[Originally posted by mjc on 2007-02-18 11:03:55-08]Hi all,
Exiftool doesn't appear to follow the Exif standard for tag names and values. Why? For instance:
[mjc@strawberry eraseme]$ exiftool -s -s -e -n -G1 s_gps.jpg | grep IFD.*Date
[IFD0] ModifyDate: 2002:07:19 13:28:10
[ExifIFD] DateTimeOriginal: 2002:07:13 15:58:28
[ExifIFD] CreateDate: 2002:07:13 15:58:28
These tags are called DateTime, DateTimeOriginal, and DateTimeDigitized respectively in the Exif standard.
Or:
[mjc@strawberry eraseme]$ exiftool -s -s -e -n -G1 s_gps.jpg | grep Meter
[ExifIFD] MeteringMode: 5
[mjc@strawberry eraseme]$ exiftool -s -s -e -G1 s_gps.jpg | grep Meter
[ExifIFD] MeteringMode: Multi-segment
The standard defines "5" as "Pattern".
The standard I'm referring to is
http://www.exif.org/Exif2-2.PDF. For the curious, I'm wondering about using exiftool in gThumb (
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=409050).
- Mike
[Originally posted by exiftool on 2007-02-18 13:14:36-08]Hi Mike,
To quote the
tag
name documentation:"
Note: If you are familiar with common meta-information tag
names, you may find that some ExifTool tag names are different
than expected. The usual reason for this is to make the tag
names more consistent across different types of meta
information. To determine a tag name, either consult this
documentation or run exiftool -s on a file containing the
information in question."
ExifTool handles many types of meta information, and attempts to
provide a uniform interface across all of these types.
This explains the date tag names, but I don't think it explains the
MeteringMode differences. I can't remember now why I named that one
specific metering mode "Multi-segment" because that was over 3 years
ago when I added that tag, and it is just another name for "Pattern"
metering. There may be some things I would name differently now
given the experience I have gained over the last 3 years, but unless
there is a very good reason to change them I stick with my original
choice to provide the best backward compatibility with earlier
versions of ExifTool.
I hope this helps.
- Phil
[Originally posted by mjc on 2007-02-18 15:45:10-08]
Oops, I guess I read through that page too fast. Missed that. Sorry!
Anyway: any chance of adding a flag to recall "standards-compliant" tag names? I can see why you would want to rename them for cross-standard consistency, but some users will definitely be annoyed by arbitrary renamings.
- Mike
[Originally posted by exiftool on 2007-02-18 16:45:03-08]
Hi Mike,
I can't think of a way to implement your suggestion easily. It involves
introducing yet another option to an already complex user interface,
plus the work involved to review 4500+ tags and define all of the
"standards-compliant" names.
A lot of work like that can only be justified if a lot of people are "annoyed"
by the current scheme, but so far I've had very few complaints.
- Phil
[Originally posted by ignaciogggg on 2008-04-15 05:38:45-07]
Can we change them?