Feature Request: Show focus finetune settings

Submitted by Eta76 on Tue, 05/10/2022 - 16:43
Forums: 
General discussion

I primary use FastRawViewer for quickly deleting out of focus pictures. For getting the best result with my lenses, I try to finetune the focussing system, by making a lot of pictures with different apertures, different finetune settings at different focus distances.
It would be nice when I could get to select these two EXIF values, both are available in the NEF and in .jpg file

I didn't find a configuration file, to add these tags myself, or maybe I did not look in the right place.
 
I normally use the default NIKON software to view these settings, but I found generic EXIFtool also to be able to read the settings

Strangly the value (2) seems to be FineTune enabled, and value (1) seems to be disabled..

I can supply different pictures, in case you are willing to add these tags.
Thanks for reading this :-)

Eta76

Tue, 05/10/2022 - 16:45

Nikon AF Fine Tune Tags

Tag (hex)
Tag (dec)
IFD
Key
Type
Tag description

0x0000
0
NikonAFT
Exif.NikonAFT.AFFineTune
Byte
AF fine tune

0x0001
1
NikonAFT
Exif.NikonAFT.AFFineTuneIndex
Byte
AF fine tune index

0x0002
2
NikonAFT
Exif.NikonAFT.AFFineTuneAdj
SByte
AF fine tune adjustment

also see:
https://exiv2.org/tags-nikon.html

Nikon D810 user

lexa

Wed, 05/11/2022 - 04:25

FastRawViewer displays standard (according to EXIF/DSC standard) tags and a very limited set of non-standard tags (mostly related to lens data).

We do not have any plans to extend metadata support to vendor specific (makernotes) tags because of:

  • Such tags are not documented in public documents, all/most interpretation are guesses.
  • There is no any guarantee that same tag means the same in different cameras from same vendor (or even in same camera/different firmware), so we're unable to provide reliable data interpretation for such tags.
  • Each camera group/camera (or even firmware version) requires separate handling, resulting in endless software tune.

If you trust exiv2 and/or Exiftool interpretatons: use software you trust (e.g. Exiftool + some GUI) for vendor makernotes display.

--

Alex Tutubalin/FastRawViewer team

Eta76

Wed, 05/11/2022 - 13:08

if you trust exiv2 and/or Exiftool interpretatons: use software you trust (e.g. Exiftool + some GUI) for vendor makernotes displa

I normally don't use those tools, but I just google some non-nikon software :-) I really like to use FastRawViewer
I also do understand your point for .jpgs. Possibly you could think about a plugin interface, to let external developers (me) add additional data.
 
Or a very quick win, just show this data when a NEF file is used. If I understood correctly LibRaw is used within the FRV.
Some google search returned:  https://github.com/LibRaw/LibRaw/blob/master/libraw/libraw_types.h
libraw_nikon_makernotes_t;
Line 501

uchar AFFineTune;

uchar AFFineTuneIndex;
 

int8_t AFFineTuneAdj;
 

Or talking about ExifTool:
Line 482:
/* NEF compression, comments follow those for ExifTool tag 0x0093:
1: Lossy (type 1)
2: Uncompressed
3: Lossless
4: Lossy (type 2)
5: Striped packed 12-bit
6: Uncompressed (14-bit reduced to 12-bit)
7: Unpacked 12-bit
8: Small raw
9: Packed 12-bit
10: Packed 14-bit
*/
    ushort NEFCompression;
 
So maybe this value (int8_t AFFineTuneAdj;) could be used without much effort and risk.

Nikon D810 user

lexa

Wed, 05/11/2022 - 14:15

Yes, each specific case is very simple: just parse tag/several tags, create table with tag=>visible value, create some rule to show this visible value or not, that's all. So, yes, your specific case may be solved in several hours or even less.

If we go down this route, we would need to support most (popular) vendors, popular metadata variations, and not only the tags that are of interest to you, but other tags that other users ask for.

Having started on this path, we would end up with a complete porting of exiftool to C/C ++ and this work will be endless because metadata is fluid and Exiftool is constantly evolving.

We don't want to go there because this will end up being another Exiftool GUI (several ones already exists), but with Exiftool completely rewriten into different programming language.

Supporting the display of a large number of metadata fields will not help the main function of the program:  raw images culling (i.e. selecting good frames).

Since the frame has already been taken, it is either good or bad, but what values a specific tag have no longer matter (yes, most EXIF tags are not needed for that task too, but for common/standard tags we bowed to user pressure).

--

Alex Tutubalin/FastRawViewer team

Eta76

Wed, 05/11/2022 - 14:50

Ok, just some last suggestions
Some people use frv not just for culling bad pictures, but want to learn how to make images you would want to keep.
1) I noticed RawDigger seems to get distributed with the latest exiftool. A single checkbox, show all EXIF info would help.
2) Allow for a plugin to add additional info
3) Use configuration file so end-users could add EXIF tags of choice. 
 
As workaround, in case others are looking for more info of their images:
A) One could possibly create a .xmp file, which has some fields to be filled with additional info from some batch file:
         <dc:title>
            <rdf:Alt>
               <rdf:li xml:lang="x-default">.......test.......</rdf:li>
            </rdf:Alt>
         </dc:title>
         <dc:description>
            <rdf:Alt>
               <rdf:li xml:lang="x-default">.......teewr&#xA;werfwefw&#xA;wef.......</rdf:li>
            </rdf:Alt>
         </dc:description
B) Use the external toolbutton, to start another application with the currently visible image, preventing the need to search for the correct file in the other application

Nikon D810 user

lexa

Thu, 05/12/2022 - 01:46

A) FastRawViewer displays dc:title/dc:description XMP tags (you may need to check Display Title/Display Description in XMP Metadata panel gear menu)

B) FastRawViewer is able to run external program via shortcut (menu, context menu), to configure your prefered programs use Preferences - External Editors  https://updates.fastrawviewer.com/data/FastRawViewer2-Manual-ENG.pdf#pag...



and your #3:  EXIF tags are standard: recorded into standard datablock (EXIF IFD for TIFF-based files, APP-blocks for JPEG based, separate data block for MP4-based), uses standard tag values/types, everything is described in public standard.

Most of EXIF/standard tags are covered by FastRawViewer EXIF display tune dialog. We're open to additions to this dialog if we've missed something useful.



Makernotes tags are  a) not always recorded in TIFF-IFD-style tags b) not described in any public/official documents, but guessed by community with unknown quality c) usually requires vendor/block format specific code to parse.

So it is just not possible to create 'configuration file' that will allow user to add own Makernotes fields to display: this will require some underlying code to parse vendor-specific non-standard data.

--

Alex Tutubalin/FastRawViewer team

Eta76

Wed, 05/11/2022 - 14:55

@1 RawDigger does show all MakerNotes, when showing the EXIF dialog

Nikon D810 user

lexa

Thu, 05/12/2022 - 01:36

Yes, it uses Exiftool for that. This is not an option for FastRawViewer due to speed reasons.

--

Alex Tutubalin/FastRawViewer team

Eta76

Thu, 05/12/2022 - 16:40

Thanks for the clarifications, I think I will work with 'workaround A' create XMP files to show the custom info.

Nikon D810 user

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