The CRW format is the Canon RAW format, which stores images produced by some of Canon's range of digital cameras. Canon uses two types of RAW file, the CRW and CR2 formats - the CRW file format is written in the Camera Image File Format (CIFF), and was the original file format used by Canon up until 2004. It has since been superceded by the CR2 format which was first used with the EOS 20D model.
The Canon CRW format has a structure that is very similar in nature to the TIFF file format specification but is easier to write to - unlink TIFF offsets are not absolute in CRW files, which means any re-writer software does not need to understand the complete file format in order to re-write the file.
Associated programs
Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop Elements Corel Draw Google Picasa Microsoft Windows Photos
BMP is a standard image file format which was historically used by computers running the Windows operating system. The format is more commonly know as Bitmap files. The term bitmap was originally coined in computer programming to refer to a map of bits. Historically when you saved an image on your home PC you might have saved it as a .bhp file, this is becoming less common with .jpeg the preferred image file format with the advent of digital cameras.
Bitmap files are housed in a device-independent bitmap (DIB) format. The term device independent means that the bitmap specifies pixel color in a form independent of the method used by a display to represent color. This enables Windows to show the bitmap on any type of display device - such as your monitor.
Associated programs
Adobe Photoshop MS Paint Microsoft Photo Editor Paintbrush