ingestion question about time/date and size

[Chris]

I took my Mac Powerbook and an Epson P2000 with me on a trip to China. I set my Canon 20D and my computer to Beijing local time. When I filled a card I would ingest the files to the mac and after ejecting I would Copy Data from Memory Card on the Epson.

When I returned home I copied both sets of data to my home computer. I expected to be able to do a compare and get the same data from both sources. The epson files have no file type and creator and the creation data is 1/1/1904. This is expected when I copy a card to my computer normally.

The files from the powerbook are each bigger by 2060 bytes than the files from the epson. I think some data was added to each file on import. I don't understand exactly how Photo Mechanic does the import but I thought that raw files were never to be modified i.e. read only. If Photo Mechanic makes changes to the raw file, will this affect how any other program handles the raw files? In the ingest dialog box I do not have "Apply IPTC Stationary Pad to Photos" set. How do I prevent Photo Mechanic from changing my files on import?

One other oddity is that all my files on the powerbook have the time and date of the photos off by 13 hours. When I set the time on the powerbook to Beijing local time I did it by just changing the time zone. Technically, all my photos have the actual time they were taken correct. Daytime in China is night time here. I would like to have the photos to have the local time and date when taken. I think this is a Macintosh issue and not Photo Mechanic. Still, any suggestions?

Thanks,
Chris

[Kirk Baker]

Chris,

I took my Mac Powerbook and an Epson P2000 with me on a trip to China. I set my Canon 20D and my computer to Beijing local time. When I filled a card I would ingest the files to the mac and after ejecting I would Copy Data from Memory Card on the Epson.

When I returned home I copied both sets of data to my home computer. I expected to be able to do a compare and get the same data from both sources. The epson files have no file type and creator and the creation data is 1/1/1904. This is expected when I copy a card to my computer normally.

That seems like a big oversight on Epson's part to not make the creation date be the capture date.

The files from the powerbook are each bigger by 2060 bytes than the files from the epson. I think some data was added to each file on import. I don't understand exactly how Photo Mechanic does the import but I thought that raw files were never to be modified i.e. read only. If Photo Mechanic makes changes to the raw file, will this affect how any other program handles the raw files?

In general, no.  Canon's software works fine with photos captioned from Photo Mechanic, so does Adobe's and now even Apple's Aperture works fine.  You can always use the "Revert TIFF-based RAW to original" command on the Tools menu to completely restore your files to their unmodified state.

In the ingest dialog box I do not have "Apply IPTC Stationary Pad to Photos" set. How do I prevent Photo Mechanic from changing my files on import?

Make sure that you only use XMP sidecar files to caption your RAW files (See the IPTC/XMP tab of the Preferences dialog.)  And in the Files tab of the Preferences dialog, set the popup menu titled "Save/load tag and color class in IPTC/XMP:" to "Never".

That should do it.

One other oddity is that all my files on the powerbook have the time and date of the photos off by 13 hours. When I set the time on the powerbook to Beijing local time I did it by just changing the time zone. Technically, all my photos have the actual time they were taken correct. Daytime in China is night time here. I would like to have the photos to have the local time and date when taken. I think this is a Macintosh issue and not Photo Mechanic. Still, any suggestions?

You can use the "Adjust Capture Dates and Times..." command on the Tools menu to adjust the time of your photos all in one batch.  Three checkboxes control what part of the date/time is adjusted.

HTH,

-Kirk

[Chris]

Chris,

I took my Mac Powerbook and an Epson P2000 with me on a trip to China. I set my Canon 20D and my computer to Beijing local time. When I filled a card I would ingest the files to the mac and after ejecting I would Copy Data from Memory Card on the Epson.

When I returned home I copied both sets of data to my home computer. I expected to be able to do a compare and get the same data from both sources. The epson files have no file type and creator and the creation data is 1/1/1904. This is expected when I copy a card to my computer normally.

That seems like a big oversight on Epson's part to not make the creation date be the capture date.

I think Epson is just copying the file exactly as found on the CF card and not changing data or metadata. Maybe the FAT32 file structure on the Epson does not have a Created Date and when the files are copied to the mac the fields remain zero.

The files from the powerbook are each bigger by 2060 bytes than the files from the epson. I think some data was added to each file on import. I don't understand exactly how Photo Mechanic does the import but I thought that raw files were never to be modified i.e. read only. If Photo Mechanic makes changes to the raw file, will this affect how any other program handles the raw files?

In general, no.  Canon's software works fine with photos captioned from Photo Mechanic, so does Adobe's and now even Apple's Aperture works fine.  You can always use the "Revert TIFF-based RAW to original" command on the Tools menu to completely restore your files to their unmodified state.

I tried the above mentioned command and the files do not change size. I can still see the extra data with HexEdit.
For the last few years I was under the impression that Raw files are not to be edited, but I am not completely against changing the Raw file. I just want to understand when and why it is changed.

[Kirk Baker]

I took my Mac Powerbook and an Epson P2000 with me on a trip to China. I set my Canon 20D and my computer to Beijing local time. When I filled a card I would ingest the files to the mac and after ejecting I would Copy Data from Memory Card on the Epson.

When I returned home I copied both sets of data to my home computer. I expected to be able to do a compare and get the same data from both sources. The epson files have no file type and creator and the creation data is 1/1/1904. This is expected when I copy a card to my computer normally.

That seems like a big oversight on Epson's part to not make the creation date be the capture date.

I think Epson is just copying the file exactly as found on the CF card and not changing data or metadata. Maybe the FAT32 file structure on the Epson does not have a Created Date and when the files are copied to the mac the fields remain zero.

The files from the powerbook are each bigger by 2060 bytes than the files from the epson. I think some data was added to each file on import. I don't understand exactly how Photo Mechanic does the import but I thought that raw files were never to be modified i.e. read only. If Photo Mechanic makes changes to the raw file, will this affect how any other program handles the raw files?

In general, no.  Canon's software works fine with photos captioned from Photo Mechanic, so does Adobe's and now even Apple's Aperture works fine.  You can always use the "Revert TIFF-based RAW to original" command on the Tools menu to completely restore your files to their unmodified state.

I tried the above mentioned command and the files do not change size. I can still see the extra data with HexEdit.
For the last few years I was under the impression that Raw files are not to be edited, but I am not completely against changing the Raw file. I just want to understand when and why it is changed.

Chris,

If you would like to send me one of your files, I'll take a look at it and let you know what I find.

Contact me privately for server upload information.

-Kirk