Category: Format: Digital


Exiftool – the source of statistics

This actually is a very similar task on Windows and Linux.

Note: This assumes you have ExifTool installed such that it is found through “$PATH”

Open a command shell, in the shell type

Windows: Type the drive letter for the device where you have your photos, e.g.  

P:

 and  hit enter.

Now

cd  dir-for-photos

… and this – all on a single line, any line wraps shown here should be replaced by single space chars:

exiftool -r "*" -printformat
'$DateTimeOriginal,$aperture,$shutterspeed,$iso,$model,$lens,$filename' >PhotoList.csv

Windows: type ”

cd

” and hit enter
Linux: type ”

pwd

” and hit enter

Use the means necessary to copy what cd/pwd (above) displayed.

Close the shell by;
Windows: type ”

exit

” and hit enter
Linux: press CTRL-D or type ”

logout

” and hit enter

Open OpenOffice calc (or Excel for those that have Office available)

Select File > Open from the menu

Paste the path you copied above into the file portion of the dialog for selecting files, hit enter or use any other means to make that path be the one you’re viewing; so that you can select to open the ”PhotoList.csv” file, hit enter or click “OK”, “Open” or whatever the display may show, for opening the file.

Now, you should be prompted with the text file import dialog.
Make sure you’re NOT trying to use fixed length fields, the choice should be “Delimited” or similar – click “Next”
Now, make sure the “Comma” delimiter is selected (others shouldn’t matter), then press OK.

The contents of the Sheet should now be a set of nicely separated colums with the information from the file.

Now, from here on you can treat the contents as any other spreadsheet, summarize using the available functions.

Simple means:
Insert rows above the top to make room for summaries.

Enter “=SUBTOTAL( 3 ; A2:A99999 )” in a cell to make OpenOffice tell you the count of visible cells in the range (Excel needs that first “3″ to be “103″ instead). Here you need to adjust “A2″ to be the actual start-cell of the leftmost column of the table and “A99999″ to be the end row of that column, for a correct value to be calculated.

Now Select the entire table (columns and rows, including the header row – assuming you added one!) by dragging with the mouse, then find Autofilter in the menus and turn it on.
Now the small drop down buttons in the title row of the autofilter region will allow you to filter out items using “Custom filters” (and a set of others too, depending on software version).

Depending on what you select to filter on, the above  ”subtotal() ” will show the number of items displayed.

Good luck!

The D700, dispite the D800 (or lack of it)

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-11674-12354

I made the choice to go “D700″ due to seeing a price drop on new ones, and expecting the availability to plummet. It seems the plummeting might not happen as soon as I expected – and maybe some more people with me (those that lowered the price).

P&S / Compacts obsolete real soon now?

Looking at the sample shots for this cell phone:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/news/just_posted_our_samsung_infuse_4g_smart_phone_review.html

… makes me wonder why anyone using auto-mode would buy a compact camera anymore…

 

File numbering… On the memory card

How to make the number in the camera image file show a meaningful value – i.e. in par with how many shots your camera has actually taken.

First, to find the number of photos you have taken with your camera, you need e.g. Exiftool – which can be downloaded here:
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

As I write this the download is a zip file for windows.
The content is a single file “exiftool(-k).exe”; extract the file to e.g. C:\ if you cannot find a better place
(best place is a dir pointed out in DOS Prompt $Path variable).

As Exiftool takes the “(-k)” in the name as a parameter (it makes it go “– press any key –” and wait for a keypress), please rename the file – just remove that part.

Now, assuming that you have COPIED the last taken image into the same place, start a command prompt (Left Windows-key and R, type “cmd”, hit Enter)… and then type:

c:\>   .\exiftool   -l   -ShutterCount   _DSC8006.NEF 

(the WIDE spaces needs ONE space character – no other spaces should be typed, I show it like this for clarity)
as you hit enter on that, the response in a second or two should be:

Shutter Count
28889

… but with another number (unless you have taken exactly the same amount of pictures with your camera).

The number tells which shutter actuation in order from the first that has been saved in the image file.

Above you see that the example FILENAME contained “8006″ – which is a bit off from 28889. A reasonable number to appear in the filename – in my opinion – is the last four digits of the shutter count – i.e. “8889″.

To achieve that you go back to the memory card – where you left the original file – and RENAME it so it contains that number. Then “Eject” (Right click the device, i.e. “G:” below) the memory card and use the camera to take a new photo.

Now, as you return the memory card to the computer, the contents should look like this:

The number has adapted, and will be used from now on.

Notes:
On the D300 and D700 first insert the memory card, then you may go into Custom Setting menu, option d6, and use “reset” instead of taking that photo.

To make the above really useful, this also assumes that you have set up the camera to keep increasing the file number, whithout resets. (Option d6 = on as left after a “Reset”, on the D300 and D700).

Lightroom, just got usable…

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/lightroom-4-soft-proofing.html

http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html

-> http://www.jkost.com/pdf/lightroom/LRShortcutsHandout.pdf

 

Nikon D4 and related

Nikon D4, 5800€/$6000 “multimedia camera” – a D3 with video capabilities.
http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d4/
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/01/06/NikonD4launched
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/7799914638/nikon-d4-overview/
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-11673-12223

The new AF-S 85/1.8
http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/lens/singlefocal/normal/af-s_nikkor85mmf_18g/index.htm
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/01/06/Nikon_Nikkor_AFS85mm

The new memory card type:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-11673-12234

NINETEEN New Fuji cameras

http://www.steves-digicams.com/news/fujifilm_unleashes_nineteen_new_digital_cameras.html

Also written about at  http://www.dpreview.com e.g. http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/01/05/FujifilmF770_F750

Always bring a camera with you?

http://www.fourcornerstore.com/collections/frontpage/products/gizmon-half-d-digital-camera

 

 

Canon C300 a surprise? Hardly.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-11667-12075

The laggy behaviour of early Liveview and all the inherent problems with making film with DSLR’s were just the beginning.

Now all we need is a removal of the unusable features from the DSLR.

 

Stash your photos, get them out from your memory card:
http://www.kenkoglobal.com/aska-tripper_v.html

Tele converters and macro/Extension tubes:
http://www.kenkoglobal.com/teleplus.html

 

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