DigitalPro Shooter Volume 1, Issue 10, May 21st, 2002
Welcome to DPS 1-10. We're happy we can finally post our promised update on Windows XP & image files, as well as PhotoRescue for the Macintosh and Photorescue build 612 for Windows.
You probably remember all the warnings from the camera companies--particularly Nikon & Canon--not to use the imaging capabilities of Windows XP with files from many of their cameras. In particular, rotation and metadata editing could quickly destroy your image. While the warnings were written so as to place the blame on Microsoft, the truth was always a little more complex than that.
Similar to the latest flap over ColorSpace tags and Adobe Phtotoshop 7, the camera companies have been taking liberties with how they implement EXIF. This is ironic since EXIF is a standard that was defined by the camera companies, through the group then known as JEIDA (Japan Electronic Industry Development Association) and now called the JCIA (Japan Camera Industry Association). In their rush to cram more and more proprietary information in their image files, the manufacturers have been putting it in arcane places in the files and making it so any standard program for rewriting the files ran the risk of accidentally destroying that information. That's why programs like DigitalPro need custom code to deal with each camera model. Windows XP ran afoul of this and was indeed damaging the "hidden" information.
Even worse, Raw files such as Nikon "NEF" files appear to standard browsers as small thumbnails with the bulk of the image being "invisible". Users of NEF un-aware programs such as some versions of ACDSee have experienced image loss when attempting to rotate those images and now Windows XP users could share the pain. After rotation in the original version of XP only the thumbnail was left and the image was destroyed. Many of our readers accidentally destroyed some images before figuring this out.
Trying to dodge this bullet with the Raw files for the 1D, Canon made clever use of what is known as multi-page TIFFs to stash both the thumbnail and a larger image. That's really a pretty cool concept except that neither Photoshop nor Windows XP knew about the large image alongside the smaller thumbnail. We received desperate mail from a pro who almost lost an entire wedding of images by running them through a batch action in Photoshop. Fortunately he was able to recover them from his card using PhotoRescue!
Well, working with the camera companies directly and with JCIA, Microsoft has made the first move to try and get all this sorted out. By installing a new "hot patch" to Windows XP, camera users can at least prevent most of these problems. The hot patch replaces the GDI+ (GDIPLUS.DLL) library with one that is smart enough not to rotate NEF & TIF files. Note that camera proprietary JPEG information is still lost when JPEGs are rotated by XP. This usually includes white balance, colorspace, some flash information, tone settings, and lens information. The exception to this is Canon 1D files, which XP after the hot fix appears to rotate but actually ignores completely.
To get the hotfix, you'll need to head to the Microsoft Support site, either directly to the URL:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q318966
or you can go to support.microsoft.com and search for Q318966.
The information for the fix is not very informative about the exact fixes made, but from the above list in this article you can see what we found as we tested it.
Microsoft is not stopping with these fixes. They are continuing to work with the major digital camera companies, both directly and through the JCIA to address the remaining compatibility issues with JPEG, TIFF & Raw camera image files. They understand this is a priority for digital photographers. We'll be sure to publish updates here as they appear!
PhotoRescue, which is without question the best $29 any digital shooter will ever spend, is now available for Mac OS X. It's been in beta for a few months now and is solid enough for general release. As always you can download an evaluation version from our site, on our Photorescue page. You can test it against your crashed cards and license it directly from the software when you can see it works. Or, if you want to have it ready when you're on location, you can license it right away.
But the folks at Photorescue haven't been standing still on the Windows side, either. They've put together a nice set of enhancements in Build 612:
Some lively debate over whether digital tools are to blame for bad photos or just an excuse, comments on the always controversial 80-400VR lens vs. 80-200 + TC, more tips on color management and software workflow. Make sure and visit us at: http://www.nikondigital.org/discuss/ubbthreads.php. Always free and always informative!
Worried about all you've been reading about Photoshop 7 and possible incompatibilities with camera images and software? The best news is that DigitalPro users are already protected! As long as you use DigitalPro to automatically tag your images with the correct ICC profile, Photoshop will open them the right way. And DigitalPro 1.5beta supports Photoshop 7 scripting for automatic rotation of your portrait mode images for easy editing. For information on the beta, visit the DigitalPro User forum.
PowerEX has done it again. 1800mAH rechargeable NiMH batteries. A small gain over their former performance leaders, the 1700mAH version, but another small step forward in the quest for longer lasting flashes, GPSes and accessories. As usual, I bought mine from Thomas Distributing, where they are available for the great price of around $3.50 each in quantity. (No, we have no affiliation with either company, we just think it is great that instead of going through dozens of Lithium batteries there are now rechargeables that can take their place!)