Digital BW, The Print

Paul,

The most powerful tool I know about is Exiftool:

	http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/index.html

It’s a command-line tool, but various folks have written GUI front-ends to it if you need that. It will even read XMP (XML) files and convert those to EXIF/IPTC tags, which is sometimes helpful. It’s written in Perl, but it looks like there’s a standalone Windows download that includes Perl, so installation should be straightforward.

I like Exiftool *because* it doesn’t have a GUI, so I can build it into various automated workflows. It’s particularly good for inserting data that isn’t usually supplied by a user — like lens info. In fact, that’s one reason I use it: to add camera/lens info to film scans. With some careful notes and some scripts I run post-scan and pre-import, Lightroom knows all my film cameras and their respective lenses. (I mean know by name — I haven’t done any lens profiling.)

—John


On 4 Jan 2014, at 5:07 PM, <roark.paul@...> <roark.paul@...> wrote:

> 
> 
> How or what is the best way to edit the "file information" that is attached to or embedded in our raw or Tiff files?
> 
> 
> My goal is to insert in the "Camera Data" tab (what I see with Tiff "File Information") the focal length (at least) of the lens used to shoot an image where the lens was a third party lens and not coded at all in my Sony A7R files. 
> 
> My understanding is that at least some stitching software looks at that information when processing a photo merge. 
> 
> (By the way, that new Sony 36 mp Alpha 7R camera is very interesting and capable.  With the OEM Zeiss-Sony 35mm f/2.8 lens, the files are the best I've seen in most respects.  The edge definition of the Sony-Zeiss at f/2.8 rivals the Zeiss Biogon ZM 35mm quality on a Leica M9 when shot at f/8.  However, the Sony smears the edges of all Leica/Zeiss ZM optics I have that are wider than 50mm.  From 50mm up, it handily outshoots the Leica M9 hand held.  The microlenses were clearly not designed for rangefinder wide angle lenses.)
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com 
> 
> 
>