P: Edit Capture Time doesn't preserve fractional seconds

[johnrellis]

The Edit Capture Time command doesn't preserve fractional seconds when shifting the time of multiple photos. For example, if you select a batch of photos taken with "continuous shooting", e.g. at a sporting event, and then use Edit Capture Time to shift their time by 60 minutes, the fractional seconds of each photo will be dropped and the photos will no longer be correctly ordered by capture time.

To reproduce, take several photos that were all shot within the same second with the continuous-shooting option of the camera. LR will correctly transfer the capture time into their .xmp sidecars:

[XMP] Date/Time Original : 2011:05:13 18:32:44.51
[XMP] Date/Time Original : 2011:05:13 18:32:44.52
[XMP] Date/Time Original : 2011:05:13 18:32:44.53

Then select those photos and invoke Edit Capture Time. Use either the "Adjust to a specified date and time" or the "Shift by set number of hours" option to shift the time by 1 hour. Observe that the fractional seconds in the sidecars is now dropped:

[XMP] Date/Time Original : 2011:05:13 19:32:44
[XMP] Date/Time Original : 2011:05:13 19:32:44
[XMP] Date/Time Original : 2011:05:13 19:32:44

And the photos will no longer sort correctly by capture time in the Library.

This bug is easy to fix simply by doing the time adjustment with floating-point calculations, rather than integer.

[areohbee]

Yeah / oops..

Hopefully this will be fixed in Lr6, and not deferred until Lr9..

In the mean time, this may be a good enough reason to use exiftool directly, or a script/plugin which calls it, to do the job.

If anybody has problems finding such a script or plugin, I can offer more help ;-).

Cheers,
Rob

[Benjamin Warde]

Thanks, John. I am able to reproduce this problem, and I have entered it in our bug database.

-Ben

[johnrellis]

Thanks.

[JohnRolfeEllis]

Still exists in LR 6.0.1 / OS X 10.10.3.

[abraml93379881]

Yeah, this is BIG problem. I shoot sequences using the burst mode of my camera, and when I adjust the timing using Lightroom, they are all out of order. This is extremely frustrating for my workflow as a race and wedding photographer.

Real Life Example: Tried to photograph and adjust a sequence like a bride is walking down aisle. After adjusting - She is at the top of the aisle. Now, she is in the front, then the back, then the middle, middle, top, front.

Photographing a Race Example: Winner crosses the finish line. After adjusting - Crosses the line. In front of the line, after the line, before the line, after the line, after the line, crossing the line.

How is this still an issue in the 6th release of software?!

[garethjjones]

Me ro - getting very frustrating when using a pair of cameras, and one is being used remotelyremotly - I know they shot at the smae time, but my sequences are really, really messed up

[lhiapgpeonk]

It would be a real treat if you fixed this. And also added fractional seconds to the renaming-templates. How else am I supposed to rename my photos with a timestamp to the right order?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

This is still an issue in Lightroom 2015.6.1

Come on Lightroom team, two years! You can do this!

[robert36972564]

The bug still exists.

@areohbee 

To be positive: It was not exactly deferred until Lr9. The downside: It was also not fixed in LR6 either. 😅

Just as I stumbled over this thread by accident and remembered that I also encountered this bug several times in several Lr(C) versions, I tested this with LrC 14.1.1 2-times each with two Nikon NEF file. 

The fractions vanished after changinge time of two files by 1 hr in the dialog to modify capture time - either via time zone correction as well as via free target time... doesn't make a difference for this bug.

But at least in this small test the order of photos stayed correct.