Sony ARW files

[Archive]

[Originally posted by ace1497 on 2008-10-08 16:49:58-07]

Hi I have just discovered this amazing tool and I want to use it to rename and organize my photos into a new folder structure. I have created a batch file that will move the photos into a new dir year\month\day and rename the photos to hms.ext but it only works on my JPG files not on my ARW (Sony RAW). I did a test and renamed a pic1.arw to pic1.cr2 and ran the tool and it moved this file correctly. Does anyone know why it will not work with the ARW files? I know the supported list says they are read only but if I change the extension to a canon raw file it works fine. I can do this as a work around but I would like to not have to rename the files and I am not sure if it will cause any problems down the road. Anyone out there working with Sony ARW files?

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2008-10-08 17:02:05-07]

A few people have been confused about this recently, so I am changing
the wording of the documentation slightly, although I think mostly the
problem is that people haven't found this in the application
documentation:

"Note:  If FILE is a directory name, then only file types with recognized
extensions are processed when reading, and only writable types
are processed when any tag is written.  However, the -ext option may be
 used to force processing of files with any extension."

Please let me know if you still have any questions.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by ace1497 on 2008-10-08 19:19:27-07]

First off tahnks for the quick response!

I have been trying different command line options and using the -ext switch but I am still having no luck. I have added it at the beginning and at the end before the dir. Could you please use the example below to show me my mistake? I really appreciate your help this will be a huge tool for me.

Current working command line:

Code:

exiftool -r -d %%Y/%%B/%%A_%%d/%%d%%m%%Y_%%H%%M%%S%%%%-c.%%%%e "-filename<CreateDate" C:\exif\Test

as stated in my original post this cmd line does exactly what I want but not for my .arw files.

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2008-10-08 19:55:18-07]

If you want to move JPG, CR2 and ARW files, add the following
arguments anywhere in your command line:

Code:

-ext jpg -ext cr2 -ext arw

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by ace1497 on 2008-10-08 21:15:38-07]

Thanks again for the quick response!!

I tried adding -ext arw at the beginning of the command after the -d switch with no success but I was able to get it to work if I use it at the end just before the dir. I thought I would let you know because in your response you stated anywhere.

Code:

exiftool -r -d %%Y/%%B/%%d_%%A/%%d%%m%%Y_%%H%%M%%S%%%%-c.%%%%e "-filename<CreateDate" -ext arw C:\exif\Test

Anyways thanks for all your help I am REALLY HAPPY that I was able to find this tool it is going to save me hours of work. I will be sharing this with all of my photographer friends.

Cheers,
Aaron

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2008-10-08 22:38:39-07]

Hi Aaron,

OK, you got me.  You can add options to the command line
anywhere except in the middle of another option.
The -d option takes an argument, which must
come immediately after "-d".  Similarly, the extension
must come immediately after "-ext"  (ie. "-ext ARW").
But other than that, the options you are using can be
in any order.

Glad it works for you now though.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by arthurb2 on 2008-10-25 23:34:51-07]

Phil,
     are you able to say if you will be adding 'Write' support for Sony ARW files in the future.  I am particularly interested in updating IPTC data, should that be possible, as this will help my, somewhat tortuous, workflow. You could make a lot of people happy, but if not, can I once again thank you for such an excellent tool.Regards,Arthur.

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2008-10-26 00:37:57-07]

Hi Arthur,

Thanks for the suggestion.

I have had a number of requests for ARW write support, and had
a couple of false starts trying to implement this.  One real problem
that I have no control over is that the Sony ARW format isn't
consistent from model to model, and in the past changes to the
format could have easily caused the files to be corrupted if
rewritten.  To avoid this, I would have to have a model-specific
check and validate each new model as it comes out.  Needless
to say, this is more work for me.  And on top of that, there are
a number of other technical reasons why the Sony format is more
difficult to write in the first place (not the least of which is the
nasty encryption tthey apply to their metadata).

I still hope to implement ARW write support, but it may be a while
before I am able to do it.  Right now I am too busy to even think
about trying to attack this problem again, but it is on my list if
I ever find myself with some extra time on my hands.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2008-10-26 00:50:36-07]

I should point out that I said I would never implement
PDF write support since it is a very complicated format.  (Much
more complex than the ARW format.)  But I had an epiphany that
gave me the insight to be able to see a solution, and with the
necessary time available I was able to implement the scheme.
And now, the PDF writer stands as one of my greatest recent
additions to exiftool, and maybe the nicest piece of code in
the whole package so far, which makes it all worthwile.

So I'll never say never again.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by arthurb2 on 2008-10-26 23:04:47-07]

Hello Phil - thanks for giving me an explanation of the difficulties in implementing ARW support; you have my sympathy, it does sound really complicated.  In fact, it casts doubt on Sony's approach to getting into the serious amateur and semi-professional market: their own software is not so good that they don't need other people making tools for their DSLRs, which are surprisingly good.

Of course, for my part, you could simplify the task by just doing the A100 formats...

Thanks again, I couldn't be without ExifTool - regards, Arthur.

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2009-01-06 15:23:18-08]

Update:  I had hoped to do some work on this over
Christmas, but I "wasted" most of my time with family this
year and didn't do much programming.  However, I did
get far enough to realize that this is a bigger problem than
I thought.  There are peculiarities in the DSLR-A100 ARW
images that are  firmware-version dependent.  So I will
need at minimum a sample A100 ARW for each
firmware version.  Currently I have v1.00, v1.02 and v1.04
samples.  If anywone has samples with other firmware
versions (look at the "Software" tag), please let me know.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2010-01-03 00:42:24-08]

It is now almost a year later and this Christmas I managed to find enough time
to tackle this project.  It wasn't easy, but I now have a working pre-release
which writes ARW images.  It still requires more testing before official release.

If anyone is interested in helping with testing, the pre-release (pure Perl
version) can be downloaded
here

I have done a fair bit of testing already and have found one incompatibility
so far.  Edited images from the A700, A850 and A900 are not read properly
by Adobe Photoshop CS4 Camera Raw 5.6,  DNG Converter 5.6,
or LightRoom 2.6 (the white balance is wrong).  I have tracked down the
problem and determined that the Adobe utilities are assuming a fixed offset
for some data in the ARW image (bad Adobe!).  Neither the Apple OS X 10.5.8
utilities, dcraw 8.99 nor Capture One 5.0.1 have any problems with these
edited images.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by gorky on 2010-01-05 15:02:13-08]

Hi all, I have an A900 file which has a corruption. Its extremely important picture so its worth my while somehow fixing it, but I have know idea how. Unfortunately I can't find a programme which could fix this for me. Any advice?

[Archive]

[Originally posted by gorky on 2010-01-05 15:24:21-08]

I've heard great things about EXIFtool but its a steep learning curve for me. I'd happily pay someone if they are able to fix it because we wanted to enter this image into World Press Photo contest, with the closing date for submission on friday. If you'd like to take a look I'll happily upload the ARW file. Its 36mb - so the normal size for a900 files, I wish I knew how to fix! Sincerely, Vincenzo

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2010-01-05 15:34:39-08]

Hi Vincenzo,

Sure, upload it somewhere or email it to me and I'll take a look.
my email is philharvey66 at gmail.com

- Phil