EOS R8 Change timestamp -1 hour

[aac_r8]

Hello all,

I had a vacation to another country last October for a week with my camera Canon EOS R8 and my trustworty 35mm f1.8 lens.

Unfortunately, I absentmindedly forgot to change the time setting on my camera for a couple of days. There is only -1 hour time difference between my local country and the visited country.

I shot all my photos in RAW format.

Is there any possibility to set/change only the time taken on photos I shot with my local time without loosing original exif data (creation date, modify date, shooting date, and so on)?

Thank you very much for any kind of help, support, comment and direction.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

You would have to batch update the exif data to correct this. It's kind of a lot of work for an hour IMO.

A good application for this is exiftool.  It's a command line utility and very reliable.

[p4pictures]

There are some software applications that allow you to update the date/time in RAW images. I know that Lightroom can do this, and you just select the group of mis-timed images and then update the first one, Lightroom will then update all the other images by the same amount. You can also use Photo Mechanic, and EXIF Info to change the timestamps. There may be other solutions. 

[aac_r8]

Hi Rick, 

Thank you very much for your reply. 

I have already made some trials with exiftool but none of them worked correctly. In my trials I saw that whether the command I applied changes creationdate, modifydate, shooting date or it clears almost all exif data for the photos. 

So, any verified exiftool command example will be appreciated. 

All the best. 

[aac_r8]

Hello Brian, 

I don't have Lightroom. I will be very happy if I can do it with a free tool (İ thought that I can find a easy solution with Canon DPP. But it is a complete disappoitment for me).

I will check Photo Mechanic tomorrow morning. 

Thank you very much. 

[johnrmoyer]

I use exiftool on nearly every photo I publish. 

I never change the raw files.

https://exiftool.org/Shift.html 

Below I copied a CR3 file to /tmp on my Debian machine (I also use exiftool on my iMac). I changed the time zone by plus one hour and displayed the difference. I did not change all of the values that contain a time zone offset. I hope this might be helpful.

exiftool -h -s -G0:1:2 -time:all -a IMG_5118.CR3

File:System:Other	FileName	IMG_5118.CR3
File:System:Time	FileModifyDate	2025:12:01 11:14:57-06:00
File:System:Time	FileAccessDate	2025:12:01 11:16:58-06:00
File:System:Time	FileInodeChangeDate	2025:12:01 11:14:57-06:00
EXIF:IFD0:Time	ModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43
EXIF:ExifIFD:Time	DateTimeOriginal	2025:11:25 09:54:43
EXIF:ExifIFD:Time	CreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43
EXIF:ExifIFD:Time	OffsetTime	-06:00
EXIF:ExifIFD:Time	OffsetTimeOriginal	-06:00
EXIF:ExifIFD:Time	OffsetTimeDigitized	-06:00
EXIF:ExifIFD:Time	SubSecTime	93
EXIF:ExifIFD:Time	SubSecTimeOriginal	93
EXIF:ExifIFD:Time	SubSecTimeDigitized	93
MakerNotes:Canon:Time	TimeZone	-06:00
MakerNotes:Canon:Time	TimeZoneCity	Chicago
MakerNotes:Canon:Time	DaylightSavings	Off
QuickTime:Time	CreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Time	ModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track1:Time	TrackCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track1:Time	TrackModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track1:Time	MediaCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track1:Time	MediaModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track2:Time	TrackCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track2:Time	TrackModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track2:Time	MediaCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track2:Time	MediaModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track3:Time	TrackCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track3:Time	TrackModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track3:Time	MediaCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track3:Time	MediaModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track4:Time	TrackCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track4:Time	TrackModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track4:Time	MediaCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track4:Time	MediaModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
MakerNotes:Track4:Time	TimeStamp	2025:11:25 09:54:43.93
QuickTime:Track5:Time	TrackCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track5:Time	TrackModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track5:Time	MediaCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
QuickTime:Track5:Time	MediaModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43-06:00
Composite:Time	SubSecCreateDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43.93-06:00
Composite:Time	SubSecDateTimeOriginal	2025:11:25 09:54:43.93-06:00
Composite:Time	SubSecModifyDate	2025:11:25 09:54:43.93-06:00

exiftool -OffsetTimeOriginal+=+1:00 -OffsetTimeDigitized+=+1:00 -CreateDate+=+1:00 -DateCreated+=+1:00 -DigitalCreationTime+=+1:00 -TimeCreated+=+1:00 /tmp/*.CR3

