Question to Olympus MakerNotes

[herb]

Hello Phil,

I tried to get an overview about all tags inside my images taken with an Olympus camera SP510UZ.
Inside the MakerNotes I have seen that the tag CameraType is displayed twice as followes

Code Select Expand

CameraType: Unknown (NORMAL)
CameraType: SP510UZ

I looked for a string "NORMAL" (all upper case) inside the image itself and I found one and only one.
When I display the EXIF-values of that image with IrfanView this string is displayed as "Software Release".

What do I have to do in order to see what "NORMAL" really is?
Thanks for your help in advance.

Best regards
Herb

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Herb,

For 99% of Olympus models, tag 0x0207 in the Olympus maker notes gives the camera type string.  For some reason, the FE240, SP510, u739 and u1000 use this tag differently and write the string "NORMAL" here.  Since you own an SP510, you can help to solve the mystery about the meaning of this tag...  Do you have any images where the value of this is not "NORMAL"?  If so, do you know what camera settings or shooting conditions were special about these images?

- Phil

[herb]

Hallo Phil,

thanks for your quick reply.
Your hints and explanations were very, very useful.
Sorry for my late reply, but it took some time to get some images of Olympus cameras that write the MakerNotes as you explained.

I got an example image in the internet taken with an SP500UZ (not SP510UZ) and the MakerNotes start as follows

SX853   [pictureInfo] Resolution=21[CameraInfo] Type=SX853

The images from a collegue taken with an C750UZ start with

SX753   [pictureInfo] Resolution=21[CameraInfo] Type=SX753

The pictures I have taken with my SP510UZ all (really all I have checke within the past few days) start with

NORMAL  [pictureInfo] Resolution=21[CameraInfo] Type=D4322

For SP510UZ ExifTool displays the tag Cameratype twice; for the other of course only once.

I hope this answers also your question.

Best regards
Herb

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Herb,

I have no idea what you are talking about with pictureInfo and CameraInfo.  What software did you use to extract this?

- Phil

[herb]

Hallo Phil,

thanks again for your quick reply and sorry for confusing you.
I described the strings within the Olympus MakerNotes that start with "NORMAL" or the typeinfo e.g. "SX753".

To avoid more confusion I will send you the extracted MakerNotes as file.
I hope this is ok for you.

Best regards
Herb

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Herb,

Yes, these are the same as samples I have here.  I said I didn't understand because maker notes in both cases start with the string "OLYMP".  The "NORMAL" string is the value of the makernote tag with ID 0x0207.

Anyway, I am planning to update ExifTool to check for "NORMAL" specifically, and make the tag unknown if it has this value.

- Phil

[herb]

Hello Phil,

thanks for analysing the files. I am happy, that all is clear now.
From my point of view, nothing has to be changed, because the tag is dislayed as unknown.

Best regards
Herb