Sony A7R4, Warning: [minor] Oversized SubIFD StripByteCounts (122419200 bytes, b

[sfullenwider]

Hello,

I have a Sony alpha 7R mark IV,  I'm getting this warning for each file:

Warning: [minor] Oversized SubIFD StripByteCounts (122419200 bytes, but expected 107116800)

That is processed by this command:

$lens = "Minolta MC Rokkor-PG 50mm f1.4" ; exiftool.exe -Lens="$lens" -LensModel="$lens" -FocalLength="50mm" -ext ARW .

that was run in Powershell.  Each file produces the same error. 

https://sfullenwider.com/exiftool/_DSC0015-2021-12-11.ARW_original.ARW  <-- original as outputted by exiftool
https://sfullenwider.com/exiftool/_DSC0015-2021-12-11.ARW <-- file with the new tags.

The filenames were changed in Powershell using this command:

Get-ChildItem *.ARW | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name -replace '.ARW$','-2021-12-11.ARW' }

Exiftool version:
PS C:\Users\sfull> exiftool -ver
12.34

The files do open in Adobe Lightroom, which again only occurs after the above ingest procedure, so I don't know if there is any real damage or not, but the warning is disturbing.

[Phil Harvey]

You don't need to worry about this.  Technically, ARW is a proprietary format and Sony can do whatever they want.  But it is based on the TIFF format, so ExifTool applies regular TIFF validation checks.  Based on this, some Sony files do have a larger raw data block than expected, but having more raw data than expected isn't as bad as having less, so the warning (not error) is minor.  ExifTool will preserve the extra data when writing, for whatever nefarious purpose Sony has intended it.

- Phil

[WNG555]

Thanks Phil for that explanation and reassurance! I also have Sony cameras (a6000 and A7II) that returned the same warnings for editing the ARW files.

BUT....I've noticed the ExifTool edited raw files are being reduced in size. ie.. original is 46.72MB while the output is 46.70MB. This reduction is consistent.  Shouldn't the addition of numerous metadata entries to the raw file that didn't have such entries (ie. copyright, contact info, lens info, comments), increase in file size?
My concern is whether some Sony raw data has been stripped. 20KB difference is significant.  I am able to open the resultant ARW files in Capture One as before with no error messages. I haven't tried to do so using Sony's own file editor, Edge.

Thanks in advance!
Will
WNG Image and Design

PS. If you would like copies of the ARW files, to inspect, please let me know.

[StarGeek]

See FAQ #13a

[WNG555]

Thanks Stargeek! Appreciated the quick response!

[Phil Harvey]

Take a look at the -htmldump output in a browser to see all of the details.  The brown sections in the output are unused space.

- Phil