Unable to update .ARW file - Sony Alpha 580

[jsetsaas]

Hi,

I just got myself a Sony Alpha 580, and realized that Adobe LR refused to read the images. I posted a question on the Adobe LR forum, and one suggestion I got was to update the tag, using EXIFTOOL.

I've tried this, but for some reason I cannot make it work. This is what I do:
C:\bin\exiftool -ext arw -model='DSLR-A1111' TEST.ARW

I get a message that "1 image files updated", and also see that the timestamp is updated. However, when I extract the -model, it still has the old value.

Any suggestions? Or other ways I could get my A580 images into LR 3.2?

Best regards
John

[Phil Harvey]

Hi John,

This is due to the fact that Sony writes the model name in two locations.  When writing Model, ExifTool writes only IFD0:Model by default.  To do this properly, you will have to change the Model tag in IFD0 and IFD1 as well as the SonyModelID:

exiftool -Model=X -IFD1:Model=X -SonyModelID=X FILE

Where X is a valid Sony model name.  Note that setting SonyModelID to something like "DSLR-A1111" won't work because it will only accept recognized Sony model names.  (See SonyModelID in the Sony Tag Name documentation for a list of valid model names.)

- Phil

[jsetsaas]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for your reply.

I tried what you suggested, and now I seem to be able to update the camera model to A350 (which is the camera I've been using with Adobe LR for a couple of years).
C:\bin\exiftool -model=DSLR-A350 -IFD1:Model=DSLR-A350 -SonyModelID=DSLR-A350  *.ARW

I notice that I get a message from EXIFTOOL...
Warning: [minor] Entries in SubIFD were out of sequence. Fixed. - 2010.11.27@22.
38.54-1-jes.ARW
Warning: [minor] Entries in SubIFD were out of sequence. Fixed. - 2010.11.27@22.
38.54-2-jes.ARW
Warning: [minor] Entries in SubIFD were out of sequence. Fixed. - 2010.11.27@22.
39.25-jes.ARW

However, Adobe LR is still complaining:
The files are from a camera which is not recognized by the raw format support in Lightroom. (3)

Any ideas?

Thx.

John

[Phil Harvey]

Hi John,

Yes.  This thread deals with the same issue.

It seems that the problem may be fixed in Lightroom 3.3RC.

- Phil

[jsetsaas]

Great! :-) Thx.

Downloaded RC3 and patched my photos, and imported 1400 A580 photos into LR. So far this looks pretty good.

Thank you so much.

John

[Phil Harvey]

Adobe just released the final version of Camera Raw 6.3 and LR 3.3.   This seems to have fixed all of the ARW problems.