New tag values for Olympus OM-Ds

[pinthenet]

I found some changes to tag values for the Olympus OM-D E-M1 II. They are probably valid for other newer OM-Ds too.

Should I post these here or is there a better place?

The changes I found are under

0x600 (Bracketing) - the AE bracketing now appears to use value 5 and not 0. I think the other values may need updating too. I haven't tested yet but based on the menu 3 & 4 could be ISO & ART Bracketing

0x803 (StackedImage) - in the in-camera stacked JPG when using HDR1 & HDR2 I found values '5 4' & '6 4'

I'm working through the stacking data as part of a script to catalog images that are part of a stacked sequence so I may find some more, or maybe some cases where AE bracketing is 0

Please advise
John

[Phil Harvey]

Hi John,

This is GREAT!

The place to report these is in the "Metadata" section of this forum.  I'll move this post there and you can continue adding to this thread.

Thanks!

- Phil

[pinthenet]

All clear, thanks.
I'll add any others I find. I assume AE bracketing used to be 0 in OM-Ds prior to FW1.4 or pre-Mark II bodies. It's a little odd as AE bracketing is at the top of the Bracketing options, which would suggest 0

John

[pinthenet]

Just solved it...

AE Bracketing value 0 is setup via the menu and has more options (nr of shots/f-stops). The shutter has to be released manually for each shot within the bracket.

In the newer cameras there is a dedicated 'quick' HDR option from a dedicated button, which allows selection of the in-camera stacked HDR1/HDR2 modes and a few fixed AE bracketing modes - this is value 5. The shutter is automatically released 'n' times with one press, using the electronic shutter.
I patched Olympus.pm to call this 'HDR'.

[Phil Harvey]

Great.  I'll add these as soon as I have a chance, and let you know if I have any questions.

Since you are patching Olympus.pm already, would it be possible to post a patch file?  Or your copy of Olympus.pm if that is easier?

- Phil

[Phil Harvey]

I'm trying to add these now, and have run into a problem.  The decoding of the DriveMode tag is rather complex -- it is 5 numbers and I don't know which one you are talking about.  What is the exiftool -n output for each of the modes you mentioned?

Thanks.

- Phil

[pinthenet]

sorry for the delay.
I attached my Olympus.pm as I didn't make a backup to create a diff

My changes are at lines 2419 & 2420 for [4] ISO bracketing (found that one a few minutes ago) and the 2nd AE Bracketing [5], which I called HDR, although that may not be the best name. It's really the same as the existing AE bracketing (value 0) but activated a different way and the camera automatically takes all shots.

At lines 2482 & 2483 I added the 'HDR1' & 'HDR2' StackedImage settings for the in-camera HDR.

The camera also has an 'ART' bracketing mode which creates a series of JPGs with different ART settings  applied but I couldn't spot any special metadata values.
http://www.olympusamerica.com/crm/oneoffpages/crm_artfilters.asp

The 'MF' bracketing [3] doesn't seem to exist on the E-M1 II - the only MF I know is Manual Focus.

Hope that helps

John

[Phil Harvey]

Hi John,

Thanks!  This update will appear in the next release.  I think maybe if we call DriveMode 5 "AE Auto" instead of "HDR" it may make more sense.  What do you think?

Please let me know if you discover anything else.

- Phil

[pinthenet]

Yes, I also thought that may could an option.

I'll keep looking. Does Olympus provide any documentation about metadata tags? I've tried to search but found very little, and mostly old.

[Phil Harvey]

I know of no major camera manufacturer except for Sigma that has ever documented their metadata.

- Phil