PENTAX MakerNotes for -4 to +4 Values

[layingback]

In exploring and using your excellent EXIFtool I've become aware that the decoded format - specifically within the PENTAX MakerNotes section - is of limited value as presented because the terms used are not used anywhere on the PENTAX cameras.

Specifically:
0x001f Saturation
0x0020 Contrast
0x0021 Sharpness

are displayed according to your legend key with values of:

0 = Soft
1 = Normal
2 = Hard
3 = Med Soft
4 = Med Hard
5 = Very Soft
6 = Very Hard
7 = -4
8 = +4

The problem is that on the cameras - DSLR's up to the recent K-3 - these text values do not exist in any shape or form.  The scale used is simply a range of dotes between -4 and +4 with a (normal) centerpoint value of 0.  See the linked graphic for an example (form the K-3)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zsTb9PYEPvg/UjCI2xU1CmI/AAAAAAAABI8/CyV0YyNht_0/s400/K5OptimisedNatural.jpg

We typically refer to these settings as +1 or -2, etc.

Any chance that this could be included in a future version, please?  A simple range of -4 thru 0 thru +4.  To make it more meaningful to the camera's owner.  (Without seeing all 9 values in front of you, and playing some mental sorting it is impossible to correlate those text items with -4 - +4, I think 7 5 3 0 1 4 2 6 8 - so '1' not '0' is the mid-point - is the key sequence!)

TIA!

[Phil Harvey]

Thanks for the suggestion.  How about this mapping?:

Code Select Expand

            0 => '-1 (low)',
            1 => '0 (normal)',
            2 => '+2 (high)',
            3 => '-2 (med low)',
            4 => '+1 (med high)',
            5 => '-3 (very low)',
            6 => '+3 (very high)',
            7 => '-4 (minimum)',
            8 => '+4 (maximum)',

- Phil

Edit: Hmmm.  This is inconsistent.  One would expect "med low" (3) to be between "normal" (1) and "low" (0), but it isn't in your sequence.   However, "med high" (4) is between "normal" (1) and "high" (2) in your ordering, as one would expect.

[layingback]

Thanks for the quick response.  Sorry, it took a while.  i decided to take 9 pictures with Contrast varying from -4 to +4 then checking each output.  You are correct, I had 0 and 3 crossed.  Collected data:

Code Select Expand


-4  7
-3  5
-2  0
-1  3
0  1
+1  4
+2  2
+3  6
+4  8
translating

Code Select Expand


0  -2
1   0
2  +2
3  -1
4  +1
5  -3
6  +3
7  -4
8  +4

BTW in addition to

0x001f Saturation
0x0020 Contrast
0x0021 Sharpness

0x0067 Hue
0x006c HighLowKeyAdj
0x006d ContrastHighlight
0x006e ContrastShadow

look as if they follow the same convention.  And I think that's all, based on checking your data and the camera and manual, although I don't have a K-3 ...

I would note I had considerable trouble checking these 9 differing Contrast images.  I kept getting the EXIF Contrast returned instead of the MakerNotes one, even when I had -a on.  In the end I had to turn on -G to get both displayed.

I'm only interested in MakerNotes.  Is there an option I can use to only display MakerNotes?

I'm currently using

Code Select Expand

exiftool -l -lang {xx} -E -q followed by -all or a taglist.  (Latter gets me only EXIF version of Contrast, etc, and former gets me both - the EXIF version as well as the MakerNotes one.)

FYI the reason for using EXIFtool in this way is to a) see individual camera values like ShutterCount, SerialNumber and b) scanning for wayward settings when newer member asks why is my camera capturing images like this. makerNotes is most accuarte for this, EXIF values only seem to confuse ;-)

Thanks for your help!

[Phil Harvey]

Thanks for checking this!  I'll update the conversion appropriately.

Without -a, the Contrast returned should be consistent.  To get only the MakerNotes values, use -a -makernotes:all.  Or to just get the MakerNotes Contrast, use -makernotes:contrast.

-Phil

[Phil Harvey]

I'm making the changes now.  Just one note:

Saturation, Sharpness, Contrast and Hue follow this ordering.

But I think that HighLowKeyAdj, ContrastHighlight and ContrastShadow use a more straightforward ordering scheme.

- Phil

[layingback]

Thanks, for input on -makernotes:all.  That combined with -a gives me the elusive Contrast :-)

I'm making the changes now.  Just one note:

Saturation, Sharpness, Contrast and Hue follow this ordering.

But I think that HighLowKeyAdj, ContrastHighlight and ContrastShadow use a more straightforward ordering scheme.

- Phil

Got a copy thanks.  ( Although still have to figure out how to get my shared host to update ;-)  )

What I meant was that all of Saturation, Sharpness, Contrast, Hue, HighLowKeyAdj, ContrastHighlight and ContrastShadow display on the camera only as a point between -4 and +4, ie do not use any textual description such as High, etc.

Thanks again!

[layingback]

Although still have to figure out how to get my shared host to update ;-)

Seems I just need to wait until the next Production release to CPAN :-)

[Phil Harvey]

For backward compatibility with older Pentax models I wanted to leave in the text description.

- Phil