Exiv2

Are you using cmd.exe or powershell? The DOS/cmd.exe escape character is ^. However, I don't believe you need it for the colon ":".

Here's a little test I've just run on W7/64 with exiv2.exe (v0.25, head of trunk):

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>dir exiv2.exe
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 0899-EF40
 Directory of C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll
09/14/2015  04:54 PM           403,456 exiv2.exe
               1 File(s)        403,456 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  22,731,194,368 bytes free

C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>exiv2 -vV -g version -g svn
exiv2 0.25 001900 (64 bit build)
version=8.00
svn=3940
id=$Id: version.cpp 3931 2015-09-08 13:01:05Z robinwmills $

C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>echo 10:20:30
10:20:30
C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>echo 10^:20^:30
10:20:30
C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>echo 10^^:20^^:30
10^:20^:30
C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>copy c:\temp\BabyGnuTux-BigWLPG.jpg foo.jpg
        1 file(s) copied.

C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>exiv2 -pa -g Date foo.jpg
Exif.Image.DateTime                          Ascii      20  2012:01:04 20:34:45
Xmp.xmp.CreateDate                           XmpText    25  2012-01-04T20:32:52+01:00
Xmp.xmp.ModifyDate                           XmpText    25  2012-01-04T20:34:45+01:00
Xmp.xmp.MetadataDate                         XmpText    25  2012-01-04T20:34:45+01:00

C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>exiv2 "-Mset Exif.Image.DateTime 2015:09:18 17:35:02" foo.jpg
C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>exiv2 -pa -g Date foo.jpg
Exif.Image.DateTime                          Ascii      20  2015:09:18 17:35:02
Xmp.xmp.CreateDate                           XmpText    25  2012-01-04T20:32:52+01:00
Xmp.xmp.ModifyDate                           XmpText    25  2012-01-04T20:34:45+01:00
Xmp.xmp.MetadataDate                         XmpText    25  2012-01-04T20:34:45+01:00

Wow, that was fast!

Yes, I'm running the good old cmd.exe dos prompt. I figured that it's old and cruddy enough so that my script will run on anything.
the problem that I'm running into is that in a batch file, the : is considered as a command all by itself, so I have to work around that.
I'm starting to think that the only way around would be to create a text file containing all the commands, send it through exiv2 and then delete it. But that's proving to be a real pain... but it might be the only way around this.

Right now, just getting the system date in the proper order is proving to be another problem... but at least once this part is written, the rest should come in easy.

I think you're doing something wrong. Make sure you have the time enclosed in " .... ". Like this:

C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>type foo.bat
@echo off
exiv2 "-Mset Exif.Image.DateTime 2015:09:18 18:02:02" foo.jpg
exiv2 -pa -g Exif.Image.DateTime foo.jpg

C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>foo.bat
Exif.Image.DateTime                          Ascii      20  2015:09:18 18:02:02
C:\cygwin64\home\rmills\gnu\exiv2\trunk\msvc2005\bin\x64\debugdll>

I've also heard people say great things about PowerShell. I've never wanted to use PS because it's M/S only. I seldom work exclusively on Windows. When I write scripts, I usually want then to run on any platform. I like bash/cygwin. I've found python to be a very nice cross-platform environment. For example the msvc2005/configure.bat script in the Exiv2 build system.

There's an Exiv2 user in Silicon Valley who has a scanning business. I think he has scripts for a lot of this stuff. I could put you in touch with him and maybe you can collaborate.

DOS is definitely the underdog of the programming world, but I think that's why I like it.
A long time ago I used to do a lot of stuff in classic Visual Basic but I got tired of it. While it does make nice interfaces, I like the smallness of script files. They rarely get to be incompatible with some system update and don't need a ton of junk just to run.

Right now, I think I may be on my way to figuring some way to bypass the problems... as they say, simplify until it doesn't work and start from there. I'm thinking my script might have been overly complicated. I found out that for some reason it doesn't like to set values in an IF block... I call it quirkiness.

I think I might actually have cracked it!
I need to put the commands into a separate file like I thought. And to get the system date I need to do it in a separate sub and then bring the values back where they can be used...
Here's a sample of what I've done. Still needs some work but it seems OK so far.

@ECHO OFF
rem change codepage to allow nice graphics ;-)
chcp 65001
CLS
rem Check WMIC is available
WMIC.EXE Alias /? >NUL 2>&1 || GOTO s_error
SETLOCAL

rem set location where exiv2 is located
rem default is set to Program Files folder 
rem like: set EXIV2_PATH=%ProgramFiles%\EXIV2
rem Use double quotes"" when the name contains spaces

set EXIV2_PATH="d:\Portable Apps\EXIV2" 
IF EXIST %EXIV2_PATH% SET PATH=%PATH%;%EXIV2_PATH%
if not exist %EXIV2_PATH%\exiv2.exe goto Error

rem Go to drag and drop folder
if "%~1" == "" exit
cd "%~1" 

rem Get current dir name
for %%* in (.) do set CurrDirName=%%~n*

:DATE
rem select date to use
choice /m "Use System date and time or Custom date?" /C sc
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 call :CustomDate
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 call :SystemDate

rem Display the date/time in ISO 8601 format:
Set _isodate=%_yyyy%:%_mm%:%_dd% %_hour%:%_minute%:00
Echo %_isodate%
rem make a command file with all commands for exiv2
(
echo add Exif.Image.DateTime %_isodate%
echo add Exif.Image.DateTimeOriginal %_isodate%
echo add Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal %_isodate%
echo add Xmp.xmp.CreateDate %_isodate%
echo add Xmp.xmp.ModifyDate %_isodate%
echo add Xmp.xmp.MetadataDate %_isodate%
) >%temp%\Commands.txt

rem view command content just for fun
type %temp%\Commands.txt
rem add the proper tags to the filed in the dragged folder
exiv2 -m "%temp%\Commands.txt" "%~1"\*.jpg
pause
rem remove the commands from the temp folder
del %temp%\Commands.txt
GOTO END

