Metadata: display camera serial# ??

[billg71]

Couldn't find anything on this in a quick search, but I'm not seeing camera serial number show up on any of my D2'' files and the D3'' number only started displaying in shots made after July 25 last year. And the strange thing is that, for example, on 7/25 out of 26 shots with the D3'' that day only the first 6 show the serial number. Even stranger, on the next day I made 53 shots and only the SECOND file shows the serial # ???

These were all made on my Wyoming trip last year and imported into the iBook using LR 1.4(I think) then imported to the desktop when I got home(which was probably running 2.' beta or maybe 2.' final at the time). I'm not sure if I did an Import From Catalog from the iBook or just brought the files straight in off the card. I usually don't format cards when off on a trip and I'm sure I didn't do any editing on the laptop, so I probably just imported to 2.' from the card.

The next time I shot anything was on 8/15 and all the s/n's from the D3'' come through fine and have ever since. The D2'' still doesn't show a s/n in the Metadata panel to date.

I have the Metadata panel set to display all, and the Presets preferences to make defaults specific to camera serial #. The serial # is in the file, I can see it in exiftool.

Any comments/suggestions? This came up on a thread on Nikonians and I started looking around in LR and discovered this, it doesn't really matter since I don't have two D3'''s(or D2'''s) but it piqued my curiousity.

TIA,
Bill

 

[Mark Sirota]

My D2'' only puts the serial number in the MakerNotes section of the EXIF data of raw files. Lightroom doesn't read it. I have a vague recollection that it puts it in the proper EXIF field for JPEGs. Could this be a JPEG/raw difference?

Check the specific field that exiftool is displaying (use the -G and -s arguments to make this more clear) and see if it's in the same place in those various files (and please let us know what you discover!)

 

[billg71]

Mark,

Interesting... I must have been looking at a D3'' file, I can't find a value for serial # from the D2'' in either Exiftool or Opanda. Opanda shows no listing for s/n, exiftool shows a field labeled "Serial Number" but no value. And it is under Maker Notes in both cameras, just a blank value for the D2''.

I checked .nef and .jpg files in exiftool, .jpg file in Opanda.

So it looks like my D2'' doesn't write the s/n to EXIF, interesting.... :? No wonder it doesn't display......

Any thoughts on the D3'' display, like why it doesn't show up until around the time I installed V2 of Lightroom? Was this an addition in 2.'?

Thanx for the help,
Bill