EXIF is the format used to store information in a digital image. Photographer really appreciate having that information as it tells them what settings they used to take a picture, information such as the camera model, focal-length, f-stop, shutter-speed, ISO and much more. Most modern image viewers such as PMView Pro of Geeqie have an easy way to show EXIF data. EXIF is a relatively old standard, technologically speaking, with version 2.2 published in 2002.
Given the standard’s age, one would think that every recent imaging software would know how to handle it properly. Yet most catalogging software get something wrong. On the right is example from IDImager. Notice how there are 2 Nikons, 4 Pentax and 3 Sony makes? Intuitively you would think that perhaps a camera produces EXIF info spelled slightly differently (as in Pentax vs Pentax Corporation) or some have spaces after the name and therefore it would appear under one maker or another. However, Bibble Pro confuses things further by trying to group camera models under their makers and things get even more silly because of that. For example, it shows the same camera model under two different brands, like the Pentax K20D which appears under PENTAX and under PENTAX Corporation. What the heck?
Another piece of information found among EXIF data is an identifier for the lens used. This identifier does not seem to be the actual lens info but some kind of number which has to be translated into a particular lens model. It appears that Bibble Pro guesses instead of using that information as it produces a catalog with a huge list of lenses, some of them I did not even know existed. It seems to also do that every time, so even if it would guess correctly that a photo was taken with the Canon 70-200mm F4 for example, another photo taken from the same lens may appear as taken with the Canon 200mm F1.8. Very strange.
At first glance, Lightroom seems reasonable with no confusion of makes and models, although it does not try to group them. The list of lens contains one entry called Unknown Lens which references about half my photo collection. However one lens was clearly substituted for another to the point of absurdity where Lightroom reports I used a Pentax F28-80mm F3.5-4.5 at 24mm! Ooops.
IDImager gets shows a long list of lenses. Some lenses are the actual ones I used, such as a EF 50mm F1.4 USM, some are the wrong lens such as the Sigma 18-125mm F3.5-5.6 (with several pictures taken with it at F/2.8), and some are listed as a set of 4 numbers, like an IP address (0,0,226,8). Initially I thought that, instead of grouping unrecognized lenses into an Unknown Lens category like Lightroom, it simply marked them using the lens identifier. After a closer look I saw that pictures taken with some lenses, for example the DA* 50-135mm F2.8 sometimes appeared associated with the right lens and sometimes appeared associated with lens 0,0,241,8.
If someone can explain this, I’d really like to know what is going on here.
This week Panasonic launched their response to the SX200 in the form of the Lumix DMC-ZS7 and ZS5, bringing full manual controls to the ZS-series along with ultra-wide-angle optical zoom lenses starting at 25mm and reaching 300mm for a total of 12X optical zoom. These two rather similar digital cameras are now the most-specified in their class.
The Pentax Optio I-10 is styled similary to a miniature film SLR, and we really mean miniature as it is 1.1″ thick. The styling not just gives a retro look but also serves to provide a rarely-found handgrip among modern compact digital cameras, as well as placing the built-in flash further from the lens which reduces the changes of redeye. The Pentax Optio H90 is an ultra-compact camera with minimalistic body design meant to be retro and easily slip in pockets or other small spaces. Rounded corners and a lack of protrusions help make the H90 one of the most pocketable digital cameras.
Internally both the I-10 and H90 share core technologies. Both feature a 12 megapixels sensor and a wide-angle 5X optical zoom lens, equivalent to 28-140mm in 35mm terms. The aperture range falls a little short on the wide side with a maximum of F/3.5 at wide-angle and F/5.9 at telephoto but Pentax makes up for it on the I-10 with built-in image stabilization. A refined 11-point focusing system with Macro, Super Macro, Normal, Pan Focus (Hyperfocal) and Infinity focus rounds out the capabilities of the new lens used on both these cameras. These two digital cameras also share a large and bright 2.7″ LCD which serves as the only viewfinder.
The last addition to the Optio family is the E90 which updates the capability of their entry-level compact with a wider-angle lens, this time equivalent to 31.5-94.5mm in 35mm terms. This digital camera uses a 10 megapixels sensor and 2 standard AA batteries for power. The Optio E90 refines the comfortable design of its predecessor, keeping the hand-grip and simple controls.
The most interesting model is the Sony Cybershot DSC-HX5V. This model is based around a 10 megapixels CMOS sensor which can shoot at 10 FPS and capture 1080i HD video at 1920×1080 @ 60i FPS. This is one of the smallest ultra-zoom ever produced with an ultra-wide 10X optical zoom lens equivalent to 25-250mm in 35mm terms packed into a 1″ thick body. This is an extremely versatile zoom range suitable for most photographic subjects.
The Cybershot W310 and W330 are more standard ultra-compact with a 12 megapixels and 14 megapixels sensor, respectively. They are each equipped with a stabilized wide-angle lens with the W310 going from 28-112mm and the W330 going from 26-105mm, both nice ranges for 4X optical zoom lenses. These two models are point-and-shoot models with the capability to record VGA-resolution movies. Even though this is refresh of existing models, it is very nice to see that new lenses continue to see wider which is extremely useful when shooting in tight corners. The performance of which high-resolution sensors remains to be seen but should be able to produce images suitable for rather large prints at its base ISO of 80. On all these cameras ISO can be manually set up to 3200. Ideally a larger sensor camera is required to shoot at light-levels which require such high ISO sensitivities.
Both W370 and W350 are more advanced than the slimmer W310 and W330. These compact models feature 720p HD video recording at 1280×720 @ 30 FPS and the original sweeping panorama implementation which uses constant size slices to compose the 7 megapixels panorama. The LCD screen on the W370 measures 3″ which the one on the W350 measures 2.7″. Both screens have the same number of pixels (230K), so this difference is rather minor.