Edit camera and lens type in EXIF

Software
1

99% of my shots are digital, no trouble at all. But I shoot from time to time with my old analog body and some prehistoric lenses. How can I write that camera-type and the lens in question into the exifs?

Thanks for any support

Stefan

2

Hi Stefan,

well it depends on which OS you are on.

For Linux, there is a nice article on Libre Software Net. Most of those Tools are also available for Windows. For Windows you also have ExifToolsGUI or “Exif Pilot” - I don’t know a home page for that And then there is PhotoMe for Windows too.

one other for Windows would be GEO Setter which is not only for localizing your images it also can change exif data.

Exif Tools are the most common used tools I would say and to my knowledge it is available for all plattforms

Cheers
Martin

3

Thanks for the quick reply. I use Linux (seriously - I thought everybody does here) and will follow the link you posted.

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4

People here use all sorts of operating systems. RawTherapee runs on GNU/Linux, Windows, and macOS. Darktable has windows builds now too.

I think we have a lot of *nix users, but everyone is welcome!

Edit: I’ve moved this post to the software category.

5

If you end up using exiftool, you should be able to write that data from the command line in batches if needed. Some examples can be found on their examples page:

http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/examples.html

6

A trick I found with using exiftool is to use the -s options to determine the “correct” name of the metadata tags you wish to change. Camera manufacturers use a bewildering array of unique tags to describe the same thing (make & model) – most metadata readers then describe these unique tags with common names.

I suggest you take a pic with a modern digital version of your ancient analogue camera and run the image through exiftool (with increasing levels of “-s”) until you determine the tag names used by the manufacturer. Those are the tags you should add/amend.

If you use the “list” options you will become hopelessly confused by the multiplicity of tags used for the same purpose.

BTW, you can run JPEGs through exiftool to add/amend the metadata without compromising image quality because it’s the “unimportant” metadata that is being changed, and those changes do not affect image quality.

Robert

1 Like
7

I’ve found it useful to pipe exiftool’s output through grep to help me find things.

8

The problem is not finding the metadata tag name – it’s finding the “correct” name for the tag.

9

If you’re adding data, you might want to look at using xmp tags, it seems like a much cleaner implementation; that is my opinion of course.

10

I agree. But sometimes you want to amend and add exif, xmp, and/or iptc tags. Helps to know the right names.

11

I use a super simple ExifTool-based Bash script for a similar task:

https://scribblesandsnaps.com/2014/05/14/add-exif-metadata-to-photos-with-a-bash-one-liner/

You can easily adapt this to your specific case.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Dmitri

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12

I wrote a similar script which I use in a pipe.

The pipe runs:

[create some variables];ufraw-batch INPUT.ARW ->gmic → convert → exiftool OUTPUT.jpg && { identify OUTPUT.jpg; feh OUTPUT.jpg; }

[I’ve left out the options and arguments. ] :slight_smile:

13

Hi everyone, I use NameThatLens:
https://www.jazzycamel.photography/NameThatLens

NameThatLens was developed by Rob Kent (https://www.jazzycamel.photography), a photographer who often shoots with classic and vintage manual lenses (information source: NameThatLens is a cross-platform tool for adding EXIF info to vintage manual lenses: Digital Photography Review).

Excuse me, I don’t speak English and I use Google Translate.
Hello to all
Fabrizio

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