Photographers who shot their photos in RAW format could not really make use of Windows Live’s Photo Gallery until now, as it did not support RAW formats.

This changes today with the release of the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack for Windows Vista and Windows 7. The independent download adds support for more than 120 DSLR cameras to Photo Gallery, Windows Explorer and other programs that use Windows Imaging Codecs (WIC).

Installation of the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack should be a breeze. Users only need to make sure that they install the right version for their operating system. The camera codec pack is offered for 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.

The download page over at Microsoft’s Download Center lists the supported camera models. I have taken the liberty to quote the camera models below:

• Canon: EOS 1000D (EOS Kiss F in Japan and the EOS Rebel XS in North America), EOS 10D, EOS 1D Mk2, EOS 1D Mk3, EOS 1D Mk4, EOS 1D Mk2 N, EOS 1Ds Mk2, EOS 1Ds Mk3, EOS 20D, EOS 300D (the Kiss Digital in Japan and the Digital Rebel in North America) , EOS 30D, EOS 350D (the Canon EOS Kiss Digital N in Japan and EOS Digital Rebel XT in North America), EOS 400D (the Kiss Digital X in Japan and the Digital Rebel XTi in North America), EOS 40D, EOS 450D (EOS Kiss X2 in Japan and the EOS Rebel XSi in North America), EOS 500D (EOS Kiss X3 in Japan and the EOS Rebel T1i in North America), EOS 550D (EOS Kiss X4 in Japan, and as the EOS Rebel T2i in North America), EOS 50D, EOS 5D, EOS 5D Mk2, EOS 7D, EOS D30, EOS D60, G2, G3, G5, G6, G9, G10, G11, Pro1, S90
• Nikon: D100, D1H, D200, D2H, D2Hs, D2X, D2Xs, D3, D3s, D300, D3000, D300s, D3X, D40, D40x, D50, D5000, D60, D70, D700, D70s, D80, D90, P6000
• Sony: A100, A200, A230, A300, A330, A350, A380, A700, A850, A900, DSC-R1
• Olympus: C7070, C8080, E1, E10, E20, E3, E30, E300, E330, E400, E410, E420, E450, E500, E510, E520, E620, EP1
• Pentax (PEF formats only): K100D, K100D Super, K10D, K110D, K200D, K20D, K7, K-x, *ist D, *ist DL, *ist DS
• Leica: Digilux 3, D-LUX4, M8, M9
• Minolta: DiMage A1, DiMage A2, Maxxum 7D (Dynax 7D in Europe, α-7 Digital in Japan)
• Epson: RD1
• Panasonic: G1, GH1, GF1, LX3

Windows Live Photo Gallery supports viewing and editing of RAW image formats once the codec pack has been installed on the system. Photo Gallery will automatically create a copy of the RAW images in JPEG or JPEG-XR format which can then be edited and worked with by the user.

Windows users can now also preview the supported RAW image formats under Windows Explorer and other programs that make use of WIC.

Microsoft has already announced that they are working on adding support for missing and new camera models. (via)

Many digital camera manufacturers on the other hand have not created codecs that support the framework and both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. That’s where the FastPictureViewer WIC Codec pack comes into play which is a collection of digital camera codecs for about 300 different digital camera models that make use of the framework under 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The codecs are then automatically used by programs that support WIC which includes most of Microsoft’s own software programs including Windows Media Center, Windows Live Photo Gallery, the developer’s Fast Picture Viewer and all Microsoft .net Framework 3 applications.

The digital camera codec pack is currently available as a beta version from the developer’s website. It adds support for the following formats:

• *.tga, *.tpic Truevision Targa (TGA) Supports most format flavors: uncompressed and RLE-encoded grayscale 8 and 16-bit, true color 15, 16, 24 and 32-bit (with alpha) and 8-bit indexed with 15, 16, 24 and 32-bit colormap.
• *.dng Adobe Digital Negative BETA
• *.cr2, *.crw Canon Raw Images BETA
• *.raf Fuji Raw Images BETA
• *.3pr, *.fff Hasselblad Raw Images BETA
• *.kdc, *.dcr Kodak Raw Images BETA
• *.raw, *.rwl Leica Raw Images BETA
• *.mrw Minolta Raw Images BETA
• *.nef, *.nrw Nikon Raw Images BETA
• *.orf Olympus Raw Images BETA
• *.rw2 Panasonic Raw Images BETA
• *.pef Pentax Raw Images BETA
• *.sr2, *.arw Sony Raw Images BETA
• All formats Thumbnail provider for XP Provides support for thumbnail views in Windows XP Explorer, for all the above format variants.

The developer is currently investigating possibilities to add additional codecs to the codec pack. Check out the website for more information.