NEF, DNG and missing Maker Notes

[andreiya93]

When using NEFs, I can see info from the maker notes, like shutter actuations. But when I convert the NEF to DNG using Lightroom, Photo Mechanic won't show this info for the new DNG.
ExifTool shows the info is present on both NEF and DNG.

So the question is, should Photo Mechanic be able to read the info on DNG's Nikon maker notes or just not implemented yet ?

On a (maybe related) note, the NEFs info show 300ppi but the converted DNG 72ppi. Still, photoshop edits both of them as 300ppi.
I know it is relatively uninportant given the total pixel counts are the same, but it still bugs me.


P.S. : Vista Ultimate x64, Lightroom 1.3.1, Photo Mechanic 4.5.2, Nikon D200

[Kirk Baker]

When using NEFs, I can see info from the maker notes, like shutter actuations. But when I convert the NEF to DNG using Lightroom, Photo Mechanic won't show this info for the new DNG.
ExifTool shows the info is present on both NEF and DNG.

So the question is, should Photo Mechanic be able to read the info on DNG's Nikon maker notes or just not implemented yet ?

On a (maybe related) note, the NEFs info show 300ppi but the converted DNG 72ppi. Still, photoshop edits both of them as 300ppi.
I know it is relatively uninportant given the total pixel counts are the same, but it still bugs me.


P.S. : Vista Ultimate x64, Lightroom 1.3.1, Photo Mechanic 4.5.2, Nikon D200

Photo Mechanic currently ignores maker notes in DNG files.  I don't know if that will change in the future.  I will discuss it with the rest of the team.

-Kirk

[andreiya93]

Thank you, I thought something was going south in my conversions to DNG.

Form my point of view, if we don't get to read maker notes in DNG, theres some valuable info that get lost. Nothing to cry for, but if it can't be done, why not ?. It shouldn't be difficult to support the already supported maker notes in other RAW formats, I suppose.

What's your oppinion about the 72dpi issue ? Photo Mechanic related or DNG problem instead ?

[Kirk Baker]

Thank you, I thought something was going south in my conversions to DNG.

Form my point of view, if we don't get to read maker notes in DNG, theres some valuable info that get lost. Nothing to cry for, but if it can't be done, why not ?. It shouldn't be difficult to support the already supported maker notes in other RAW formats, I suppose.

What's your oppinion about the 72dpi issue ? Photo Mechanic related or DNG problem instead ?

Without having a sample file from you, it would be hard to say.  If I have to guess, then I would say that it is likely that the EXIF tag in the DNG file is indicating that it is 72 DPI.

-Kirk

[dennis]

Photo Mechanic currently ignores maker notes in DNG files.  I don't know if that will change in the future.  I will discuss it with the rest of the team.

This isn't 100% true, but in the case of Nikon maker notes I suspect this is because of the sanity checks we have in place when parsing their maker notes.  For example we look at the firmware (or TIFF "software") tag, and this is likely different than what comes from the camera of course.  I'll see if I can add some additional checks to allow DNG's through, although we may also need to check the DNG tag for safe maker notes.

--dennis

[dennis]

Photo Mechanic currently ignores maker notes in DNG files.  I don't know if that will change in the future.  I will discuss it with the rest of the team.

This isn't 100% true...

I stand corrected - we do in fact ignore maker notes right now in DNG files because they are wrapped by Adobe's own DNG maker note.  Not only do we have proprietary camera manufacturer maker notes, but also proprietary software developer maker notes (and PLEASE let's not get into the discussion about DNG being a "standard").

I'll see about adding support for this at some later date.

--dennis