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jonasflanken
Participating Frequently
March 18, 2016

P: Lens metadata field missing on import

  • March 18, 2016
  • 142 replies
  • 2657 views

Since updating Photoshop and Lightroom, I've noticed that the aux:lens metadata field is being deleted from my images on import, such that there is no lens listed after import. I've determined that it's Camera Raw 9.5 that seems to be the culprit, as lens metadata is retained if I use an older version of the DNG Converter v8.8 to import the same images.

For example, I had an image shot on a Sony RX100 III at 8.8mm. If I import this image with the old version of DNG Converter, and then open the converted DNG in Photoshop, the lens is reported with the full-frame equivalent focal lengths, i.e., 24-70mm F1.8-2.8, and the raw metadata has the correct aux:Lens field (24-70mm F1.8-2.8).

Conversely, if I import the same image directly into Photoshop or Lightroom, the metadata will display the correct focal length, but will not display the lens information; Lightroom reports this only as "unknown lens," and in Photoshop the aux:Lens field is missing completely.

For now, I will use the old version of DNG Converter as a workaround, but this is inconvenient, and really should be fixed.

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    142 replies

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    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Genius
    May 1, 2016
    "saving metadata, running Exiftool, then rereading metadata". 

    Oops, running Exiftool isn't necessary in this case.  
    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Genius
    May 1, 2016
    "Is this something you can make a plug-in do?"

    The only way a plugin could do it is by saving metadata, running Exiftool, then rereading metadata (i.e. automating the manual recipe).   A plugin can't avoid saving and re-reading metadata, since the LR SDK doesn't provide plugins with the ability to directly change EXIF fields.
    ssprengel
    ssprengel
    Inspiring
    May 1, 2016
    John, is this something you can make a plug-in do?
    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Genius
    May 1, 2016
    Good, thanks.
    G
    gonzalu
    Inspiring
    May 1, 2016
    No worries... I basically have my photos in various stages of taste or desire when it comes to edits. Having to commit them blindly is not something that would work for me. I may go to an image and decide the settings are not worth it and want to go back to another state or reset completely. I know I can always reset completely but I want my settings to be untouched by the program until I want to change them. I feel that pulling Lens Data can be done automatically by Adobe without anything done by the user to the images or otherwise 😉 
    johnrellis
    johnrellis
    Genius
    May 1, 2016
    "decide if a photo is worthy of saving MetaData/Changes"

    Manny, can you provide some more details about why it's important to decide whether the photo should have its metadata saved or not?  I'm not questioning your workflow, but it's not readily apparent what you mean by "worthy of saving metadata".   More details about why that matters could make it more likely you'll influence Adobe.   (I can make guesses, but that wouldn't be very productive.)  Thanks.
    G
    gonzalu
    Inspiring
    May 1, 2016
    Yeah, I had done that already but it still is a bit hacky (word?) and does not allow me to decide if a photo is worthy of saving MetaData/Changes or not 😞 I want Adobe to simply fix it by just pulling Lens data on its own automatically and without user intervention... 🙂 

    Thanks for your tips 🙂 
    Victoria Bampton LR Queen
    Community Expert
    Victoria Bampton LR QueenCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 1, 2016
    You can filter for the affected files - scroll down a bit here for step by step: http://www.lightroomqueen.com/whats-new-in-lightroom-cc-2015-5-1-and-lightroom-6-5-1/
    Victoria - The Lightroom Queen
    G
    gonzalu
    Inspiring
    May 1, 2016
    Any way to do it across the catalog easily and non-destructively? I don't have time to go through each file and do this, even doing multiple files is dangerous because I have different decisions to make on Metadata and Develop Settings to each image in a catalog 😞 
    I
    itguy08
    Participating Frequently
    April 29, 2016
    How so?  Simple - if it detects "unknown lens" try to reimport. If the data isn't available return unknown just as before.  If it is there import with the correct data.

    I'm not really a programmer but it seems simple to do.
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