Date and Time Discrepancies

[J.D. McDowell]

I still occasionally come across groups of files with date discrepancies (please see attached.)

In the screen shot I have a thumbnail displayed showing Date and Time info next to the metadata "browser" panel. The date and times shown for all shots in the metadata browser panel are all correct. The date and time on the thumbnails for this entire week of shots all show 10/8/2011 12:00:00 AM.

I expect that this happened some time ago. I'm looking for some feedback on how to correct bulk groups of files with this issue.

Thanks.

[Mario]

What happens when you re-import the file with "reload metadata"? Select it, press Shift+Ctrl+F5 and choose "reload metadata".

IMatch imports the created (and if this does not exist) the digitized timestamp into the "File Date/Time" default attribute. This is what is used for the timeline and the default File Window layouts (I assume you are using one of those and the date shown there is the "File DateTime" and not some custom metadata tag.

[J.D. McDowell]

It changed "Date/Time Original" in the metadata browser panel to the same incorrect 10/8/2011 12:00:00 AM date and time as the thumbnail. However the "Create Date" in the metadata browser panel still shows the correct date and time 10/9/2011 2:07:34 PM-04:00.

[Mario]

Do you use the Default Metadata panel layout?
This layout displays

Created Date: XMP::xmp\CreateDate\CreateDate
Date Subject Created: XMP::photoshop\DateCreated\DateCreated

These are the tags IMatch uses to the default DateTime for image files.
Note: You need to write-back when you change these dates. Only then IMatch re-imports the file and updates the DateTime attribute.

If this does not work, some metadata in your file is messed up. Or maybe you use non-default metadata settings?
Provide a sample image for download (or attach as ZIP) and screen shots of Edit > Preferences > Metadata 2.

[J.D. McDowell]

I have a custom metadata panel I usually use, but for the purpose of this discussion I've been using the default "browser" panel that came with iMatch.

Prefs screenshot is attached. I can't attach a file sample as it's too big (even when zipped, roughly 20MB.) For what its worth Win 7 also shows the correct time as part of the metadata display in my explorer window (also attached.)

It there's an alternate way to send a copy of the NEF or a way to poke around in the raw metadata in the file to have a look please let me know.

EDIT: Based or your info above Mario here's the breakdown from the metadata browser panel;

Composite - Create Date - correct

Composite - Date Time Original - wrong

XMP Photoshop - Date Subject Created - wrong

XMP Exif - Date/Time Original - correct

XMP xmp - Created Date - correct

[Mario]

All the tags you list are extracted/filled by ExifTool, not by IMatch.

Please upload the sample file somewhere. We need to look at the actual metadata contained in your file.
in all cases similar to this reported in the past, such issues where caused by invalid or out-of-sync metadata in the image.

IMatch does not invent dates and times. It takes what ExifTool delivers.
The XMP timestamps are producec by ExifTool by mapping EXIF timestamps into XMP timestamps, according to the MWG rule set.

if you have no cloud space for sharing the image, you can send it to support email address. 20 MB should be OK with most mail hosts.

[J.D. McDowell]

Thanks for taking a look at this Mario.

This link should get you the file.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2cg7k8pymoxnj9r/Lake%20Louise-10_09_2011-173.NEF?dl=0

[Mario]

Hi,

I have checked the image. As expected, the existing metadata in your image is causing the problem.
The file has date information in the embedded (!) XMP record (which is the main problem), in the EXIF record and also in the legacy IPTC record.
The timestamps in the embedded XMP record does not match EXIF / IPTC.

[XMP-exif]      Date/Time Original              : 2011:10:09 14:07:34
[XMP-xmp]       Create Date                     : 2011:10:09 14:07:34.42

[XMP-photoshop] Date Created                    : 2011:10:08

[IPTC]          Date Created                    : 2011:10:08
[IPTC]          Digital Creation Date           : 2011:10:09

[ExifIFD]       Date/Time Original              : 2011:10:09 14:07:34
[ExifIFD]       Create Date                     : 2011:10:09 14:07:34


IPTC/XMP overrides EXIF (because IPTC is assumed to be human generated) and hence IMatch / ExifTool use the IPTC timestamps when producing the rich XMP record managed by IMatch. IMatch hence show correctly (from IPTC):

Created Date   2011:10:09 14:07:34.42
Date Subject Created   2011:10:08

When you change the XMP data in IMatch (Metadata Panel), IMatch corrects and synchronizes the EXIF and IPTC data in the file, and writes an XMP record into the sidecar file (IMatch does not write XMP data to RAW files by default and for good reasons).

Solution: Fix the file by removing the embedded XMP record.
This has been analyzed and explained many times and how to do it with the ExifTool Command Processor has been posted many times here. There is a preset for that.

Another 30 minutes of my time lost on metadata mess created by camera vendors or other software. Not happy.
I get too many "My camera / software / workflow has made a mess of my metadata, please analyze and fix for me" recently. This becomes to expensive in terms of my time used.

Maybe I should finally write an "Metadata Mess Tester" app users can run, which tells them what the problem is. If the problem is not IMatch, I don#t need to do anything.

[J.D. McDowell]

Mario, I very much appreciate your help in finding and helping me to understand where the problem with the files is.

Last question before this topic is closed, could you please point me to the preset you mentioned to help me correct the error?

Thanks.

[Mario]

The preset is named "Delete XMP Metadata".