ACDSee Pro 2 and 2.5

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Nikon Maker Notes lost when converting NEF to JPG

(6 posts)

  • murech
    Member

    Hello all,

    Yesterday I discovered with horror that when converting NEF files to JPG all the Maker Notes (much more than what ACDSee displays) are completely lost!!

    I seached the forum and found references to problems with Maker Notes as far as 2006 and 2007 and to a problem identified in Sep. 2007 that was being fixed. But it may be that all of these were referring to editing and probably only when editing JPGs. I'm not sure though.

    I did some tests and found no problems when editing a JPG with Marker Notes (as they come from camera) and saving the edited JPG even with a new name. The Maker Notes appear in the new file. Maybe that was the fix in 2007.

    I have already filed a support ticket but, anyway, while I wait for a response (if any)I'd like to ask a few questions:

    1.- Does anybody know if Is this an already know issue?

    2.- Can any other Nikon users shooting RAW (NEF) confirm this?

    3.- Can any non-Nikon users confirm this problem when converting their RAW files to JPG?

    TIA,

    Miguel

    Posted On February 22, 2009 - 10:05 PM (9 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • murech
    Member

    I forgot to mention that I verified my findings not only with ACDSee but with ExifToolGUI.

    Miguel

    Posted On February 22, 2009 - 10:56 PM (9 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • murech
    Member

    This is the response I got to my support ticket:

    Response (Ben H.) - 02/24/2009 04:26 PM
    Hello Miguel,
    Thank you for contacting ACD Systems Customer Support.

    Unfortunately, this is a known issue and it is logged in our bug tracking system. As far as I know, the issue is that on certain camera models, the Maker Notes are bigger than 64K, so it cannot be written into JPEG metadata blocks. Unfortunately, we at tech support are not involved in any decision making process, so I do not know when this issue will be fixed. It will be up to the product management and developers to decide. I apologize for the inconvenience.

    To continue this correspondence, please just hit “reply” to this email.

    Regards,
    Ben H.

    Technical Support
    ACD Systems

    Not very encouraging but at least I got a response. I hope the decision makers decide to fix it soon. After years of use, I would hate having to start looking for a replacement to ACDSee Pro.

    Miguel

    Posted On February 25, 2009 - 11:11 AM (8 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • murech
    Member

    Hello,

    I just noticed today that I never informed the group about the rest of the conversation I had with tech support. Here it is.

    I replied:

    Hello Ben,

    Thanks for your reply. I guess I can just hope that 'decision makers' decide to fix this bug soon. Otherwise, and after many years of using ACDSee, I would have to start looking for a replacement.

    One further comment or question. If the problem is (or seems to be) the 64K limit, why there is no problem when converting' JPG to JPG (i.e editing an original JPG and saving under a different name)? The Maker Notes are the same length in JPGs, aren't they?

    Anyway thank for your reply,

    Miguel

    And the new reply was:

    Response (Ben H.) - 02/25/2009 09:43 AM
    Hi Miguel,
    Thank you for your feedback. The issue only occurs when you convert a file format to JPEG, then the 64K metadata limit will become an issue. If an image was originally encoded with JPEG, then this limit does not occur. So that is why you can take JPEG pictures and the maker notes still show up. I just added your case number to the bug report and I will close the case now. Thank you.

    Regards,

    Ben

    It would be good to know if decission makers have already taken the decission to fix this bug and when can a fix be expected. It is very important for me to have Maker Notes information also on JPGs, important enough to make me consider finding a replacement for ACDSee if the bug is not fixed.
    Miguel

    Posted On March 21, 2009 - 02:01 AM (8 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • Sam Dring
    Moderator

    Miguel

    I feel for you - hate it when apps 'lose' metadata.  Just out of interest, have you tried converting nef to dng and then to jpeg.  Wondering about the 64k limit then?  Sorry but I don't have any nef to try it on

    Posted On March 21, 2009 - 09:38 AM (8 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

  • murech
    Member

    Sam Dring said:

    Miguel

    I feel for you - hate it when apps 'lose' metadata.  Just out of interest, have you tried converting nef to dng and then to jpeg.  Wondering about the 64k limit then?  Sorry but I don't have any nef to try it on

    Hi Sam,

    No, I had not tried with DNG, but I have just done so.

    First, ACDSee doesn't convert to DNG. But that wouldn't be a big problem because Adobe's DNG Converter can be easily called as an external editor from withing ACDSee.

    Second, I have converted NEFs to DNG with both DNG Converter and Lightroom and, as I have verified with ExifToolGUI, they both include Marker Notes in DNG file. But ACDSee does not see or display the Maker Notes of DNG files. I don't know if it just doesn't look for them by design or doesn't even know where to look for them (i.e. offset, lenght), which is my guess. But hey! Let's not complain too much! Unless I have missed something, Lightroom doesn't display Maker Notes at all neither for NEFs, JPGs or DNGs.

    Miguel

    Posted On March 21, 2009 - 03:11 PM (8 months ago) (Permalink to this post)

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