Discrepancy with camera make and model

[sybersitizen]

I use ON1 Photo RAW for processing many of my files, such as photos from my Potensic Atom drone. However, I know Photo RAW fails to preserve a number of metadata tags, including the primary ones for camera make and model. As you can see in the attached screen shots, IMatch does know about the camera make and model when I look in the Metadata panel, but it does not include any files in the Potensic/Atom category.

This issue is not unique to IMatch. It occurs in other software as well ... but there is obviously some other make/model tag that is present and working.

Mario, do you know how I can correct those two missing tags in files produced by Photo RAW?

[JohnZeman]

I'm not familiar with Potensic/Atom but I also use ON1 Photo Raw to process my raw files and for awhile I had metadata problems with it too.  I solved my problem by telling ON1 to export the processed raw file as a TIF or JPG with NO metadata.

Then back in IMatch I use file relations to copy the metadata I want from the original raw file to the processed JPG or TIF version.

[Mario]

ExifTool usually produces make/model from the official EXIF make/model tags.

Switch the Metadata Panel to the Browser layout to see all tags IMatch has imported.
Do you see usable make/model data somewhere?
If so, use a Metadata Template to copy it into the official tags.

Data not there?
Check the image in the ExifTool Command Processor ("List Metadata" preset).
Any useful data there?
If so, you have to enable the non-standard tags in the IMatch Tag Manager so IMatch imports them in the future, making them available for Metadata Templates to copy into EXIF make/model.

Note: When you update make/model, use the XMP tags. Then write back and check if ExifTool has written the data back to EXIF too. ExifTool handles make/model in special ways. If it has not copied the data into EXIF, change your Metadata Template to also update the EXIF make/model alongside the XMP make/model and retry.

[sybersitizen]

ExifTool usually produces make/model from the official EXIF make/model tags.

Switch the Metadata Panel to the Browser layout to see all tags IMatch has imported.
Do you see usable make/model data somewhere?

Yes.

If so, use a Metadata Template to copy it into the official tags.

I created a template and applied it to one file. Now all the files that were not showing up in that category are showing up. I don't really understand why that worked, but thanks!

Thanks also to JohnZeman. Photo RAW definitely has some issues with regard to metadata. My immediate needs seem to be addressed, but I'll consider your solution if any problems persist.

[Mario]

Now all the files that were not showing up in that category are showing up. I don't really understand why that worked, but thanks!

Look at how the category is constructed, which tags it uses for its levels.
If a file has no value for the tags, it will be moved into the "Other" category.

IMatch creates (and uses in many features) a virtual tag named photools.com:IMatch.cameraname that cleans up the naming mess camera vendors have produced over the years. For example, Nikon has used make values like

NIKON CORPORATION NIKON
NIKON CORPORATION
NIKON

and sometimes includes the NIKON also in the model name, adding redundancy: "NIKON NIKON Z7".
Other vendors did the same. They don't care.

A make/model like "NIKON CORPORATION" / "NIKON Z7" is transformed by IMatch for the cameraname tag into "NIKON Z7", and this makes a perfect value for a data-driven category, for sorting, for the value filter in the Filter Panel etc.

Now that you have copied over metadata with your Template into the "official" make/model tags, features based on make/model can work, the cameraname tag holds a useful value etc.

Of course it would be better if your RAW processor would not wipe these important tags.
RAW processors adapt their processing / presets / corrections usually based on certain tags like make/model and lens data. 
Wiping or changing this data is thus not a good idea.