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Bug #1361

Wrongly identified Canon 2x extender as 1.4x extender with Tamron lens

Added by Simon Harhues over 3 years ago. Updated over 3 years ago.

Status:
Closed
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
Category:
lens
Target version:
Start date:
22 Jul 2018
Due date:
% Done:

100%

Estimated time:
1.00 h

Description

exiv2 0.25 (couldn't find a fix for the bug in the change log (only #1128 might be related), thus assume that it still exists) on Ubuntu 18.04.
Example file: www.muenster.de/~simonh/EQ2A0002.CR2
Used lens combination: "TAMRON SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2 A025" and Canon Extender EF 2x III (normally recognized as "+2x III")
exiv2 seems to only recognize the extender as an 1.4x extender:
user@host:~$ EQ2A0002.CR2 | grep -ai lens
Exif.CanonCs.LensType Short 1 Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM
Exif.CanonCs.Lens Short 3 98.0 - 280.0 mm
Exif.Canon.LensModel Ascii 74 TAMRON SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2 A025 +1.4x III
Exif.Photo.LensSpecification Rational 4 98/1 280/1 0/1 0/1
Exif.Photo.LensModel Ascii 53 TAMRON SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2 A025 +1.4x III
Exif.Photo.LensSerialNumber Ascii 11 0000000000

Thus also the focal lens values are wrong:
user@host:~$ exiv2 -pt EQ2A0002.CR2 | grep -ai focallength
Exif.Photo.FocalLength Rational 1 98.0 mm
Exif.Canon.FocalLength Short 4 98.0 mm

(In case it is relevant: same problem exists with exiftool: http://u88.n24.queensu.ca/exiftool/forum/index.php/topic,9367.0.html)

Note: Not sure if the "Exif.CanonCs.LensType" information is imoportant, but that seems to be wrong as well -- even when used without an extender as seen below:
user@host:~$ exiv2 -pt EQ2A0001.CR2 | grep -ai lens
Exif.CanonCs.LensType Short 1 Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM
Exif.CanonCs.Lens Short 3 70.0 - 200.0 mm
Exif.Canon.LensModel Ascii 74 TAMRON SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2 A025
Exif.Photo.LensSpecification Rational 4 70/1 200/1 0/1 0/1
Exif.Photo.LensModel Ascii 43 TAMRON SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2 A025
Exif.Photo.LensSerialNumber Ascii 11 0000000000
Example file: www.muenster.de/~simonh/EQ2A0001.CR2

Note: using the extender together with a Canon lens, it is correctly identified as 2x extender. See example file: www.muenster.de/~simonh/EQ2A9988.CR2

Thanks for your work!
Simon


Related issues

Related to Exiv2 - Bug #1363: Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD G2 - Canon mountClosed06 Aug 2018

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History

#1

Updated by Robin Mills over 3 years ago

  • Category set to lens
  • Status changed from New to Assigned
  • Assignee set to Robin Mills
  • Target version set to 0.27
  • % Done changed from 0 to 50
  • Estimated time set to 1.00 h

Simon

Thank you for reporting this and thanks for providing a test file. Here's the output from Exiv2 v0.26:

526 rmills@rmillsmbp:~/gnu/exiv2/v0.26/build $ bin/exiv2 -pa --grep lens/i ~/Downloads/EQ2A9988.CR2 
Exif.CanonCs.LensType                        Short       1  Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM + 2x
Exif.CanonCs.Lens                            Short       3  140.0 - 400.0 mm
Exif.Canon.LensModel                         Ascii      74  EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM +2x III
Exif.Photo.LensSpecification                 Rational    4  140/1 400/1 0/1 0/1
Exif.Photo.LensModel                         Ascii      36  EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM +2x III
Exif.Photo.LensSerialNumber                  Ascii      11  0000413819
527 rmills@rmillsmbp:~/gnu/exiv2/v0.26/build $ 
With Exiv2 v0.26 and later, you can change the lens recognition using the file ~/.exiv2. For your file:
503 rmills@rmillsmbp:~ $ exiv2 -pv --grep lens/i ~/Downloads/EQ2A9988.CR2 
0x0016 CanonCs      LensType                    Short       1  253  <--- This is the key
0x0017 CanonCs      Lens                        Short       3  400 140 1
0x0095 Canon        LensModel                   Ascii      74  EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM +2x III
0xa432 Photo        LensSpecification           Rational    4  140/1 400/1 0/1 0/1
0xa434 Photo        LensModel                   Ascii      36  EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM +2x III
0xa435 Photo        LensSerialNumber            Ascii      11  0000413819
Register the lens ID in ~/.exiv2
505 rmills@rmillsmbp:~ $ cat ~/.exiv2 
[canon]
255=Simon's Canon 2x extender <--- Put your lens title here
And hey presto:
509 rmills@rmillsmbp:~ $ exiv2 -pa --grep lens/i ~/Downloads/EQ2A9988.CR2 
Exif.CanonCs.LensType                        Short       1  Simon's Canon 2x extender
Exif.CanonCs.Lens                            Short       3  140.0 - 400.0 mm
Exif.Canon.LensModel                         Ascii      74  EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM +2x III
Exif.Photo.LensSpecification                 Rational    4  140/1 400/1 0/1 0/1
Exif.Photo.LensModel                         Ascii      36  EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM +2x III
Exif.Photo.LensSerialNumber                  Ascii      11  0000413819
510 rmills@rmillsmbp:~ $ 

