge before encoding, because the image demuxer becomes unreliable beyond that. Our GH5 file developed to 5208 × 3904 and reached the encoder at 4096 × 3070 — aspect ratio preserved, nothing cropped, roughly a 21% reduction in linear resolution. For a 47-megapixel LUMIX S1R the reduction is larger. If you wanted every pixel, a video container is the wrong destination: convert to RW2 to JPG or RW2 to TIFF instead.

Why are there white bars down the sides of my 1920 x 1080 export?

Because a 4:3 photograph does not fill a 16:9 frame. When you pick a Fixed Resolution the picture is scaled to fit inside it and the leftover area is padded with the Background Color, which is preselected to White for image sources. We measured exactly that: a 1440 × 1080 picture centred in a 1920 × 1080 frame with pure white bars either side. Set Background Color to Black if white looks wrong in your edit, or choose a Fixed Resolution closer to 4:3 such as 1024 x 768.

Should I convert RW2 to MOV or to MP4?

The encoded video is identical — both default to H.264 here — so the choice is purely about the wrapper. Pick MOV when you are working inside Final Cut Pro, iMovie, QuickTime Player or another QuickTime-based tool, because those treat it as native. Pick MP4 for anything you are going to email, upload, put on a website or hand to someone on a phone; MP4 has broader out-of-the-box support outside the Apple ecosystem despite sharing the same underlying file layout.

Can I put several RW2 photos into one MOV slideshow?

Yes. Upload them together and leave Merge strategy on Merge images — each photo plays for the Image Duration in the order the files were added, producing a single MOV. Choose Video per image instead if you want one .mov per photograph. There is no per-photo duration control, so if you need different holds, convert in separate batches or adjust the clip lengths in your editor afterwards.

Does the MOV keep my camera's EXIF data — ISO, aperture, lens?

No. The shooting metadata does not survive the develop, and a QuickTime video track has nowhere natural to put camera EXIF anyway. If you need the capture settings recorded, read them from the RW2 before converting, or keep the original alongside the clip. Keeping the RW2 is the right habit regardless — the video bakes in white balance, exposure and tone, and none of the RAW's editing latitude survives.

Can I trim the clip or change how long the photo is held?

Set the length with Image Duration before converting — it runs from 1/60 s up to 10 seconds per image. That is the cleanest way to control the clip length from a still. If you have already converted and want to shorten the result, run the finished file through Video Cutter, which trims video files by start point and duration.

What happens to my RW2 file after the conversion?

It is uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours. Nothing is shared or made public, there is no sign-up, and no watermark is added to the MOV.