general question about Exiftool updates for final versions

[joel23]

Hi Mario,
if it was asked before, I couldn't find an answer, sorry if so: but how do we get Exiftool updates later?

Will there be an update feature like with Geosetter or even better, would we be be able to set an environment variable (or set it via preferences) which points to a folder with Exiftool? At the moment I host three Exiftool versions, one by Geosetter, one by IMatch and one for pointing Exiftool GUI to it. The most recent version as today is Geosetter's (9.48)
Would be nice to have one folder with the latest version only, pointing all applications to....

[Mario]

I always ship the latest and tested ExifTool version with IMatch.
ExifTool may change it's interfaces or the way it exhibits certain functionality at any time. I prefer to test each version before I ship it to ensure compatibility with IMatch. I doubt that many users will see the need to use the intermediate builds of ExifTool or the always latest edition with IMatch, unless there is a specific reason, like support for the brand new camera model they use.

ExifTool requires only little disk space (a few MB), and there is no benefit in trying to share the same version of ExifTool between multiple applications.

[joel23]

I always ship the latest and tested ExifTool version with IMatch.
ExifTool may change it's interfaces or the way it exhibits certain functionality at any time. I prefer to test each version before I ship it to ensure compatibility with IMatch. I doubt that many users will see the need to use the intermediate builds of ExifTool or the always latest edition with IMatch, unless there is a specific reason, like support for the brand new camera model they use.

Exactly. New cameras or when file formats are changing, see below.

ExifTool requires only little disk space (a few MB), and there is no benefit in trying to share the same version of ExifTool between multiple applications.

I hear and understand you. Don't get me wrong - I asked this for a reason, in regard to the final version and because me being curious.

I remember an - as I guess almost unnoticed - issue with Exiftool in the past (last year): Geosetter provided a most recent ExifTool version supporting DNG V1.4 (I believe it was when write support for DNG V1.4 was added with V9.25, which was a production release) whereas IMatch used an older version at that time, only supporting DNG V1.3.
At that time I was successfully able to write to DNG with Geosetter but had weird and unaccountable problems with IMatch, until I realized that the file format was the problem. So I copied the newer Exiftool version to IMatch's folder and all was fine. 

Anyway.
Let me ask in a different way: let's say the first distribution candidate is released and there is no need for updates within months (please don't tell me this never did and never will happen, plz just assume it; I believe in it), how do we catch up with Exiftool updates in future and its possible support for new camera models or changed file formats?

Guess you won't release a new IMatch version just because there might be probably 'important' Exiftool updates available every second week!?

[Mario]

I have no concrete plans for this.

Basically a user can replace the ExifTool version shipped with IMatch with a newer version downloaded from Phil's site. IMatch will recognize this and re-import the current tag tables etc. from ExifTool. This is how I designed it.

However, as you experienced yourself, ExifTool may introduce changes which break certain things. And this is why I want to test ExifTool with IMatch to make sure things work as intended.

Maybe I include a check for the ExifTool RSS feed to inform IMatch users about updates.
Maybe I implement a feature where I provide tested new versions of ExifTool via one of my servers and IMatch checks for that once a day and downloads the new version if available. I don't know yet.

So far this was never an issue and since IMatch 5 uses an agile development process with frequent updates, I don't think that this will be a problem in the future. In the rare case a user really needs the most recent ExifTool version before it is included in IMatch 5, he can download and try it. Or maybe just ask here and I'll have a look.

[Mees Dekker]

Following up on the suggestion Mario did: how can I replace the Exiftool shipped with IMatch by a newer version. Where to look for the new Exiftool (http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/  ?) and which file(-s) should be replaced (where to find it on my hard disk)?

[Mario]

How do you want to do that?
Problem is that there are now configuration files involved, and these must be copied as well as the ExifTool.exe.
I don't recommend this unless it is absolutely needed.

The current IMatch version ships with ExifTool 11.33, released on March 28. Its just about four weeks old.

[Mees Dekker]

Well, in that case I'll keep it as it is.

It has to do with new lens ID's. My SIGMA lens is not recognised any longer, after updating the firmware (through the SIGMA USB dock). I will rescan my folders after the new release of IMatch, which will hopefully include Exiftool 11.40 or higher.

[Mario]

What IMatch needs from ExifTool is exiftool.exe and a number of the configuration files included in the source / Perl distribution.

I would send a warm "thank you for messing up my workflow by randomly changing your lens id" email to Sigma support.
Camera vendors mess with file formats, with metadata, with maker notes, with undocumented encryption and more...all to make it hard for their customers to use that data.
I would not expect an answer (except something canned) but who knows. Sigma is one of the better outlets...

After 30 years, how hard can it be to setup an EXIF field "camera_name" where the camera stores the name of the lens?

ExifTool needs to jump through many hoops to figure out the most likely lens name, based on internal tables and know-how gathered from looking at files. Sometimes it needs to compare 3, 4, o 5 different metadata tags to figure out the lens. And even then, different vendors use the same lens id for different lenses - or change them with a firmware update, as in your case.