Sorting images by lens type.

[ScottishHorseLady]

Hi . . . I'm working on a project and want to sort my images according to lens type using Bridge.  How would I do that?

Thank you.

[Erik Bloodaxe]

As far as I am aware, these are the only available sort options:

Unless you are prepared to use a more convoluted method, such as labelling images taken with particular lenses, then sorting "By Label", then you may well be stuck.

When you say "lens type" what do you mean? - lens manufacturer, lens model, telephoto, wide angle focal length etc? Or the precise lens model?

If you simply want to Find images taken with a particular lens, then you can use Find (Edit>Find or Ctrl+F) with search criteria "All Metadata>contains" and enter the precise lens model name. This is a rather slow process however.

This of course simply finds images and does not sort as you asked.

[ScottishHorseLady]

Hi . . . thanks for the very fast reply.  I appreciate it.

I tried the find option but never saw the All Metadata segment at the end of the list.  It worked beautifully.  Was able to search and find images taken with a particular lens, selected them all and copied them to a new folder.  Good to go, now.

Again, I truly appreciate the help.

Sandra

[ExUSA · Accepted solution]

Use the Filter panel, as long as the lens metadata is present you can use that to determine what is what.

[ScottishHorseLady]

Hi . . . I tried the lens option under Filter but the 16-35 lens was not listed even though I confirmed all the metadata in the one image I was able to find myself.  I didn't understand why that lens wasn't listed as the two other lenses which I used were both listed.  Very strange.

Thanks for the reply.  I appreciate it.

Sandra

[ExUSA]

If you look at File Info under Raw data, is there metadata for that particular lens? Bridge can only see what the camera records into the RAW file.

[ScottishHorseLady]

Hi . . . thanks for the response.  I appreciate it.

I did try the Filter option but it did not pick up the 16-35 lens, although it did pick up the other two I was using.  I don't know why it didn't find that lens because I was able to locate an image using that lens on my own and all of the metadata information was complete and correct.   

I tried three option searches in Filter:  lens, focal length and 35mm focal length and it never found any image using the 16-35, in fact, it never listed the 16-35 lens at all.  That is what was so confusing.

Someone else suggested using the Find option, All Metadata and that eventually found the images using the 16-35.

So my problem is solved but I am left with a conundrum as to why the other options didn't work.

Again, thank you for responding.  I really appreciate it.

Regards, Sandra

[ExUSA]

We would need to see the actual metadata to give you any insight as to the problem. You can always try purging the cache for those files, that often fixes odd problems.

[ScottishHorseLady]

Hi . . . I've attached the metadata panel from the one image I was able to locate which used the 16-35 lens.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Sandra

[ScottishHorseLady]

I forgot to say that I did purge the cache for the entire folder as well as for the individual folders.

[ExUSA]

Yeah that should be listed in the Filter panel. No idea why it wasn't. I use EXIFTool to strip out the lens info and some other metadata that Bridge won't clear so I always use the filters to find those files as needed.