[Patch Request] Pre camera store "date taken" metadata appropriately

[korky99_04]

As noted elsewhere on the web, the Pre's camera stores the date in the EXIF metadata as "modify date" but not as "date taken". Meaning that the information is there, just not in the correct field so therefore programs [such as photoshop, windows, photobucket, flicker, etc] don't know to look for it. Also, it is worth noting that my wife's Pixi DOES store the "date taken" information appropriately.

The reason this matters, is when I download the photos to my computer and try to sort by date, it won't be able to do that because the date and time information isn't encoded correctly into the metadata. Yes, you can sort by title, but for example when my wife and I go on vacation and then combine our photos into one folder we cannot sort by date taken. Her's sorts by date taken, but mine will not because the information isn't there.

If you have a EXIF editing program such as Exifer you can copy it over. But a patch would be much cleaner.

A successful patch for this problem would, when a photo is taken, store the information that is currently being stored as the EXIF field "modify date" in the EXIF field "date taken" as well. This is only required on the Pre, as the Pixi already does so. Thereby allowing many third party programs to have access to that information as well.

I know the Pre is capable of doing this since it stores other metadata such as gps coordinates, and since the Pixi does it. Due to all of this, I would think it would be a fairly quick and easy patch to make. Of course, I really don't know what I'm talking about...

[Audemars02]

i really hope someone can figure out how to do this..it really frustrates me. you mention using programs to copy that date over to the correct field, but can you tell me if you can do a mass-update, or do you have to do each photo one at a time?

[TomJ]

Originally Posted by Audemars02

...you mention using programs to copy that date over to the correct field, but can you tell me if you can do a mass-update, or do you have to do each photo one at a time?

I used IrfanView (on PC) in batch mode to rename files from IMG_0001 format to date/timestamp. So, I know it can at least read the date/time data.

Regards,
Tom

[korky99_04]

Yes, it is amazing that such a glaring oversight as this remains unpatched.

I have only been able to do each photo individually using exifer. *Howere, I read on another post online somewhere about a command line based program that can do entire directories at a time. *Google search "Wannabe futurist palm pre exif" to see that other post.

[quini]

Hi!

I've found a solution, thanks to this post.

In Linux Ubuntu Maverick you can find package libimage-exiftool-perl; it's got the exiftool utility in it.

You can use that app to copy the date and time the photo was taken (stored in exif's "modify date" tab), to the following tabs:

• DateTimeOriginal
• CreateDate

After making that modification, F-Spot now recognizes the right date taken.

Here's the command:

exiftool "-exif:alldates<modifydate" Dir_or_files

Hope it also works for you

[Audemars02]

Originally Posted by quini

Hi!

I've found a solution, thanks to this post.

In Linux Ubuntu Maverick you can find package libimage-exiftool-perl; it's got the exiftool utility in it.

You can use that app to copy the date and time the photo was taken (stored in exif's "modify date" tab), to the following tabs:

• DateTimeOriginal
• CreateDate

After making that modification, F-Spot now recognizes the right date taken.

Here's the command:

exiftool "-exif:alldates<modifydate" Dir_or_files

Hope it also works for you

any way to package this up as an ondevice app?

[Cantaffordit]

have you guys tried any of the metadata patches in preware? I'm not really sure about your issue, so let me know if those are unrelated.

[Audemars02]

The issue is that when the camera takes pictures, it doesn't properly record the "date and time taken" in the picture's EXIF metadata. So, when sorting the photos on a computer, there is no way to "sort by date".

[quini]

Originally Posted by Audemars02

any way to package this up as an ondevice app?

The package containing the exiftool utility is free software:

"This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself"

so it probably could be ported... but I'm sorry I'm not a programmer 8-(

[Cantaffordit]

Originally Posted by Audemars02

The issue is that when the camera takes pictures, it doesn't properly record the "date and time taken" in the picture's EXIF metadata. So, when sorting the photos on a computer, there is no way to "sort by date".

and do the camera patches in preware not help with this?

[sketch42]

Originally Posted by korky99_04

As noted elsewhere on the web, the Pre's camera stores the date in the EXIF metadata as "modify date" but not as "date taken". Meaning that the information is there, just not in the correct field so therefore programs [such as photoshop, windows, photobucket, flicker, etc] don't know to look for it. Also, it is worth noting that my wife's Pixi DOES store the "date taken" information appropriately.

The reason this matters, is when I download the photos to my computer and try to sort by date, it won't be able to do that because the date and time information isn't encoded correctly into the metadata. Yes, you can sort by title, but for example when my wife and I go on vacation and then combine our photos into one folder we cannot sort by date taken. Her's sorts by date taken, but mine will not because the information isn't there.

If you have a EXIF editing program such as Exifer you can copy it over. But a patch would be much cleaner.

A successful patch for this problem would, when a photo is taken, store the information that is currently being stored as the EXIF field "modify date" in the EXIF field "date taken" as well. This is only required on the Pre, as the Pixi already does so. Thereby allowing many third party programs to have access to that information as well.

I know the Pre is capable of doing this since it stores other metadata such as gps coordinates, and since the Pixi does it. Due to all of this, I would think it would be a fairly quick and easy patch to make. Of course, I really don't know what I'm talking about...

what vers pre and pixi.. i just compared all the cam files i could find on both a sprint pre and a att pixi plus.. and they are the same..

[Unclevanya]

Originally Posted by Cantaffordit

and do the camera patches in preware not help with this?

I will check myself. I have a Pre Plus with the better naming option patch (forget which one) but while that fixes the names to something easily sorted I don't know if it fixes the metadata.

[tc600]

Can someone post up a Pixi photo sample? I'm taking a look at the code right now.

[appsotutely]

I went to Flickr for some samples and it looks like the Pre is writing the DateTime field (x0132), but the Pixi is writing the DateTimeOriginal (x9003) and DateTimeDigitized (x9004) fields. I tried changing the DateTime to write to '9003' in place of '0132' in the "camera_defines.js" file, but that didn't seem to do the trick so far.

[Unclevanya]

What is a good tool to look at this data?

Here's a picture that I took after the better naming patch was applied.

[sketch42]

Originally Posted by appsotutely

I went to Flickr for some samples and it looks like the Pre is writing the DateTime field (x0132), but the Pixi is writing the DateTimeOriginal (x9003) and DateTimeDigitized (x9004) fields. I tried changing the DateTime to write to '9003' in place of '0132' in the "camera_defines.js" file, but that didn't seem to do the trick so far.

what about swapping the camera app

[Unclevanya]

Originally Posted by sketch42

what about swapping the camera app

Are the API's available for that?

[sketch42]

Originally Posted by Unclevanya

Are the API's available for that?

I mean pixi camera app being swapped into the pre