EXIF.MSEC variable

Software darktable
1

I would like to export files with information about the capture time down to milliseconds. So I tried this:

$(EXIF.YEAR)$(EXIF.MONTH)$(EXIF.DAY)-$(EXIF.HOUR)$(EXIF.MINUTE)$(EXIF.SECOND)-$(EXIF.MSEC)

The milliseconds appear as 000 e.g. 20250411-094821-000.jpg.

Exiftool returns information about the file including milliseconds:

Create Date : 2025:04:11 09:48:21.62

Though I note that ‘exiftool -CreateDate’ does not:

Create Date : 2025:04:11 09:48:21

Maybe that is part of the problem? Any advice appreciated.

2

What does exiv2 say about the millisecond metadata?

3

Image timestamp : 2025:04:11 09:48:21

4

if exiv2 doesn’t have the millisecond, then there is no way for darktable to know about it.

1 Like
5

Perhaps, rather than look at timestamps like the creation date/time,
look at the raw metadata? Millisecond precision is not something everyone need.
It would also add extra bytes to the string (timestamps are stored as strings according to the exiftool site). You’l want to get the SubSecTime… items.

But even when the information is present in the file, and readable by exiv2, darktable has to ask for it. If a program doesn’t want to read a certain tag, you will not have access to that information.

1 Like
6

Thanks - that’s useful to know. I’ll look for another approach.