topic Re: DPP Lost GPS data in Camera Software

DPP Lost GPS data

HAEI — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 15:17:21 GMT

I have a canon 5 DSR and take raw pictures. In the raw info I find GPS coordinates.

When I use the HDR tool in the DPP software, the created JEPG file dont contain GPS data. Why does this happen, and I find no settings to prevent it to happen!

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 16:58:57 GMT

I am taking a wild guess here, but maybe it is because the multiple picture files used to create an HDR photo, would contain multiple sets of GPS coordinates and DPP wouldn't know which coordinates should be applied to the final photo file.

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

HAEI — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:33:57 GMT

I am doing one and one picture with the HDR tool, i never get GPS data in the exif file of those, but they are always in the raw file data. So the HDR tool actually deletes the GPS data, and I dont know why Canon would do such a thing, and there is no setting to add GPS before you use the HDT tool. Frustrating!

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

Waddizzle — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 15:55:08 GMT

@HAEI wrote:
I am doing one and one picture with the HDR tool, i never get GPS data in the exif file of those, but they are always in the raw file data. So the HDR tool actually deletes the GPS data, and I dont know why Canon would do such a thing, and there is no setting to add GPS before you use the HDT tool. Frustrating!

I do not know why they do not write GPS data, either. Does it discard the copyright info?

I do not know what you cannot simply add it to the EXIF yourself.

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 16:35:10 GMT

@HAEI wrote:
I have a canon 5 DSR and take raw pictures. In the raw info I find GPS coordinates.
When I use the HDR tool in the DPP software, the created JEPG file dont contain GPS data. Why does this happen, and I find no settings to prevent it to happen!

According to the DPP4 manual no image data is recorded to the HDR image.

I'm thinking the reason is that since each of the three images would have different time stamps, different exposure settings and maybe different in camera settings the software would not know which to use and thus writes no info to the EXIF fields. Does any data show when you read the EXIF file?

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

HAEI — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 21:15:33 GMT

You are right that very little info is kept in the HDR file, i did not know this was stated in the manual.

When I convert the raw file to JPG, using the converting process in DPP4, the EXIF file is the same as the CR2 file. I don't thing the time being different from the CR2 file is a problem. With no info in the HDR exif file i will have to create a separate file for the HDR file to know where it is taken, or I will have to save both the CR2 and the HDR file. Sometimes you want to use apps that puts your photoes on a map. GPS data in the HDR file would be much better than uploading the large CR2 file, that might even be refused. So my take on this is that canon has made a bad solution when we use DPP4 to create HDR files. Since the CR2 have all the date in the EXIF file, I should be the one to decide to have it in the HDR file also!

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

HAEI — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 21:20:07 GMT

I forgot to add that I have about 50000 photos. It's beginning to be a storage problem, so if Canon can let there be two choices for what info goes into the EXIF file of a HDR photo, one as is now and second all that is in the CR2 EXIF file. That should be very simple to accomplish.

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

HAEI — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 21:24:49 GMT

I am 78 year old, think about the time I would spend if I were to edit GPS data into existing EXIF files for 50 000 pictures? I think Canon should transfer all exif data from the CR2 file to the HDR EXIF file, the data need just to be copied. I see no problem with the different times as long as the files have the same name like 0Q4A9848.CR2

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

jrhoffman75 — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 21:28:38 GMT

You have 50000 HDR files?

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

HAEI — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 23:36:37 GMT

No, it is a mix of CR2 and HDR. In the beginning I deleted the CR2 files (thereby loosing GPS data). Now I keep both files, since I bought the 5Dsr camera, each picture takes about 60 Mb for CR2 files and up to 25 MB for HDR files. For the same picture I am using 85 Mb.

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

Waddizzle — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 05:10:59 GMT

You did not respond to my question about writing copyright info to the final HDR JPEG file.

You have noticed that GPS data does not get written to the JPG. John has pointed out that none of the original EXIF data gets copied into the final JPEG. From a logical and practical point of view, I think it makes perfect sense not copy anything into the final JPEG file.

What about the other EXIF data? What should be written for many of those values? I think not copying and writing anything to EXIF is best compromise.

What date and time should be written to EXIF for the final JPEG?

What focal length should be written to EXIF for the final JPEG?

What exposure settings should be written to EXIF for the final JPEG?

What AF point data, AF mode, exposure settings, metering mode, and yada-yada should be written to the EXIF for the final JPEG?

I am sorry that you disagree with the decision to not to preserve and write ANY of the EXIF data to the final JPEG, but I do not see a better path moving forward. The best that can be done is write EXIF that reflects when the final JEPG was created.

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

Waddizzle — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 05:23:00 GMT

Canon had the choice, write some of it or none of it. The only way to write any of it was to infer too many unknowns and/or draw potentially false conclusions from the known facts that you do have on hand.

There was far too much guess work involved. It would seem a design decision was made not to copy any of the original EXIF data into the final JPEG file. I do not foresee that being changed. The original data cannot be preserved because it can be self contradictory.

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

HAEI — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 17:14:49 GMT

There are two ways in canon DPP to make JPEG files. Method one is to convert the CR2 to JPEG, this is under the File banner. The other is using the HDR process under tools. The converted JPEG file has all the data from the CR2 file transferred to the EXIF file. But as you say almost nothing is transferred to the HDR JPEG file. Of course the date is the creation of the file, CR2 file is the date you took the picture. The converted one is when you do that and likewise for the HDR file.

My suggestion is that it should be my choice to decide if I want all or no dat in the HDR XIF file. It would not need much work for canon to revise DPP 4. If it can be done for the converted file it should also be easy to do it for the HDR file. If you have a lot of files its very handy to have all the data in all three files.

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 17:46:02 GMT

The HDR tool is not the appropriate tool for converting a single RAW file to a JPEG.

The HDR tool is used to convert multiple files of different exposures into a file with increased dynamic range. The output file is a JPEG.

Re: DPP Lost GPS data

Waddizzle — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 19:29:41 GMT

You ignored by questions again. You either write all of the EXIF data or none of the EXIF data. Since it is impossible to write to the most common data fields the decision was made to not to write anything.

Unfortunately, for you, I do not see that fundamental design decision being changed. I suggest that you use an app like EXIF Tool and add the GPS data yourself.