Lens ID Change After Editing Location Data

[erichaas]

I just updated to version 2023.14.2.

I edited the location data of several photos using the "6 IPTC Location" panel. Prior to editing, these photos had "Unknown E-mount lens" in the lens field of "1 Default" / "Camera Data" / "Lens".

After editing, the lens changed from "Unknown E-mount lens" to "Voightlander NOKTON 50mm F1 Aspherical". Since the "Lens" field is uneditable, I'm guessing this is something to do with the new version of ExifTool?

[Mario]

Lens names are created by ExifTool (usually from several tags) using internal lookup tables. IMatch does not do anything.
IMatch does not change the lens id and the tag is marked as read-only by ExifTool.

Does the lens id change "in database" after you edited the metadata or did you also perform a write-back?

When you say "edited the location data", did you add location data or modified existing location data?
Did you manually change some of the tags?

I've tried to reproduce this here, using a DNG, A CR2 RAW and a JPG file.

The JPG had no lens data, the other two had lens data (showing in 1. Default > Camera Data: Lens.
I've added coordinates to all 3 files in the Map Panel and performed a reverse geocoding.
Data was added and visible in 6. IPTC Location. Lens information did not change.
Write-back.
Data was written (no lens-related data written) and the lens did not change. I've forcefully re-imported metadata to be sure. JPG still has no lens data.

Now I've man manually changed some location data in the MD Panel. Lens name unchanged.
Write back again. Lens name unchanged,

If you can provide an image (upload to your cloud space and send a link to support email address) which causes this effect and steps to reproduce it, please do so. Maybe it's something in ExifTool for this particular image. Or some "effect" in IMatch for this image. When I have an image here which causes this problem, I can learn more.

[erichaas]

In order to experiment with this, I copied a photo with lens data "Unknown E-mount lens" to another directory. When IMatch imported the photo, the lens had changed to "Voightlander NOKTON 50mm F1 Aspherical". So, apparently changing the location data was a red herring, and it just happens when the photo is re-imported.

[Mario]

This can happen if Phil updates the internal lens database in ExifTool. If he gets details from users about specific lens models not being detected and sample images, he figures out how to identify the lens and updates the camera database.

The problem is that there is no "lens name" in metadata. There are several tags, including lens id which can be used to figure out a name for the lens. An additional problem is that camera vendors reuse lens ids for different lenses over time or sometimes change the id for the same lens. It's all a mess.