Lens information and focal length (35mm) not showing up

Question

Lens information and focal length (35mm) not showing up

I'm using a Canon 20D with several L lenses and I have yet to see any information show up in the Focal Length (35mm) field, or any of the lens information fields. I would think this would be a pretty common combination and I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to get this information.

For focal length, since it does know my camera type (i.e. 20D) can't they just multiply all the lens focal lengths by 1.6 my FOVCF?

Intel iMac 20", Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Jul 1, 2006 9:52 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 22, 2006 3:22 PM in response to Joseph Martin3

Sounds like a bug in parsing the EXIF data. I think most of the details of the way each camera/manufacture sets up the data and order that it appears is hidden to the world. I would check with a different program to see if it shows you the data you want already, and then file a bug report with Apple [how - I don't know...]. I'd use GraphicConverter for starters. AP works fine with my Minolta kit, so I'm sure that there are way more 20D users out there than 7D...

k.

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Answer 2

Jul 23, 2006 7:16 AM in response to Joseph Martin3

This was discussed here a while ago. I have a Canon 350D+L lenses, same problem. My 300D raws don't have that problem. It seems like Canon is not using standard EXIF tags.

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Answer 3

Jul 23, 2006 3:28 PM in response to Joseph Martin3

I have the same situation with Nikon. I think it should be high on Apple's list for sorting - if I want to export to dxo I need to know the lens used.

I suppose we might all be doing something wrong but it would be a strange default ...

Kenneth

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Answer 4

Jul 24, 2006 12:09 PM in response to Eduardo Calvo

the EXIF data shows up fine in most programs. In this case it's a simple math problem rather than a data one. All that has to be done is Apple has to know the FOVCF (Field of View Crop Factor), which in my case is 1.6X and then need to multiply the correctly read EXIF data for focal length and multiply it. That's all.

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Answer 5

Taverner

Level 1

35 points

Jul 26, 2006 12:23 AM in response to Joseph Martin3

Same here with the Canon 30D. I don't get anything in the Lens minimum or maximum field, while this is the case with my old 300D-Pictures.

If I process a 30D RAW with Capture One, there is a whole lot more information in the EXIF-Data of the processed JPG or TIFF compared to a Aperture-Export.

Apple, fix this!

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Answer 6

Aug 2, 2006 2:11 PM in response to Joseph Martin3

I have the same issue with my Canon 5D. My Canon 350D however seems to have the lens information reported in the metadata. The focal length IS reported on the 5D but not the Min and Max lengths, ie what lense I was using.

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Answer 7

GTB

Level 1

16 points

Aug 17, 2006 12:49 PM in response to goodbyenine

I have a Nikon D200 and the actual focal length and the 35mm equivalent show up in the EXIF data but not the type of lens. Every other program I've used identifies the lens by name, why not in Aperture. I consider knowing which specific lens I used to be more important than the 35mm equivalent. Is there a fix or a work around, or am I doing something wrong?

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Answer 8

Bigpikle

Level 1

10 points

Aug 18, 2006 3:48 AM in response to Joseph Martin3

the sensor size in the camera does not alter the focal length of the lens - it just results in an image with a different field of view to a different sensor size. Focal length is a characteristic of the lens and has nothing whatsoever to do with the camera body it is attached to.

The lens will always be a 28mm or 50mm etc so why would Aperture or any other software say it is a 45mm or 80mm lens? The image will not look the same as if you had taken it with an actual 45mm or 80mm lens, so it would be incorrect to show it as such...

Aperture should simply show the actual focal length for each image - we translate that to whatever is helpful for us to understand the results.

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