#2

Updated by Simon Harhues over 3 years ago

THX for your quick feedback Robin! Just to ensure that I didn't misunderstand you or in case I expressed myself not clearly enough: While there's actually no problem with the meta data in file EQ2A9988.CR2 but in the two other files given, I do understand that the procedure you mentioned generally works as a local workaround to correct wrongly recognized data. I thus could (temporarily) correct the recognition of the lens + extender combination locally for me. I would want the output of exiv2 for the lensfun recognition within darktable and actually I need it first of all to enable support for the lens + extender combination to lensfun as it is not supported yet. Thus as it is a general problem, I assume that it will get fixed in a future exiv2 version to let everybody benefit from the recognition.
Thanks again for your work!

#3

Updated by Simon Harhues over 3 years ago

Edit: The problem with "Exif.CanonCs.LensType" seems to be more severe than I assumed, the Tamron lens is also without the extender wrongly identified as a Canon 300mm lens. Thus this should be corrected anyway to enable a correct working of lensfun. I've uploaded another example image of the Tamron lens without an extender: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6q1d54uyraot82r/EQ2A9987.CR2?dl=0
Feel free to use all images for improving exiv2 and other FOSS.

#4

Updated by Robin Mills over 3 years ago

  • % Done changed from 50 to 100

Lens recognition is difficult. The name of the lens is not encoded in the metadata. The manufacturer often encodes a "LensID" in the MakerNote. The MakerNote is "secret sauce" which has been mostly reverse engineered in Exiv2. The manufacturer frequently uses the same "LensID" for several different lenses. To deduce the lens, we have to inspect other metadata (such as min/max Aperture) to deduce the type of lens.

I wish Exiv2 had never become involved with lens recognition as it has given rise to hundreds of requests to recognise new lenses as they appear on the market. To enable users to "register" a new lens, the ~/.exiv2 mechanism was added in v0.26.

I appreciate the usefulness of lens recognition for lensfun. So, I feel that lensful should use Exiv2 to extract the metadata and deduce the lens in use.

The mission of Exiv2 is to correctly extract, add, delete and modify metadata according to the standards. The meaning of the metadata is another matter. I don't feel that deducing the lens type from the metadata is the business of Exiv2. Many folks disagree with my view. I have invited many to join Exiv2 to work on this very topic. Niels worked with me for several years on lens recognition. When he retired from the project, I added the ~/.exiv2 feature to give users some capability to recognise their lenses.

Perhaps a volunteer lens-enthusiast will join Team Exiv2 and take ownership of lens-recognition. However for the moment, I don't think anything can be done without another Engineer.

#5

Updated by Simon Harhues over 3 years ago

Too bad to hear. I'll hope then as well, that a new maintainer will be found.

#6

Updated by Robin Mills over 3 years ago

  • Status changed from Assigned to Closed

Simon:

Thanks for getting back to me. Exiv2 is being actively maintained. I've put in about 10,000 hours over the last 10 years. I've recruited a couple of very talented engineers who are working hard on the build and test infrastructure, bigtiff and other projects. lens-recognition was given attention in v0.26 by adding the ~/.exiv2 feature.

We had a team meeting at my home in England in May 2018. A very nice weekend. We had fun, dinner, BBQ, a run in the country and discussed many aspects of Exiv2. Here's the pre-meeting document: http://dev.exiv2.org/projects/exiv2/news You'll see that topic 8.3 is "Enhanced lens recognition". So Team Exiv2 is well aware that many folks would like to see this subject get more attention.

I'm optimistic that a volunteer will join us and become the hero who will deal with this subject. Numerous design possibilities to improve lens recognition are discussed in this document: http://dev.exiv2.org/issues/1034

#7

Updated by Simon Harhues over 3 years ago

Sorry if my brevity was misleading! Didn't want to give the impression that exiv2 isn't maintained or that I don't value your engagement Robin -- I really do value your work! I was just referring to the specific part of lens recognition (used by lensfun) mentioned by you.
Thanks again for your effort!

#8

Updated by Robin Mills over 3 years ago

Thanks for the clarification. For sure I wanted you to know that good things are being done by Team Exiv2.

I have a potential volunteer to take on the lens recognition issue. However the person is fully occupied with business and family at the moment. I've even been wondering if I should take on the task myself in 2019 (once we have v0.27 released). One of my ideas is to embed a scripting language inside exiv2 which could execute arbitrary code for lens recognition. That would be a fun project.

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