Full lens information does not appear in Lightroom metadata

Question

I recently picked up a new lens (Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM for Canon) and realized that the metadata of the photos I took using that lens wasn't showing the full lens information. Like when I go into the lens correction area, it shows the full lens info, but in the Lightroom metadata it just shows as "17.0-50.0mm". Any reason as to why that is and how to fix it?

johnrellis · Accepted Answer

I used EXIF-tool and it recorded my Sigma lens correctly but it doesn't show the correct (full) lens in Lightroom, so I think it's more of a Lightroom issue.

There are two separate metadata sections in a photo that record lens information, the industry-standard EXIF section and the manufacturer's proprietary MakerNotes section. They usually store different information about lenses.

As explained above, both Exiftool and LR's Lens Corrections panel use Canon's MakerNotes:LensType field (a simple number) to look up the full name of the lens in their own lens databases.

Whereas LR's Metadata > Default and Metadata > EXIF panels display the lens information that the manufacturer (Canon) records in the EXIF metadata section of the photo. Canon is not recording the full name of the lens in the EXIF metadata section or in the MakerNotes section for that photo.

To see precisely what's recorded in the different metadata sections, use the "-a -G -n" options with Exiftool:

exiftool -a -G -n photo

That will demonstrate that Canon is not recording the full lens name in the EXIF metadata section and just a number for MakerNotes:LensType.

Note that when Exiftool displays MakerNotes:LensType without the -n option, it automatically translates the number stored in the file to the corresponding full name stored in its database.

As I stated above, it would be better if LR displayed in the Metadata panel the full lens information shown in the Lens Corrections panel.

johnrellis · Answer

LR's Metadata panel displays information contained in the industry-standard EXIF metadata section, whereas Develop / Adobe Camera Raw (at least some of the time) uses lens information recorded in the manufacturer-specific MakerNotes section and combines it with its own database mapping lens ids to lens names. Typically, manufacturers record different information in the two sections; for example, here's what's recorded for a Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-43 DC Macro OS HSM | C lens (as reported by Exiftool):

[EXIF]          Lens Info          : 17-70mm f/0
[EXIF]          Lens Model         : 17-70mm
[EXIF]          Lens Serial Number : 0000000000
[MakerNotes]    Lens Type          : 137
[MakerNotes]    Lens Model         : 17-70mm
[Composite]     Lens ID            : Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM | C

It would better if manufacturers recorded the same information in the EXIF fields as in MakerNotes, but after all these years, that seems unlikely. It would also be better if LR displayed the MakerNotes lens information used by Develop in the Metadata panel and made it searchable.

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