XT2 RAW

[Tim S]

Hi Kirk

Fuji XT2 RAW files are not retaining their star rating when I close and reopen PM.  I'm running PM5, build 18327 (5034d39) on Win10, 64bit.  I think I had this issue before with a different camera a while back, may have been XT1.

Any help appreciated.

Tim

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

Hello,

Are you viewing the files while they are still on the memory card, or have you ingested them to your local hard drive, or another location?

-Mick

[Tim S]

Thanks Mick, they've been copied to the hard drive before I open them in PM. 

I've just tried to reproduce the problem again and there wasn't a problem this time, so I now suspect the problem isn't with PM.  The files in question had been rated outside of PM on an Android tablet using the RawVision app.  This app seems to have affected the files somehow so that new ratings in PM aren't retained. 

There's always been a problem working between the 2 apps as PM doesn't show ratings from RawVision yet LightRoom does, but I didn't realise it was affecting the files in this way until now.

So my apologies, it appears it's not an issue with PM as such, although it would be great to find an app that worked on my tablet and with PM on my PC - ie ratings show on both.

Tim

[Kirk Baker]

Tim,

Thanks Mick, they've been copied to the hard drive before I open them in PM. 

I've just tried to reproduce the problem again and there wasn't a problem this time, so I now suspect the problem isn't with PM.  The files in question had been rated outside of PM on an Android tablet using the RawVision app.  This app seems to have affected the files somehow so that new ratings in PM aren't retained. 

There's always been a problem working between the 2 apps as PM doesn't show ratings from RawVision yet LightRoom does, but I didn't realise it was affecting the files in this way until now.

So my apologies, it appears it's not an issue with PM as such, although it would be great to find an app that worked on my tablet and with PM on my PC - ie ratings show on both.

Does RawVision modify the RAW file or does it create an XMP sidecar file?

-Kirk

[Tim S]

Sidecar I think. Not got tablet with me at the moment, will check when I have it.

[Kirk Baker]

Tim,

Sidecar I think. Not got tablet with me at the moment, will check when I have it.

If it does indeed produce XMP sidecar files, make sure your IPTC/XMP Preferences are set to prefer XMP sidecars over embedded XMP and IPTC metadata.  Choosing the "Adobe" option from the snapshot button (the small button with the lightning bolt on it) will set the preferences to work with XMP sidecar files.

-Kirk

[Tim S]

Thanks Kirk

RawVision definitely does create xmp sidecars.

I just checked my PM preferences and 'Prefer XMP sidecars over embedded...' was already set.  I chose the 'Adobe' snapshot option and have retested everything with new (Fuji XT1) raw files.  This is what happened:

• Opened the files in RawVision and gave each star ratings
• Copied the files to my PC (including sidecars)
• Opened the folder in PM - the star ratings don't show
• Imported the files into Lightroom - the ratings do show

When I first started using RawVision, a couple of years ago, I spent a lot of time messing about with different settings in PM to try and get it to work.  RawVision tech support said they have designed it to work with Lightroom and have not tested it with other applications. I would have hoped if LightRoom could read the star ratings, PM could too.

I've tried using RawVision to rate files on the tablet's internal storage, direct on the camera card using a card reader, with files stored on a USB flash drive via USB-OTG.  All of these work, but the ratings aren't available in PM.

My work around at the moment is after rating in RawVision I copy the files into separate folders, '1Star', '2Star' etc before copying them to PC and adding the ratings back in PM before copying them back to a single folder, which is a bit cumbersome and copying raws on a tablet is not as fast as on a PC.

If you have any ideas, I'd be very grateful.

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks Kirk

RawVision definitely does create xmp sidecars.

I just checked my PM preferences and 'Prefer XMP sidecars over embedded...' was already set.  I chose the 'Adobe' snapshot option and have retested everything with new (Fuji XT1) raw files.  This is what happened:

• Opened the files in RawVision and gave each star ratings
• Copied the files to my PC (including sidecars)
• Opened the folder in PM - the star ratings don't show
• Imported the files into Lightroom - the ratings do show

When I first started using RawVision, a couple of years ago, I spent a lot of time messing about with different settings in PM to try and get it to work.  RawVision tech support said they have designed it to work with Lightroom and have not tested it with other applications. I would have hoped if LightRoom could read the star ratings, PM could too.

I've tried using RawVision to rate files on the tablet's internal storage, direct on the camera card using a card reader, with files stored on a USB flash drive via USB-OTG.  All of these work, but the ratings aren't available in PM.

My work around at the moment is after rating in RawVision I copy the files into separate folders, '1Star', '2Star' etc before copying them to PC and adding the ratings back in PM before copying them back to a single folder, which is a bit cumbersome and copying raws on a tablet is not as fast as on a PC.

If you have any ideas, I'd be very grateful.

Please post a sample XMP sidecar file that has a rating set.  Use the 'Attachments and other options' link when you're composing your reply to this message and there you'll be able to upload your file.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[Tim S]

Thanks Kirk, the attached was given a 3 rating in RawVision.

[Kirk Baker]

I downloaded your sample XMP file and assigned it to a CR2 RAW file (but that shouldn't matter) and PM found the rating of 3.

I'd like to see a screen shot of your IPTC/XMP settings.  Use the 'Attachments and other options' link when you're composing your reply to this message and there you'll be able to upload your JPEG format screenshot.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[Tim S]

That's strange.  I've not tried CR2, but I can't get it to work with .NEF, .RAF or .jpegs.  Screenshot attached.

[Kirk Baker]

Tim,

Your settings look perfect.  Do you have read permission on the XMP sidecar files?

EDIT: on JPEG files, XMP sidecar files are not used.  XMP is always directly embedded into JPEGs.

-Kirk

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

This is not directly related to your issue of stars added by an Android app, but I wanted to point out that star ratings added to photos in camera in the X-T2 are stored in the proprietary maker notes.  If you add stars to a file in an X-T2, neither Lightroom or Photo Mechanic will see them. Grrr, Fujifilm! 

(But if you "Protect" a file in camera in an X-T2, Photo Mechanic will see the file as "tagged" when Ingested. If you were willing to ditch star ratings, this might be useful to you.)

[Tim S]

Your settings look perfect.  Do you have read permission on the XMP sidecar files?

Thanks Kirk, the sidecar files from RawVision are exactly as the file I sent you, the atttributes aren't set to read only, see screen shot.  If it was something like that, any read permissions aren't a problem in LightRoom, but are in PM, could this be because LR is changing the permissions during import and PM isn't?

[Tim S]

This is not directly related to your issue of stars added by an Android app, but I wanted to point out that star ratings added to photos in camera in the X-T2 are stored in the proprietary maker notes.  If you add stars to a file in an X-T2, neither Lightroom or Photo Mechanic will see them. Grrr, Fujifilm! 

(But if you "Protect" a file in camera in an X-T2, Photo Mechanic will see the file as "tagged" when Ingested. If you were willing to ditch star ratings, this might be useful to you.)

Thanks Mick.  I had considered rating in camera and it's useful to know that there would still be issues if I did.

As it's sometime since I checked out available Android Apps for viewing and rating, I'm going to look again.  I'm currently trying Photo Mate R3, but it's having issues with (you guessed it) Fuji raws!  It is however much less clunky than RawVision although there doesn't seem to be an option to auto advance after rating, a feature I love with RawVision and PhotoMechanic - the fewer clicks/taps the better when culling!

I've yet to test if Photo Mate's star ratings can be read by PhotoMechanic, watch this space.