Import Window Time Zone brick

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Level 7

25,969 points

Import Window Time Zone brick

Has anyone noticed any weird behavior when trying to change the time zone of images on import?

I keep my camera on UTC and set the actual time zone on import. This has been working since I first started using Aperture but I just noticed that going back a week or so it doesn't appear to be working. No matter what settings I set in the camera/actual time pulldowns the time of the image remains the time the camera put on the image.

I can change the time zone using Metadata batch change, that works as expected.

I've tried all the standards, new library, new user, booted up in Snow Leopard and tried it. None of that made a difference.

So either I'm going crazy (medium-high probability) or something broke on me.

Thanks in advance,

regards

iMac 3.06ghz 8gb 1 TB-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Aperture 3.2.2

Posted on Jan 4, 2012 7:47 PM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

194,761 points

Jan 5, 2012 12:48 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Hello Frank,

I did two test:

an image taken with Photo Booth
an image taken with my Lumix FZ28

Camera Time UTC, actual Time Europe/Berlin

With the Photo Booth pictures the Timezone correction seems to work, (image captured at 9:02 MEZ shows as 10:02 MEZ), with the Lumix not:

Here is what my Lumix import shows:

But the Inspector still shows the original creation date from the camera:

What worries me a bit, is that I cannot see the full time string in the import panel file info brick - the time zone offset to GMT is replaced by "..." and I cannot make Aperture confess that important piece of information.

The File Date seems to be interpreted incorrectly - I took the picture at 9:14 MEZ, after the Photo Booth Pictures. Aperture seems to subtract twice: 1 hour off the time and 1 hour off the Time zone offset.

Cheers

Léonie

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Answer 2

Frank Caggiano Author

Level 7

25,969 points

Jan 5, 2012 6:40 AM in response to léonie

Lónie,

Thanks for checking this out. I just tried with an image from Photo Booth and another image from the filesystem and it did correct on import as it should.

Then I took one of the images I imported from my camera last night that imported with the wrong time and tried importing it from the filesystem and Aperture corrected the time as it should.

So this seems to compare to what you saw, the image off the filesystem (the Photo Booth image) was corrected but the image from the camera wasn't. Am i correct here? If so could you try importing the camera image off the filesystem and see if that does correct the time. Thanks.

BTW my camera is a Canon 40D so it would not appear to be the camera.

thanks and regards

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Answer 3

Jan 5, 2012 6:57 AM in response to léonie

leonieDF wrote:

What worries me a bit, is that I cannot see the full time string in the import panel file info brick - the time zone offset to GMT is replaced by "..." and I cannot make Aperture confess that important piece of information.

Léonie -- does the entire contents of the field not show in a tooltip when you hover your mouse cursor over File Date field? It does for me -- though the date format is different (seems to be "long date" instead of "short date").

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,761 points

Jan 5, 2012 7:11 AM in response to Kirby Krieger

Kirby,

does the entire contents of the field not show in a tooltip when you hover your mouse cursor over File Date field

I am away from from my 13" MBP right now, on the 17"MBP the tooltip shows the full date, but without time zone information - I'd like to see the time zone setting.

Frank,

Am i correct here? If so could you try importing the camera image off the filesystem and see if that does correct the time. Thanks.

Sure, I'll try it when I get home - I don't have a camera here right now.

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Answer 5

Jan 5, 2012 7:39 AM in response to léonie

leonieDF wrote:

Kirby,

does the entire contents of the field not show in a tooltip when you hover your mouse cursor over File Date field

I am away from from my 13" MBP right now, on the 17"MBP the tooltip shows the full date, but without time zone information - I'd like to see the time zone setting.

On my system, this Aperture tooltip uses the Times format "Medium". I was able to add time-zone to that format via "System Prefs→Language & Text→Formats→Times→Customize". Screenshot:

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

194,761 points

Jan 5, 2012 7:47 AM in response to Kirby Krieger

Got it, Thanks, Kirby! 🙂

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

194,761 points

Jan 5, 2012 10:58 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Hello Frank,

just got back to my camera. I took a picture at 18:02 MEZ with the camera (set to UTC) and my iPod (set to UTC).

See the result above: I imported my pictures from the camera card

by copying directly from the card to the disk and importing into Aperture from the disk (left),
importing from the card reader to Aperture (middle)
importing from the PhotoStream (right)

It seems, the only incorrect date I see is on the import from the PhotoSream. The Photo Stream import seems to ignore the import setting in the import panel.

And I owe an apology to Aperture 😊; I still must have been very tired this morning - the screenshots I posted show that Aperture was correct; since the date on my camera is set to UTC and my mac is set to MEZ it is perfectly o.k that the dates shown by importing from Photo Booth and from my camera differ by one hour.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 8

Frank Caggiano Author

Level 7

25,969 points

Jan 5, 2012 11:15 AM in response to léonie

Léonie,

Thanks much for all this. I have one more favor to ask. You said you imported from the card when in a card reader which technically could be looked at as coming in from the filesystem.

