P: Video capture time shifted by time zone offset

We can hope that this becomes a higher priority for the LR team as more popular cameras start obeying the QuickTime standard.

@John_R_Ellis

Thank you so much. I appreciate that you took the time to explain this topic/issue in such detail.  So I will probably have to get used to correct the recording time in LR manually by +/-x hours. At least, now I know the reason 🙂 Thanks.

"We have to deal with it because Nikon does not follow a mp4 standard?"

It's more complicated -- it appears that Nikon is following the standard,  whereas most cameras don't. Details:

The QuickTime standard, which was poorly written, calls for capture time to be recorded in UTC and doesn't provide a standard field to record time zone. But cameras without GPS often don't know the time zone, so most such cameras record local time (whatever the camera clock is set to).  Given that reality, by default LR interprets the capture time as recorded in local time (contrary to the standard).

But some cameras, especially smart phones with GPS, know their time zone, and they record UTC in the capture-time field (obeying the de jure standard) and record the time zone in a manufacturer-specific field. It would be straightforward for LR to read those manufacturer-specific fields (it does it for raws, after all). 

However, comments in this forum by Adobe employees indicate that Adobe considers such fields "proprietary" and won't access them without contractual permission from the manufacturers.  Getting such permission is tedious, time consuming, and expensive, since it involves the legal departments of multiple large companies. It appears that this hasn't become a priority for Adobe or the camera manufacturers.

Adobe did get permission for Apple iPhones, and thus LR reads the capture time correctly for iPhone videos. An Adobe employee indicated they'd do it for Canon cameras, but I'm not sure that was ever completed.

It sounds like the Nikon Z 50 is following the standard and recording UTC time in the capture-time field and may be recording the time zone in another field. But since Adobe likely hasn't made a special exception for the cameras (as they have for iPhones) and obtained contractual permission from Nikon, LR is interpreting that UTC field as local time.

This issue doesn't arise with photos, since every manufacturer interpreted the EXIF standard to mean that local time should be recorded in the standard field EXIF:DateTimeOriginal.

Just did another test by setting the time zone in my z50 to UTC 0. Same result. Video (.mov or .mp4) are -1 hour compared to a raw file captured a few seconds after the video.

I don't get it...

@8510810

If I check the time directly on the back of my Z50 or on the SD card with ViewNX from Nikon, the capture time is correct.

@6669945_Ellis

Not sure if I get this correct. We have to deal with it because Nikon does not follow a mp4 standard? Just did a test with both video formats I can switch between. mov and mp4. Same issue in LR with both. 

All is fine as usual with Nikon SW, just LR does not show the time correct anymore.

See this post above for details about what's going on:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-classic/lightroom-video-capture-time-shifted-by-time-zone-offset/5f5f45b94b561a3d425bf7b3?commentId=5f5f48514b561a3d42184616

No idea. But on the camera display, it is shown correctly. 

Does Nikon's software show the correct time or is it also shifted by two hours?

Hi,

same here. Capture time of Raw images is correct but for movies 2h ahead, e.g. 8:42 instead of 10:42.

Just a hunch, but  your camera might be in a different timezone, or has "wrong" daylight saving settings.

Oups, just read the whole thing. Fell into the headline reading trap. Sorry!