Library module Metadata panel not showing lens used or its focal length

[Jeffrey Saldinger]

Lightroom Version Number

9.3

Operating System

1. macOS 10.14 Mojave

The other day I noticed that beginning in April, the Metadata panel does not show the 28mm lens I used for my Leica M (typ240) -- the “Focal Length” field is altogether missing and the “Lens” field shows “not selected” (see screenshots). Prior to April, each field was recorded as expected. Using the 50mm lens for that camera, the fields are recorded as expected.

Using my Nikon Df, the fields for my 28mm and 55m lenses are recorded as expected.

I did not knowingly change anything anywhere. No updates to operating system or Lightroom.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Do you apply a metadata preset during import? That's the usual cause of metadata going missing for new imports.

 

[johnrellis]

Hmm, an Import metadata preset can't modify basic EXIF fields like camera, lens, or exposure.

I suggest you upload a sample photo (not yet imported into LR) to Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar and post the sharing link here. We can put it under the microscope and determine if it's an issue with what the camera is recording in the metadata or with how LR is reading it.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Ah yes true. Excellent point!

 

[Jeffrey Saldinger]

Thank you, Victoria and John.

Per John’s suggestion to get a “sample photo (not yet imported into LR),” on December 4 I took a sample photograph and copied it from the Leica’s card to my desktop, thus bypassing Lightroom. I double-clicked this DNG, it opened in Camera Raw, and I was surprised to see that the Optics panel showed the lens metadata that my original post reported as missing since April (see attached screenshot). That is, the problem seemed to have fixed itself!

When I took that sample photograph, I took another identical one immediately afterwards, imported that one into Lightroom, and the lens metadata result was the same as in Camera Raw: the Metadata panel showed the same expected lens metadata, which the OP reported missing since April. Again, the problem seemed to have solved itself!


So John, with the problem apparently fixed, I can't provide a sample photograph that both has the problem and wasn't imported into Lightroom.

For now I’m happy to leave the problem solved without further investigation, although if what I’ve written above suggests or confirms to anyone that the problem was with the Leica (camera or lens) and not with Lightroom, that would be interesting.

 

[johnrellis]

Interesting. I've never seen "not selected" in LR's Lens field before. That field displays what's in EXIF, so I think it's more likely an issue with what was recorded in the file than in LR, but that's just a surmise.

 

[Jeffrey Saldinger]

Thank you, John. I’ll watch the Metadata panel more closely for a while and if the problem recurs I’ll post about it and perhaps have renewed interest in digging further into what might have happened.