CR2 specs for Rebel T3i

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Hello everyone Canon, I've shot many Canon cameras throughout my life, Rebel 35mm, T1i and T3i along with Elura 85 and Vixia HG21 Camcorders. I like the Canon line of products 🙂 I'm seeking some specs because I think my software is rendering my files differently than it should. I shoot the T3i with CR2/JPG Highest settings. I use UFRaw 1922 to decode the raw files. UFRaw shows the CR2 image size as 5231x3484px. There is a concave curve on each of the sides. When I examine the JPG file generated by the camera it shows 5184x3456px. At first I thought the camera function must autocrop inside the perimeter to eliminate the curves so I cropped the image I exported out of the UFRaw and compared the two images. In the T3i generated JPG, the subject appears thinner than the exported UFraw JPG. After closer examination, it looks like everything that is curved inside of UFRaw is present in the T3i generated JPG without the curve present. Does the camera auto-stretch these curves when it generates the JPG internally, or is UFRaw reading the CR2 file incorrectly by showing these curves? I can upload the two JPG files for comparison if I'm not clarifying myself enough. I notice a "bubble" type of difference when I switch back and forth between the JPGs. I can't afford to purchase software right now so I'm really just trying to assess where the inconsistency is, in the CR2 or in UFRaw. Thanks for reading, I hope you can help.

[Skirball · Accepted solution]

I have no experience with UF RAW, so I can only guess based on what you say and what I can look up about the T3i.  That is, the file size that it’s displaying “in RAW” doesn’t match the specs (RAW size of 5184 x 3456).   And no photo should have curved sides, so there is certainly something happening in post. 

Note that no program displays “RAW”, it displays its interpretation of the RAW file with possible presets, as applicable.  It sounds like it’s applying some sort of lens correction adding barrel distortion.  Check through the settings for lens correction and/or distortion and see if it’s adding something.

I normally don’t like to plug software, because software is very subjective and what works for one may not another.  But in my opinion Adobe’s Lightroom is an absolutely amazing program, that excels in ease of use and simplifying workflow.  Every digital photographer should be using something on this level.  I normally wouldn’t plug such software, but Adobe significantly dropped their pricing structure since LR4 and put it at a level that I believe makes it reasonable for just about every photographer to own.  I’m not saying there aren’t other programs out there equally as good, but that the price level is reasonable enough that I believe it’s a better option than generic software.

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Thanks for the information. I will comb through the settings again. OK, I reopened the file and looked through the lens correction settings and that fixed it. There were some lens distortion settings that I overlooked. Much thanks Skirball! The program still shows an image size of 5202x3465 but you have proven it was a problem with the program. I was thinking that the pixels for the JPG and CR2 should be equal but I needed some confirmation and google wasn't returning the results I needed. I do read a lot of folks suggesting Lightroom so I may have to check that out one day. For now I'll fiddle with this for a bit and see how things look retaining the right aspect ratios. It was getting a little frustrating. Thanks again for saving the day.