Affinity Photo now really supports Canon CR3 files -- Awesome!

[timlt]

Wow what a breakthrough.  Just installed the Affinity Photo latest beta 1.8.0.555, available here.  

For the first time since I got my new Canon camera (which uses .CR3 RAW file format), I can use it with Affinity's raw processor.  I've not had a chance yet to test it extensively, to see the quality of the output, and questions like can Affinity handle the compressed ("C-RAW") CR3 format.  That's worth checking, as many apps out there which say they work with CR3, will choke on the CR3 compressed C-RAW files and produce bad output (Luminar 4, I'm looking at you).  My quick preliminary check seems to show that Affinity handles the compressed C-RAW files just fine.  But either way, it's great to see this progress with the Affinity beta.  I'd add to that the ever-improving support for IPTC/XMP metadata handling, there are more of the standard XMP metadata fields supported now and enough that Affinity should be a viable alternative to anybody who extensively tags their files with metadata.  I've tested the compatibility of the metadata support.  Affinity has implemented this 'right' as far as I can tell, by which I mean they've followed the standards and if you tag a given XMP attribute in Affinity, the value will show up correctly if you open the same file in other IPTC/XMP standards-based metadata tools, such as Adobe Bridge or Lightroom.  That is a big win because it means you have better inter-op between Affinity and other photo or file management tools.  For example, you could use Lightroom classic as your photo management/tagging app, and specify Affinity as your photo editor, and all the metadata values will be compatible between the apps.  

For me this makes Affinity once again a live option and a strong competitor to Photoshop.  Thank you and keep up the great work guys!