RAW Assets

Apple ProRAW/ProRes

Apple supports shooting stills and videos in DNG format and they can be downloaded by icloudpd as any other supported format.

Imported RAW images

Added in version 1.19.0.

RAW images from third party cameras can be imported into Apple Photos or uploaded to iCloud.com. These type of assets can also be downloaded by icloudpd. The following formats are recognized:

  • Adobe DNG - same as Apple ProRAW

  • Canon CR2, CR3, and CRW

  • Sony ARW

  • Fuji RAF

  • Panasonic RW2

  • Nikon NRF, NEF

  • Pentax PEF

  • Olympus ORF

RAW+JPEG and JPEG+RAW

Added in version 1.19.0.

iCloud supports images with two representations. icloudpd can download one or both representations.

One representation will be original size and another alternative.

As of June 2024, icloud.com always shows assets with two representations as RAW+JPEG. Photo app on Mac allows choosing which representation to treat as original, but it is not clear what that setting changes.

icloudpd disambiguates the behavior with --align-raw parameter:

  • original always treat RAW as original size

  • alternative always treat RAW as alternative size

  • as-is treat RAW as it is in iCloud data