[Leica] EXIF Viewer

[pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)]

Tina, Allen:  There does seem  to be a specific issue with EXIF data and 
16-bit TIFF files. Some programs strip EXIF out of all TIFFs.  But 8-bit 
TIFFs can contain EXIF data.

My Olympus E-1 came with a painfully slow but serviceable standalone RAW 
converter called Viewer. It will save a JPG file or an 8-bit TIFF file 
either with or without EXIF data.  It will only save a 16-bit TIFF file 
with the EXIF data stripped out.  So if I want a 16-bit file to do heavy 
curve work, I don't get EXIF.

Olympus' more full-featured RAW converter, called Studio, behaves the same 
way.

My image editor, Picture Window Pro, recently added a RAW converter.  It 
preserves the EXIF data in JPG and PNG files, but strips it out in TIFFs, 
whether 16 bit or 8 bit.  So if I work on the same RAW file for an entire 
session, I will end up with EXIF in my final JPG.  But if I save it to an 
intermediate TIFF file and come back to it later, I'm out of luck.

Can't speak for ACR and Photoshop, as I don't use them.

I wonder if this behavior is a legacy of some other program choking on the 
EXIF data in 16-bit files, so the software authors simply eliminate it to 
avoid trouble.  Perhaps there is an ambiguity in the EXIF or TIFF 
specification, or perhaps EXIF has some manufacturer-specific fields that 
some programs handle better than others.

There are ways to pull the EXIF data from your file, and then save it back 
into the finished product.  I've never bothered with this, but it can be 
done.  I've read that some people will quickly create a JPG directly from 
the RAW file, and save the EXIF to a file. They import that file into their 
finished 8-bit file.  There are programs available for the purpose.  One 
called EXIFer is mentioned on the Picture Window support board.

--Peter

At 07:13 AM 10/15/2006 -0700, Allen Graves <allen.graves@charter.net> wrote:
>Tina
>
>The extra data is attached only if the file is saved in the camera as
>a JPEG. It doesn't show if the file started life as a RAW file. Also,
>some image editors do seem to strip part of the data.Just try
>launching the Opanda app. and try to open a fresh - from -the-camera
>JPEG.