R5 CR3 file color profile issues in Lightroom Classic. Why are my old CR2 files looking better?
- July 21, 2025
- 1 reply
- 231 views
I've owned an R5 not long after it released and since then I've had color profile issues with lightroom classic and my CR3 files. I've had the common issue of RAW files looking washed out using the Adobe Standard color profile so I had ended up switching to Fidelity a few years ago which helped improve the images but they still never looked quite right and I just dealt with it being that way. More recently I tried experimenting with the newer Camera matching profiles and I didn't like the way they looked either.
Recently I started looking at my older images when I was using a 6D and I couldn't believe how great the colors and contrast looked in my photos. So as a test I setup both cameras and tested the 6D using the Adobe Standard profile (where it looked great with wonderful contrast, colors, and skin tones.) and the R5 using every profile available profile and none of them looked as nice as the 6D with the default Adobe Standard profile. I could get it to come sort of close with a bit of work using the Adobe Color profile and tweaking some sliders and the temperature but it takes a bit of work depending on the colors in the photo etc.
Does anyone have any help with this issue? If the 6D wasn't as painful to use in comparison in terms of auto focus I feel like I'd be better off using that camera given the results and it makes me feel quite a bit depressed given the price I paid for an R5 when it released.
My monitor is calibrated with an x-rite colorimeter and I use that profile for editing. I shoot RAW photos, everything in Adobe is updated and I'm using Windows 11.
For the Images below the 6D Cr2 files are on the left and the R5 Cr3 files are on the right.
image 1: Adobe Standard vs Adobe Standard
image 2: Adobe Standard vs Fidelity
image 3: Adobe Standard vs Camera Standard
image4: Adobe Standard vs Adobe Color (best match with some tweaks).