exiftool -h -s -G0:1:2 -a -diff IMG_5118.CR3_original  IMG_5118.CR3

======== diff < IMG_5118.CR3 > IMG_5118.CR3_original
< [File:System:Other] FileName                        : IMG_5118.CR3
>                                                     : IMG_5118.CR3_original
< [File:System:Time] FileModifyDate                  : 2025:12:01 11:20:28-06:00
>                                                    : 2025:12:01 11:14:57-06:00
< [QuickTime:Video] MediaDataOffset                 : 457260
>                                                   : 460288
< [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] OffsetTimeOriginal              : -05:00
>                                                     : -06:00
< [EXIF:ExifIFD:Time] OffsetTimeDigitized             : -05:00
>                                                     : -06:00
< [Composite:Time] SubSecCreateDate                : 2025:11:25 09:54:43.93-05:00
>                                                  : 2025:11:25 09:54:43.93-06:00
< [Composite:Time] SubSecDateTimeOriginal          : 2025:11:25 09:54:43.93-05:00
>                                                  : 2025:11:25 09:54:43.93-06:00

[aac_r8]

Hello John, 

I understand from your "I never change the raw files." sentence that you don't make timestamp changes on RAW files. Would you please verify me? 

If your answer is "Yes", will it be more correct to work with JPEG files for this type of changes? 

Regards, 

Ali

[johnrmoyer]

---

@aac_r8 wrote:

Hello John, 

I understand from your "I never change the raw files." sentence that you don't make timestamp changes on RAW files. Would you please verify me? 

If your answer is "Yes", will it be more correct to work with JPEG files for this type of changes? 

Regards, 

Ali

---

I do not save changed raw files. I preserve the raw files as they come out of the camera. Some people do save changed raw files. Adobe software seems to me to prefer changing raw files to DNG. I cannot answer "more correct", but only what I do and I hope some of it might be helpful to others. I am still learning.

I make metadata changes to JPEG, TIFF, and png files. I use exiftool because it seems to me to work better than exiv2 or programs using libexiv2. I use exiftool on both Debian Linux and macOS.

I try to follow the Metadata Working Group recommendations. I add IPTC standard metadata.

https://exiftool.org/TagNames/MWG.html 

https://iptc.org/standards/photo-metadata/iptc-standard/ 

https://iptc.org/std/photometadata/specification/IPTC-PhotoMetadata-2025.1.html 

If one has the IPTC browser extension, one may use it to view metadata of photos on my web server. Older photos have not yet had metadata added, but for recent photos I add location information, description, and keywords.

https://iptc.org/standards/photo-metadata/browser-extensions/ 

I also copy makernotes from the out of camera JPG file to JPEG files that I have edited because image editors do not preserve all of the metadata or make different choices about what to save than the choices I would make.

https://getpmd.iptc.org/getpmd/?imgurl=https://www.rsok.com/~jrm/2025Nov25_Salt_Plains_NWR/2025nov25... is an example of the IPTC metadata in one of my photos on my webserver. 

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) at Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma, United States on November 25, 2025 ; handheld, sitting in car

https://www.rsok.com/~jrm/2025Nov25_Salt_Plains_NWR/2025nov25_eagle_IMG_5100c.html 

Camera Model Name	Canon EOS R5
Lens Model	EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM +2x III
Focal Length	800 mm
Exposure Time	1/400
ISO	500
F Number	13.0
Camera Temperature	34 C
Measured EV	13.75
Measured EV 2	30
Focus Distance Upper	164.68 m
Focus Distance Lower	81.91 m

[aac_r8]

Thank you very much all the replies regarding my query. 

I have very little experience on dealing with RAW files. This travel was my first usage attempt of RAW format shooting. 

Since RAW files don't show exif data with a known tools like windows file details, I was unable to determine the effect of exiftool command I applied. 

I have applied the following exiftool command to my time erroneous photo files:

D:\exiftool-13.32_64\exiftool ^
-OffsetTimeOriginal+=-1:00 ^
-OffsetTimeDigitized+=-1:00 ^
-DateTimeOriginal-=1 ^
-DateTimeDigitized-=1 ^
-CreateDate-=1 ^
-ModifyDate-=1 ^
-TrackCreateDate-=1 ^
-TrackModifyDate-=1 ^
-MediaCreateDate-=1 ^
-MediaModifyDate-=1 ^
-TimeStamp-=1 ^
*.CR3

And then I have converted the produced RAW files to JPEG. I saw that shooting date was unchanged and time was taken -1 hour back within my expectations. 

I know that I can get the similiar exif data information with exiftool command tool but when I saw the result in JPEG format, I became more aware that I was not doing something wrong. 

I will of course keep my original RAW files as a main backup version of my photos. 

Best regards, 

Ali