Capture time incorrect in info window

[ckcondon]

Hey Kirk,
I ran into an interesting problem today. I'm going back to do second edits from two events from a couple of weeks ago.
I noticed that one of the contact sheets came up out of order from one of the folders. I always set the default to capture time.
I saw that all the frames showed the same capture time in the info window. The whole folder showed "14:12:37". The dates are correct.
I thought maybe I did something at ingest, but when I look at the preview window (with panes and the info on the right) it shows the correct capture time. It also shows up correctly in Photoshop file info.
I'm wondering if anyone else has experiences this discrepancy?
I ingested one of the tournament cards that I had not reformatted as a test this morning and it was fine... Very strange.
I'm using PM V 4.4.2 on a G4 Powerbook with OS 10.4.3. The images were shot on Canon EOS 1D Mark II's on Ridata 2GB cards and ingested with a Lexar firwire reader.
I also double checked the same folders on my new intel imac w/ OS 10.4.6 and the latest PM beta. Same issue.

Thanks!

Chris Condon

[dennis]

Hi Chris,

I think you are talking about the IPTC time being the same, not the capture time.

The capture time is what is written by the camera in the Exif info, and probably what you are seeing in the Preview dialog if you are using the {time} variable.  The capture time (and date) are used for sorting if you choose "Capture Time" from the contact sheet sort menu.  So I am a bit confused about why you say your photos are out of order.

The IPTC time normally defaults to the capture time, but it can be changed in the IPTC Info dialog (something hardly anyone does).  After looking at the code, the only way we can think of the IPTC time being the same for multiple photos is if you did an IPTC snapshot from the contextual menu for a captioned photo in the contact sheet, then selected the remaining photos and pasted this IPTC snapshot onto them.  We will be changing PM today so that the IPTC time is not overwritten in this case, but currently that is probably the cause for the IPTC time being identical.  We will also make a change such that if you clear the IPTC Info dialog using the Clear button, the IPTC date and time will revert to the capture date and time (right now it acts as if you clicked on the "Today" button).  So, after these changes are made to PM, one way to restore your IPTC times would be to clear only the time field (hold the Option key down and click on the Clear/Options button and only check the Time field).  But unfortunately this would have to be done one at a time.  The good news is that nobody pays much attention to the IPTC time (and some papers want the IPTC date to be the date the photo is filed, not necessarily the capture date).

Please verify that the sort order of your photos is correct if you are using Capture Time for sorting since it appears that this time is still valid (based upon the Preview window and PS).

HTH!

--dennis

[ckcondon]

Thanks Dennis,

That helps clear some things up. I didn't realize that the IPTC time was different than the capture time. I do use the stationary pad at ingest to apply basic captions, but why would it show the same time for images ingested at different times? What do I need to change to get it to display capture time instead? I never thought that anything other than capture time would display in the IPTC info screen.
As far as the images being out of order, that falls on me because after digging a little deeper, I found one of my cameras was out of synch with the others.

I appreciate your quick response!

Chris

[dennis]

Chris,

Yes the capture time is different from the IPTC (or XMP) time.  The capture time comes from Exif written by the camera.  The IPTC time is something that is inside of the IPTC record along with the other IPTC fields like city, state, photographer (byline), caption, keywords, etc.  These date/times don't have to be the same, although as I mentioned Photo Mechanic will INITIALIZE the IPTC date/time to the capture date/time.  But the user can change the IPTC date/time in the IPTC Info dialog if they want to (e.g. "today" to match any filing date of the photo).

If you ingest and apply IPTC then all the IPTC date/time values should be the same as the capture date/time values (unless you decide to apply the IPTC date by checking its box in the IPTC Stationery Pad - not normally desired).  If you want to you can add the following variables into the Info Text (Edit menu, Set Info Text) to see what's really set via the Preview window:

Date and Time: {date} {time}
IPTC Date and Time: {iptcdate} {iptctime}

If these date/times are different from any other reason than Applying an IPTC date (you can't apply IPTC time) or the issue I mentioned with IPTC snapshots via the contextual menu then I'd like to know how that happens.

You can't get the IPTC Info dialog to display the capture date/time unless you stick some capture date/time variables into some IPTC field (which is what some people do as part of their caption).  The date and time fields in the IPTC Info dialog show the IPTC date/time.  The Preview window (or contextual menu -> Image Info from contact sheet) is where you can see the capture date/time or anything else you throw into that text.

HTH.

--dennis