XMP Time Zone Issue

[sizzlingbadger]

I have had some issues with importing into Aperture with the XMP files generated from Lightroom. Aperture was displaying the date and time as +13 hours from the original. My jpg and dng files are fine, only the nef files with XMP have issues. After a lot of investigation I have tracked it down.


I deleted all my xmp files and then re-generated them (CMD-S). Some xmp files have the TZ offset included and others don't.

exifateTimeOriginal="2011-09-29T09:29:55.65"
xmp:CreateDate="2011-09-29T09:29:55.65"
xmp:ModifyDate="2011-10-17T16:22:47+13:00"
xmp:MetadataDate="2011-10-17T16:22:47+13:00"
xmp:CreatorTool="Ver.1.02"


exifateTimeOriginal="2011-01-18T14:25:48.00+13:00" << TZ offset
xmp:CreateDate="2011-01-18T14:25:48.00+13:00"
xmp:ModifyDate="2011-10-17T16:22:05+13:00"
xmp:MetadataDate="2011-10-17T16:22:05+13:00"
xmp:CreatorTool="Ver.1.02"


All NEF files shot with the exact same Camera, Nikon D700. The ones with the offset are causing the issues when importing into Aperture.

Original Files here http://web.me.com/player.nz/misc/xmp-issue.zip

Update:

I created a new catalog and imported the 2 NEF files and then generated the XMP files again and now neither of them have the TZ appended. So whatever is causing the issue is stored in the catalog.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

So just to clarify, was it a full 13 hours (i.e. if it was shot at 2:05, does is show 15:05 or 13:00?) Just trying to work out if this is the same bug or a variation.

 

[sizzlingbadger]

15:05 the date also clicks over to the next day if its after 11am. Basically Aperture reads the timestamp exifateTimeOriginal="2011-01-18T14:25:48.00+13:00" and adds the 13 hours to store its own date and time in the Aperture metadata.

 

[jid9p80vph]

Nik,

Since the EXIF standard doesn't allow for timezones, LR will add the timezone as it is set on your computer to the xmp (and I suspect Aperture will do the same), since it doesn't know in which timezone your photos were taken. So if you take pictures in GMT-6, and your Mac is set to GMT+7, you will end up with a time difference of 13 hours.

Could that be what happened in your case?

 

[sizzlingbadger]

Hi Marc, yes I know about how the time zones work. LR is appending the timezone info on some photos but not all of them. TZ information is stored by LR & Aperture as xmp:CreateDate but should not be part of the exifateTimeOriginal data, this should contain the original exif data which will not have a TZ appended as exif doesn't have time zone like you correctly stated.

 

[jid9p80vph]

TZ information is stored by LR & Aperture as xmp:CreateDate but should not be part of the exifateTimeOriginal data, this should contain the original exif data which will not have a TZ appended as exif doesn't have time zone like you correctly stated.

That's true according to the original EXIF specification, but the XMP specs do allow a timezone in exifateTimeOriginal. Still, that doesn't explain why you only see the timezone for some of your photos but not for others. If I check my 'virgin' LR XMP data, there is no timezone info; but other applications (in my case, Geosetter), do add the timezone to exifateTimeOriginal. Any chance another application updated the XMP?

 

[sizzlingbadger]

the XMP should be generated from the exif and that hasn't been modified in the NEF.