EXIF Date/Time data

Ben

So the question is what EXIF date information should we be showing? 2 years back or so when we decided to show the data, we examined a bunch of pictures from a bunch of cameras and decided on "Date Time". We saw a few other cameras dumping random garbage dates into the Date Time Original and Date Time Digitized fields.

But of course, software like Adobe Photoshop also use the most common field to put in data on when you last edited the picture. So it is definitely not the ideal field if camera makers have finally gotten their act together and standardized the other fields.

So the question to you guys is what EXIF fields are your images showing populated correctly? If you could list the camera, and then which fields are showing the correct date/time, which are showing incorrect, and which are showing edited. If you have more than one camera, we would appreciate data from all of your cameras. The more data we have, the easier it is to decide on how to procede.

Thanks!

Baldy

Here's the deal:

1. We originally used DateTime taken but around 85% of the images we received had bogus data because most people don't set the date/time in their cameras. Different manufacturers use different dates, such as 1969, 1980 and the date the camera was manufactured. So we received quite a lot of email about our EXIF data being inaccurate.

2. So we switched to DateTime modified, which solved the problem for a very high percentage of people, but infuriated people who set the date of their cameras to get accurate EXIF data, only to have Photoshop walk on the DateTime modified field.

One possible way to solve this is to provide the option to sort by either date field.

And we could display both fields in the EXIF data, although my gut tells me people who don't set the date in their cameras (85%) won't like that.

Your thoughts.

georges

options are great
I vote for a selectable option. Perhaps a third choice would be not to display a date at all.

See you later, gs

maineswede

Since I sent the email that provoked Ben to start this thread I guess I should weigh in on this topic.

I used Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 4 to check four cameras, a Canon DigRebel 300D and DigElph s330, an Epson photopc 850Z and a Nikon coolpix 2500. All four cameras use the three different exif date and time fields the same way. Exif field DateTime is always changed when the file is edited and the other two fields, DateTimeOriginal and DateTimeDigitized are set when the photo is taken and never change.

I suggest that each gallery owner be given the option to use the Date and Time field that suits them best in the user settings page. If they don't want to bother to set the date in their camera they can use the Date Modified field as they do now. If they want to see when the photo was taken, even after editing it, they can choose the DateTimeOriginal field.

If the powers that be don't agree, then, at the very least, the label in the photo details box should be changed to "Date Last Modified" instead of "Date Taken."

My 2 cents.

Dave

Ben wrote:

So the question to you guys is what EXIF fields are your images showing populated correctly? If you could list the camera, and then which fields are showing the correct date/time, which are showing incorrect, and which are showing edited. If you have more than one camera, we would appreciate data from all of your cameras. The more data we have, the easier it is to decide on how to procede.

Thanks!

onethumb

Starting this morning, all EXIF dates are preserved and displayed.

I finally just decided that humans were intelligent enough to go "oh, you know, I bet 1980 and 1969 are bogus dates anyway". And if you really care about this stuff, maybe the bogus dates will get you to actually set the date on your camera, which would be good for everyone.

Date Taken, Date Digitized, and Date Modified are now seperately collected and stored. On digital cameras, Date Taken and Date Digitized are often identical, but we have quite a few film photographers who scan their slides, negatives, and prints ... now they can preserve their various dates appropriately too.

Note that this only applies to photos uploaded from today on. I'd like to go through our library and update all the other photos, but since that's something like 12,000,000 photos, that'll take some time and effort. No promises.

Once there's a decent critical mass of photos with full date data, we'll enable the "sort by" tool to sort on any of those three dates. No ETA on that either, but it'll happen for sure.

Enjoy!

Don

GREAPER

The only time I cared was when I shot an event and wanted the images to display cronologically. I did not tedit them that way, so when I sorted it just mixed them up. I had to go back and do it by hand,


Thx for looking into options to make it easier.

maineswede

Thanks for responding so quickly to my comments on the photo date. I'm impressed!

Dave

lemketron

onethumb wrote:

Starting this morning, all EXIF dates are preserved and displayed.

Yay!

onethumb wrote:

Once there's a decent critical mass of photos with full date data, we'll enable the "sort by" tool to sort on any of those three dates. No ETA on that either, but it'll happen for sure.

I would love to see this SOONER rather than later.

Earlier this evening, I uploaded a memorial gallery for my golden retriever and couldn't figure out why sorting by date/time put a couple of seemingly random images at the end. Looking at the EXIF data, I see those images had "modified" dates later than the latest (taken) photos.

Perhaps you could look for "garbage" or "bad" timestamps and then intelligently decide which field to use for sorting (on a per-picture or per-gallery basis?). However, it would be nice to be able to specify which field to use (assuming that having to do so doesn't overwhelm the novices).
--Steve