Manual lenses - where to store their data?

[Karsten_M]

Hi all,
i have some newer cameras which allow the use of (very) old lenses. It would be nice to fill the type of the lens somewhere in the EXIFs, but which field would be the best?

I looked how these cameras manage it. It's confusing:

Panasonic (G1) uses only the makernotes. There's only the
$LensType.

Olympus has a bunch of fields for telling the lens. There are:
$LensType                        : Lumix G 20mm F1.7 Asph.
$LensSerialNumber                : 09KG326xxxx
$LensModel                       : LUMIX G 20/F1.7
$LensFirmwareVersion             : 1.100
$MaxApertureAtMinFocal           : 1.7
$MaxApertureAtMaxFocal           : 1.7
$MaxFocalLength                  : 20
$MaxApertureAtCurrentFocal       : 1.8
$LensProperties                  : 0x4110
(nothing in the makernotes)

The Sony NEX uses:
LensInfo                        : 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3
LensModel                       : E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS
In den Makernotes I found:
LensType                        : T-Mount or Other Lens or no lens


So which field should I use to fill some data when nothing is determined by the camera?

Any hint is appreciated!

Best Regards,
Karsten

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Karsten,

I would write EXIF:LensModel, but this tag was added in the 2010 Exif 2.3 specification so other software may not yet support it.  You may also consider writing XMP:Lens.

- Phil

[Karsten_M]

Thanks, Phil.
As I'm not thinking of any software (more of myself), I'll take EXIF:LensModel.

-karsten