Odd metadata for Make and Camera Model Name tags

[11august]

Hi all !

Never saw this before... These two tags are marked as "--" which make no sense as the camera model and make are always displayed.

I've taken DXO samples to compare and the tags are correctly filled (i-e "Xiaomi" for Make and "M2101K7BNY" for Camera Model Name, which stands for Redmi Note 10 S).

I'm pretty confident that these photos are original and taken with a Redmi Note 10 S.

Any idea what could cause what appears to be a glitch ?

Thanks !

[Phil Harvey]

I have seen similar things written by pre-production cameras.

- Phil

[StarGeek]

Any idea what could cause what appears to be a glitch ?

If you look at the -v3 (-verbose3) output, you can see that the dashes are the actual data and not a glitch on exiftool's part.

Code Select Expand

  | 6)  Model = --
  |    - Tag 0x0110 (3 bytes, string[3]):
  |        044b: 2d 2d 00                                        [--.]
  | Warning = Tag ID 0x010f Make out of sequence in IFD1
  | 7)  Make = --
  |    - Tag 0x010f (3 bytes, string[3]):
  |        0457: 2d 2d 00 
There are a couple other unknown EXIF tags in that file that have the same value

Code Select Expand

  | | 30) Exif_0x9a00 = --
  | |    - Tag 0x9a00 (3 bytes, string[3]):
  | |        02b0: 2d 2d 00 
...
  | 15) Exif_0x9a00 = --
  |    - Tag 0x9a00 (3 bytes, string[3]):
  |        00d2: 2d 2d 00                                        [--.]

[11august]

Thank you to both of you !

@Phil: what's a "pre-production camera" ? You mean pro camera for filmmakers ?

@StarGeek: interesting, thanks for the check. Do you think that that kind of data might be created by the integrated Xiaomi software/firmware ?

[StarGeek]

what's a "pre-production camera" ? You mean pro camera for filmmakers ?

I would think that it would be for an early version of the camera's software before going into full scale production, though since this appears to be the camera on a phone, that seems quite odd to me.

Do you think that that kind of data might be created by the integrated Xiaomi software/firmware ?

If it's coming straight from the phone and hasn't been edited by any software or app, then I don't see any other answer.

You might check to see if there's an update.  Some sites I googled seem to indicate there was an update last month, but they didn't appear to be the official site.

[Phil Harvey]

though since this appears to be the camera on a phone, that seems quite odd to me.

Good point.  I haven't seen this for a phone.

- Phil