Exiftool seems to fail on new Sony *.arw files

[cjsmall]

Exiftool Version: 12.40
OS: Xubuntu 22.04
Camera: Sony A7 IV

I have a new Sony camera (A7 IV) that replaces an old A77 that also produced raw arw files.  I never had the following problem until I tried my extensive set of custom exiftool commands on the new arw file.

For testing purpose I have a pair of files: zzz.arw  and  zzz.jpg

I execute my custom exfy command that displays the Image Description, Date/Time Original and Copyright:

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% exfy zzz*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processing zzz.arw:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2023:03:27 13:05:36
C. Jeffery Small
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processing zzz.jpg:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2023:03:27 13:05:36
C. Jeffery Small
Note that my name is automatically added to the Copyright field by the camera.

Now, I execute the command:

exiftool -overwrite_original -q -q -m -ImageDescription="My Description" zzz*

And look at the results:

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% exfy zzz*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processing zzz.arw:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Description
2023:03:27 13:05:36
C. Jeffery Small
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processing zzz.jpg:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Description
2023:03:27 13:05:36
C. Jeffery Small
Looks good.  I next try the command:

exiftool -overwrite_original -q -q -m -DateTimeOriginal="2020:12:25 13:23:31" zzz*

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% exfy zzz*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processing zzz.arw:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Description
2020:12:25 13:23:31
C. Jeffery Small
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processing zzz.jpg:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Description
2020:12:25 13:23:31
C. Jeffery Small
Also OK.  Now I try:

exiftool -overwrite_original -q -q -m -copyright="Copyright (2023) C. Jeffery Small" zzz*

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% exfy zzz*     
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processing zzz.arw:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Description
2020:12:25 13:23:31
C. Jeffery Small
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processing zzz.jpg:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Description
2020:12:25 13:23:31
Copyright (2023) C. Jeffery Small

The change is made to the jpg file, but it never gets applied to the raw arw file.

This seems like a bug to me, but possibly I'm missing something.  Any suggestions?  Are other people seeing this (or other problems) with the latest Sony raw files?

Thanks.

[greybeard]

Maybe more than one copyright tag?

What happens if you try : exiftool -a -G1 -copyright zzz.arw

[StarGeek]

When trouble shooting a problem, do not use the -q (quiet) option and the -m (-ignoreMinorErrors) option.  You might be suppressing important information needed to help trouble shoot the problem.

Also, please don't use your custom script.  Use exiftool directly on the command line and copy/paste the results.  We don't know what's in your script and it may be hiding important trouble shooting information.

For greybeards command, the copyright should show up in the IFD0 group.

Can you share a sample problem file?

[cjsmall]

Taking above comments into account:

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11-> exiftool -overwrite_original -copyright="Copyright (2023) C. Jeffery Small" zzz.jpg
    1 image files updated
As we have seen, this does work on the jpg file.

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12-> exiftool -overwrite_original -copyright="Copyright (2023) C. Jeffery Small" zzz.arw
Warning: [minor] Entries in SubIFD were out of sequence. Fixed. - zzz.arw
    1 image files updated
Despite saying "Fixed" and "1 image files updated" this still fails.

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13-> exiftool -a -G1 -copyright zzz.jpg
[IFD0]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small
[IFD1]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small

14-> exiftool -a -G1 -copyright zzz.arw
[IFD0]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small
[IFD1]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small

I am attaching the zzz.jpg which I reduced in size so that it could be uploaded.  I'm not sure if you can non-destructively reduce a raw file so I uploaded it to the web.  zzz.arw can be downloaded here:

http://cjsa.com/misc/zzz.arw

[StarGeek]

I don't get the same result regarding the ARW file.

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C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -mycopyright Y:\!temp\aaaa\zzz.arw
[IFD0]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small
[IFD1]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small

C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -copyright="Copyright (2023) C. Jeffery Small" Y:\!temp\aaaa\zzz.arw
    1 image files updated

C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -mycopyright Y:\!temp\aaaa\zzz.arw
[IFD0]          Copyright                       : Copyright (2023) C. Jeffery Small
[IFD1]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small
As I mentioned above, Copyright should be in the IFD0 group.  The Copyright in IFD1 is an incorrect location, which is why exiftool isn't rewriting it.

IMO, the best thing to do would be to remove it
exiftool -IFD1:Copyright= /path/to/files/

If for some reason you want to keep it, you have to write it separately
exiftool -Copyright="Copyright (2023) C. Jeffery Small" -IFD1:Copyright="Copyright (2023) C. Jeffery Small" /path/to/files/

This may be because you're using an older version of exiftool.  You probably want to update to at least version 12.45 as there was a patch to fix problems with some ARW file.
     

Patched to avoid duplicating raw data when writing Sony ARW images where the raw data is double-referenced as both strips and tiles (affects ARW images from some newer models like the ILCE-1 when SonyRawFileType is "Lossless Compressed RAW 2")

[cjsmall]

I ran a more detailed test of the Sony A7 IV with the internal copyright feature turned on and then off.  I saved the image files as:

c_on.arw
c_on.jpg

c_off.arw
c_off.jpg

Here is the output of the following command:

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179-> exiftool -G1 -a -s -copyright c_on.*
======== c_on.arw
[IFD0]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small
[IFD1]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small
======== c_on.jpg
[IFD0]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small
[IFD1]          Copyright                       : C. Jeffery Small

180-> exiftool -G1 -a -s -copyright c_off*
======== c_off.arw
======== c_off.jpg
So the camera is writing the internal copyright string to both the IDF0 and IDF1 locations when on, but doesn't touch either if the feature is off.

Since I have tools the automate adding the desired copyright string to my files, I'm just going to leave this camera feature off and continue to use exiftool to add my own string.  This works on the *arw files that haven't been touched.

I'll look into updating my exiftool.  I'm currently using the standard Ubuntu package repository so this is the latest version that exists there.  I'll look into a manual install of the latest version in the future.

[StarGeek]

I'll look into updating my exiftool.  I'm currently using the standard Ubuntu package repository so this is the latest version that exists there.  I'll look into a manual install of the latest version in the future.

I believe that all you need to do is figure out where the exiftool files are currently, and then drop the new version directly onto it.