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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

Adobe Employee
April 29, 2016
The auto cleanup script would involve heuristics to determine which set of photos needs to be updated. The heuristics cannot cover all possible user cases and therefore could do undesirable things in certain cases. 
Inspiring
April 29, 2016
Thanks for finally fixing this Adobe.

I have to say though, your fix is sloppy at best. I actually have to find the affected files and run a manual process on all of them to read the missing lens EXIF data?

I've uploaded 15,000 or more photos to Lightroom since this was broken. I fail to see why the fix couldn't have gone back and cleaned up after itself automatically. It can't be hard to automatically parse photos that have lens EXIF data and read the missing bits into the library automatically.

Your dev team can do better.
Participant
April 28, 2016
Thank you! I read about it in Nikon Club Nederland's forum.
Funny thing: all my missing lens data have meanwhile reappeared, without any intervention on my part.
Even more outlandish: my Lr CC version is still the same 2015.5 (without the added ".1") and my last update was 42 days ago. Perhaps my camera type (Nikon D800) has something to do with this?
Or have you been working some Adobe Magic?
(Needless to say, I am NOT going install this ".1" update for now, if I can help it.
Inspiring
April 28, 2016
Sorry, missed the link there. Seems to be fine-ish now.
Participating Frequently
April 28, 2016
Highlight them all and follow the second document posted by Jeffrey.  I only had about a hundred images but it worked just fine for them.
Inspiring
April 28, 2016
Just installed and verified it, it works! 🙂 But I'd really like a script that takes care of the 10000+ images that have the "unkown lens" attribute. Manually saving and re-reading this amount is not ok.
Legend
April 28, 2016
This should be fixed in the Lightroom CC 2015.5.1/6.5.1 update that was released today: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2016/04/lightroom-cc-2015-5-1-now-available.html

See this document for parsing the lens metadata: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/kb/lens-metadata-hidden-on-some-cameras-in-lightroom-6-5.html
Participating Frequently
April 28, 2016
I have the same problem ONLY with Nikon. All previously imported NEF files show the lens model, but newly imported don't.

Re-importing a NEF file (e.g. copy-paste in Windows Explorer) makes me lose the info only for the copy.

Sony, Apple, and Canon files I was able to test do not show this behavior.

I am really wondering why we PAY for a program where every update means there's a new thing that doesn't work properly.

Get a grip, Adobe.
jacquesdMTL
Participating Frequently
April 27, 2016
I agree with you. The last 2 updates were a mess.
Inspiring
April 26, 2016
But they collected their subscription fee without any delay what so ever!!!