I want to record the device settings used when scanning an image. I looked for suitable tags and the best I could find was this DeviceSettingDescription (41995 | 0xA40B). The documentation doesn't give any information beyond "This tag indicates information on the picture-taking conditions of a particular camera model." (source: "Exchangeable image file format for digital still cameras Exif Version 2.3 DC-008-2012_E.pdf).
If I try to set it to a string of my choosing, like "XS,2400,48,2" I get an error message:
$ exiftool -devicesettingdescription=XS,2400,48,2 test.dng
Warning: Improperly formed structure for XMP-exif:DeviceSettingDescription
Nothing to do.
I wondered if the proper formation was documented anywhere, or how I should other go about recording detail like this.
(running exiftool 10.55 on ArchLinux 4.15.3-2-ARCH x86_64)
The error you got is from XMP:DeviceSettingDescription. Currently EXIF:DeviceSettingDescription is not writable. I checked a sample image with this information, and it is binary data, not text. I don't know if the format is defined anywhere, or where it is device-dependent.
- Phil
Ah, right. And thanks for the prompt reply!
I just tried explicitly specifying EXIF:
$ exiftool -EXIF:devicesettingdescription=XS,2400,48,2 test.dng
Warning: Tag 'EXIF:DeviceSettingDescription' is not defined
Nothing to do.
I presume "not defined" is what you see when a field is not writable. I've just noticed it says that it isn't writable on the web page listing.
There's no way to force such a write is there?
Can you suggest another tag that I might use for this? (I'm already using UserComment for somethig else :) )
Quote from: starfry on March 02, 2018, 08:58:08 AM
I presume "not defined" is what you see when a field is not writable.
I tried to make this message "not writable" -- I'll look into this.
QuoteThere's no way to force such a write is there?
You can create a user-defined tag (https://exiftool.org/config.html) to do this.
QuoteCan you suggest another tag that I might use for this? (I'm already using UserComment for somethig else :) )
I don't have any suggestions. Browse through the EXIF tags documentation (https://exiftool.org/TagNames/EXIF.html) and pick one.
- Phil
ExifTool 10.83 will improve this error message:
> exiftool a.jpg -exif:devicesettingdescription=x
Warning: Sorry, exif:DeviceSettingDescription doesn't exist or isn't writable
Nothing to do.
- Phil