:SystemDate
rem get system date and time in a uniform fashion
FOR /F "skip=1 tokens=1-6" %%G IN ('WMIC Path Win32_LocalTime Get Day^,Hour^,Minute^,Month^,Second^,Year /Format:table') DO (
   IF "%%~L"=="" goto s_done
      Set _yyyy=%%L
      Set _mm=00%%J
      Set _dd=00%%G
      Set _hour=00%%H
      SET _minute=00%%I
)
:s_done
rem Pad digits with leading zeros
      Set _mm=%_mm:~-2%
      Set _dd=%_dd:~-2%
      Set _hour=%_hour:~-2%
      Set _minute=%_minute:~-2%
exit /B

:CustomDate
set /p _yyyy=Enter Year:
set /p _mm=Enter Month 
rem this adds the leading zeros when needed
Set _mm=%_mm:~-2%
set /p _dd=Enter Day
Set _dd=%_dd:~-2%
set /p _hour=Enter Hour (24)
Set _hour=%_hour:~-2%
set /p _minute=Enter Minutes
Set _minute=%_minute:~-2%
rem return to the call command that originated
exit /B

:END
ECHO Thank you for using this script
pause
Exit

All I need to do is drop a folder on the batch file and it checks everything and does the job. I still need to test it with a user input instead of an automatic date but it should work equally well.

Thanks!

Well done, Francois. I'm not too convinced about the temporary file business - however it's working that's what counts. Take the rest of the day off!

For sure the DOS '(' and ')' for if and stuff is a very slippery customer. I agree with your comments about VB. Nice people don't let their friends use VB. VB = Very brittle. However making a little GUI in VB is fun and you can use it to launch your batch file. However, only do fluffy gui stuff in VB. Invest your effort in durable/fixable code.

I don't like the temp file stuff very much either but it seems to be the lesser of two evils. Besides, it simplifies things and I clean up when I'm done...
I could create a ramdrive, store the file there and then collapse the memory... but that would be messy for nothing.
If I just had a penny for every program that leaves junk lying everywhere on my drive...

Good job Robin!

Apologies in advance for a bit of an OT reply, but I'm always interested in seeing how people handle dates for their images. The Metadata Working Group has some information and guidelines on which tags are which and includes recommendations for scanned images.

http://www.metadataworkinggroup.org/pdf/mwg_guidance.pdf#page=37

For instance Xmp.photoshop.DateCreated is the equivalent of Exif.Image.DateTimeOriginal.

Thanks for the link.
I'm going to check it out for sure as I want my images to be properly read by software and websites.

As for now, my metadata handling is primitive at best. I often feel some tags are harder to get correct than others.
For instance, I always slave over the aperture info and the date gave me hell. Shutter speed is another one...

Anyways, I'll check it out.

Aperture is a tricky customer - it's stored as a rational - however converting to a decimal is wrong. It's an APEX number. The exiv2(.exe) application knows what to do with the syntax Fn.m to convert it to an Apex rational. http://dev.exiv2.org/issues/1039

As Alan says, dates are another black art. The Exif standard does not include Time Zone information. I also believe it does not handle time resolution less than than 1 second and that's a bummer when processing bracketed images (for HDR). I think there's an Exif standard for sub seconds, however this is all messy. Xmp follows the better XML date/time standard. http://dev.exiv2.org/issues/1112

I can't say much about exposure. Shutter speed (Exif.Photo.ExposureTime) is stored as a rational second. There was an issue recently relating to this. http://dev.exiv2.org/issues/935

I've dumped the exposure data from a photo I took in July at Stonehenge. It has all this EV stuff which I think is a setting on the camera to under/overexpose. And mostly in the Nikon MakerNotes from my D5300. I'm a retired Adobe Software Engineer and joined Team Exiv2 to add MSVC support. I've been on a 7 year adventure into the mysterious land of metadata and still have a great deal to learn.

$ exiv2 -pa -g Exposure http://dev.exiv2.org/attachments/download/805/DSC_7154.jpg
Exif.Photo.ExposureTime                      Rational    1  1/400 s
Exif.Photo.ExposureProgram                   Short       1  Not defined
Exif.Photo.ExposureBiasValue                 SRational   1  0 EV
Exif.Nikon3.ExposureDiff                     Undefined   4  0.0 EV
Exif.Nikon3.FlashExposureComp                Undefined   4  0.0 EV
Exif.Nikon3.ExposureBracketComp              SRational   1  0/6
Exif.Nikon3.ExposureTuning                   Undefined   3  0 1 6
Exif.NikonMe.MultiExposureMode               Long        1  Off
Exif.NikonMe.MultiExposureShots              Long        1  0
Exif.NikonMe.MultiExposureAutoGain           Long        1  Off
Exif.Photo.ExposureMode                      Short       1  Auto
$ 

Yes, it is for scanning old negatives.
The good thing is I know which lenses were used so I can set the lens mm, focal length equivalent and maximum aperture pretty easily.
Exposure mode, flash on/off are another one I can easily set without much knowledge.

Thing is I regularly scan stuff and then use AnalogEXIF to add the tags back in. But this program hasn't seen any development in ages and contains more than a few bugs, some of them intermittent and mysterious... the type of stuff we all hate. On the other hand, EXIV2 has been around for quite some time (I used to use it back when it didn't support XML) so I naturally migrated to it and am attempting to rebuild the same functionality as analogexif but in a bulletproof batch file.