Compatibility of Zeiss ZE lenses and Canon RF cameras

[TEQUILA]

Please respond to those whose RF series camera does not detect the Zeiss ZE lens? I have two cameras. One is a Canon EOS 6D and the other is an EOS R8. The EOS 6D camera is equipped with a Carl Zeiss 50 1.4 ZE lens. But the R8 camera does not see the lens. There is a dash in EXIF.

I use the original Canon EF-R adapter. Zeiss lenses have electronic contacts. Canon R8 controls the lens aperture and allows the use of focus assistant. But the R8 camera does not write the name of the lens in Exif. The Canon 6D camera writes the name of the lens into the exif. I want RF system cameras to register the name of the Zeiss lens in Exif

[shadowsports]

Greetings, tequila ,

No one's trying to fuel any fires or close your thread. I had to reread your post and now (I think) I understand what you're inquiring about.  

Lens is not reporting in exif data.  This could affect your ability to apply lens optimizations distortion / geometry correction, etc.  Am I on the right track or completely off base?

[johnrmoyer]

The problem might be the software you use to display the exif data. I suggest using exiftool. The lens information is stored in multiple places by the camera depending in part upon the lens type and what the lens reports to the camera. A more recent lens will report both a number which the camera or other software might interpret as the name of a lens and a text string naming the lens. Multiple lenses might use the same number as shown by "Tamron" in the example below when the lens is made by Canon. If the lens reports a text string to the camera, then that will be how the lens identifies itself. The "Composite" data below are how exiftool interprets the data instead of just the raw data. The "Makernotes" are specific to Canon. The "Exif" are part of one of the meta data standards supported by the camera and others might be IPTC, XMP, and QuickTime and all of these are commonly called "exif" by software.

For example:

exiftool -G0:2 -"*lens*" IMG_7220.CR3
[EXIF:Image]    Lens Info                       : 100-400mm f/0
[MakerNotes:Camera] Lens Type                   : Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM or Tamron Lens
[MakerNotes:Image] RF Lens Type                 : n/a
[MakerNotes:Camera] Lens Model                  : EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
[MakerNotes:Camera] Shutter Release Without Lens: Enable
[MakerNotes:Camera] Retract Lens On Power Off   : Enable
[Composite:Camera] Lens                         : 100.0 - 400.0 mm
[Composite:Camera] Lens ID                      : Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
[Composite:Camera] Lens                         : 100.0 - 400.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 99.8 - 399.4 mm)

 Exiftool could write any arbitrary lens name to the file. For example:

exiftool -LensModel='Minolta MC ROKKOR-X PG 1:1.4 f=50mm' IMG_982[0-2]*.JPG

Where my Minolta lens is 45 years old and does not have any electronics so I must record the lens model if I want it in the meta data.

[Tronhard]

That it might be the EXIF reader occurred to me too.  For example, if I look at an image via the file properties of Windows, it shows the settings, the camera, but not the lens make and type.  However, if I look at it in Photoshop and check out the File Properties it show the lens make and model in detail.

Perhaps if the OP takes a low-res photo and posts it without any processing, we can look at it and check that out ourselves...

[johnrmoyer]

Good suggestion.

It would need to be a raw file to have all of the information. A JPEG has less information than does the raw file even if both are straight out of camera. Any editing or raw development software will further modify the meta data. The EXIF standard applies to cameras and not to editing software so far as I can remember. The Canon EOS Utility for some cameras can instruct the camera to add IPTC meta data in addition to EXIF meta data required by the standard. https://cam.start.canon/en/S003/manual/html/UG-04_Other_0050.html

[Tronhard]

Well, before posting, I tried an unprocessed JPG file on my computer and using PS it does display the lens make and model.

[johnrmoyer]

---

@Tronhard wrote:

Well, before posting, I tried an unprocessed JPG file on my computer and using PS it does display the lens make and model.

---

Since the original post mentioned an EF and an RF camera being different, I suspect some software might only look for RF lens information in meta data from a RF camera. The "[MakerNotes:Image] RF Lens Type : n/a" might fool some software if a lens is EF. The lens type is sometimes ambiguous in the meta data. Some software is compiled with the exiv2 library and this link will summarize what is available to that software: https://exiv2.org/metadata.html

Adobe did their own thing and often ignored standards, but since 2012 part of XMP has been a standard ( https://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/standards.html ) .  Canon seems to me to be strict about supporting standards. Adobe invented XMP and Canon cameras write some XMP tags to the image files in addition to the standard information. The Adobe standard and non-standard XMP tags are widely used by other software.

[Tronhard]

Certainly, I bow to  your knowledge John! 🙂  I just tried an image I knew was taken with a Sigma on a R6 and that came up with the lens and all details in PS.  Still, I don't have the OP's more exotic lenses so I guess we shall hope they can post an image with the EXIF data untouched, so it can be looked at.

[johnrmoyer]

Here is a more complete answer: https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Camera-Software/SmugMug-Showing-Incorrect-EXIF-Data-for-RF-100-30...

[johnrmoyer]

So far as I know, there exist two software that can extract most meta data from an image. They can also write meta data to the image file. Both are free software. The program web pages are

 https://exiftool.org/ and https://exiv2.org/

My preference is exiftool, but I have built from source the exiv2 branch of rawtherapee and use it when I do not use Canon DPP. (I have made very minor contributions to exiftool)