So would it be possible to hook up the camera and import from the card while it is in the camera? That's how I do it, no reader, so to be absolutely positive we're on the same page this would be great.

However I'm quickly leaning towards something really weird here. I've been back to SL, tried it on a MacBook deleted Application support and Preferences.....

Anyway if you could try that it'd be a big help,

regards

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Answer 9

léonie

Level 10

194,761 points

Jan 5, 2012 11:31 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

So would it be possible to hook up the camera and import from the card while it is in the camera?

Gladly, took my some time to find the cable, however. The cardreader is much more convenient.

The dates (date and Date created) when importing from the camera are exactly the same as when importing using the card reader.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 10

Frank Caggiano Author

Level 7

25,969 points

Jan 5, 2012 11:50 AM in response to léonie

Thanks again, I was afraid of that.

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Answer 11

léonie

Level 10

194,761 points

Jan 6, 2012 5:54 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Helo Frank,

have you made any progress with the time zone problem? I borrowed a Canon Camera to make a second test, and guess what - with the Canon I get different results when importing from Finder and from the Aperture Import panel: See for yourself: The same set of pictures on the card, same time zone settings in the import panel: The direct import from the camera is one hour off.

One difference between my Lumix FZ28 and the Canon EOS 5D is, that the Lumix Camera knows time zones.

Cheers

Léonie

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Answer 12

Frank Caggiano Author

Level 7

25,969 points

Jan 6, 2012 8:37 AM in response to léonie

Léonie,

Thanks for this. Not sure it's related to my problem but it's good to know.

As I wrote (or tried to) what is happening to me is that the time on the image is not modified at all when imported from the card in the camera. It's as if the Time Zone brick is not open at all. If I copy from the card to the filesystem (using say Image Capture to import the images first) and then import into Aperture everything works as it always has. Also if I use the Metadata Batch Change to adjust the time zone once the image is in Aperture it works ok.

I'm playing around with an old digital video camera that also takes stills on an SD card. It looks llike if I import with the card in the camera I have the same problem but if I insert the card into the slot in the iMac the import works as it should.

Trying to figure out just when this all started is not easy. I never really paid attention to the times on the images when I imported them. It always worked so there was no point. Going back through the library trying to figure out just when this all started is not all that easy. Some images are obviously mistimed but others can be more difficult to figure out.

As I have a workaround for it (just adjust after import) I'm not killing myself on this. But it is driving me crazy, like an itch you can't get at. Hopefully I'll get it figured out or else maybe the next upgrade will just make the problem disappear.

If you think of anything I'm all ears,

regards

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Answer 13

léonie

Level 10

194,761 points

Jan 6, 2012 11:20 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

Thanks for this. Not sure it's related to my problem but it's good to know.

My pleasure, Frank.

I don't like that problem at all - Aperture's time zone support was the most important reason for me to move from iPhoto to Aperture, for I have always been the one who had to combine the pictures from three or more cameras (my husband's and mine) to create books and slideshows.

As I wrote (or tried to) what is happening to me is that the time on the image is not modified at all when imported from the card in the camera.

I repeated my tests with my old Canon HG 10 video camera, hoping that may be somewhat similar to yours. This time I tried freely any combination of camera time and actual time. The import from disk was o.k., the import directly from the camera did not react at all to the different settings - the date was always the same as the creation date - frozen.

I suspect there may be a difference in the EXIF tags that get put on the image files during import, or Aperture communicates with the camera - some kind of protocol to read the current camera time zone setting - taking the current time zone from the computer. That would be error prone, since the card can contain several shoots with images that need different time zone settings.

May I suggest to compare the EXIF tags of the imported masters (camera import vs. disk import, with exiftool or similar) if you can spot any difference? I will not be at home this weekend, and probably not be able to get online.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 14

Frank Caggiano Author

Level 7

25,969 points

Jan 6, 2012 1:36 PM in response to léonie

That's very interesting, those are the symptoms I have. But here I have that happening with the 40D as well as the video camera. As I say I used the video camera only as a test.

You're suggestion to check the EXIF data is a good one but unfortunately this use to work until recently. Again I wish I could come up with an exact date but as I said I'm only now noticing it.

Anyway enjoy the weekend, thanks again.

BTW, Hiklmn, Germany, is that the correct translation 😉

regards

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Answer 15

léonie

Level 10

194,761 points

Jan 6, 2012 2:01 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

Hiklmn, Germany,

A salute to your wicked sense of humor, Frank. I enjoyed that little joke very much.😁

OT: It seems we use different translators - the translator I used translated back and forth the string I wanted, and it gave me a nice translation for "फ्लोरिडा", too - only with an additional, surprising "i" inserted.

Makes me wonder, what I really wrote - I sincerely hope, it is not something offensive, what I posted, not really being able to read that script 😮

Cheers, Léonie

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