Writing serial number in Nikon NEFs

[Archive]

[Originally posted by dlu on 2006-05-17 02:30:35-07]

I'd like to be able to write the serial number tag of NEFs from a D200.  When I try and do it

  exiftool -serialnumber=123456 foo.nef

exiftool reports "1 image files updated," but

  exiftool -serialnumber foo.nef

returns

  Serial Number         :

with no value for the serial number.  I'm using exiftool 6.17.

Thanks in advance, Doug

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2006-05-17 12:07:35-07]

Hi Doug,

This is FAQ number 3.  Use the "-a -G1" options and you will see where  your serial number information was written.  You can also use the "-v3" option when writing to see what is happening.

Unfortunately, the Nikon serial number for the D200 is not writable (see the Notes for SerialNumber in the Nikon Tags documentation).  This is because it is used as a key for the decryption of other information.  So you are instead writing XMP-aux:SerialNumber, but you need to use the "-a" option to see this duplicate information when you try to read it back again.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by dlu on 2006-05-20 18:49:05-07]

My apologies for missing the FAQ, and my thanks for the prompt answer.  I really appreciate it.

- Doug