Ratings in NEF files

[jch2103]

Nikon continues its practice of setting Rating to 0 on its latest cameras (Z6 in my case). IM 'Preferences/Metadata 2/Ignore rating of embedded XMP record' is set to the default of 'Yes', but if I assign a Rating in IM and write it back my Ratings vanish unless I use the Exiftool command processor (ECP) to delete XMP in the NEF file.

Is this a bug or is there something else I need to do?

In reviewing my new Z6 NEF files, I see there are quite a few embedded XMP tags (see attached ECP tag dump). I used to just delete all XMP tags from my Nikon 1 NEF files

Code Select Expand

-overwrite_original
-m
-xmp=
{Files}
but I'm not sure I want to do this with my Z6 NEF images.

[Mario]

This setting should work. It overrides the rating extracted from the NEF during the read and merge. Do you also have XMP sidecar files for these NEF files?
Please provide a sample NEF file and XMP sidecar file for download somewhere.

[jch2103]

This setting should work. It overrides the rating extracted from the NEF during the read and merge. Do you also have XMP sidecar files for these NEF files?
Please provide a sample NEF file and XMP sidecar file for download somewhere.

Here's a link for the same NEF file for which I did the metadata dump (see original post for metadata dump): https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtlBwiIf8wQzyCh8c_qqezMnzynE
There's no XMP sidecar for this image (yet).
Here's a link to another NEF, this time with an XMP sidecar file where I believe the only change was addition of a Rating.
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtlBwiIf8wQzyCvXHOM0ioUudEhJ

If the setting doesn't work, I'll need to create a special ECP command to delete just the Rating from the in-file XMP.

[Mario]

Hi,

I have downloaded the sample file, thanks.

- The NEF has a partial embedded XMP record with the rating=0 value.
- When I add the file to the IMatch database, it shows up with a rating of 4, this rating comes from the XMP sidecar file you have provided. OK.
- Duplicating the NEF on disk brings the copy into the database without a rating. OK.

I now set a rating of 3 for the copy of the NEF and write back.
This creates a complete and 'rich' XMP sidecar file. The rating in the sidecar file is 3, the rating in the NEF still 0. The file shows up in IMatch with rating 3 still. OK.

Which steps do you perform to make the rating set in IMatch vanish?

I use these settings under Edit > Preferences > Metadata 2:

[jch2103]

Edit > Preferences > Metadata 2 was indeed the issue. I hadn't changed these settings for a long time, and don't remember why I chose the ones I had (see screenshot) or whether they were just defaults from long ago.

Changing to your settings and forcing a rescan of the affected images fixed this issue. Thanks!

------
One other somewhat off topic question: the NEF files from my Z6 show up quite small in the Viewer (no issue with thumbnails). I assume this is because my installed codecs don't yet properly handle the Z6 NEFs? WIC Diagnostics attached.

EDIT: My Z6 NEF files show up full screen in the Viewer on my desktop; second WIC diagnostics attached (IMatch_WICDiag desktop.txt). On looking at the two files, it appears that the FPV codec isn't installed on my laptop...? Not sure how that happened...
Problem now resolved!

[Mario]

The setting has been added when this feature has been added. As explained in the release note at that time it is off by default (to not accidentally ignoring a 'real' rating set by the user in-camera).

If the WIC codec fails (!) IMatch falls back to using the RAWLib decoder. But when the WIC returns a small image, this is not the case.
I guess that the integrated NEF codec in Windows on your Notebook can extract a small version.

Either wait until Microsoft updates the codec, Nikon again starts to ship a NEF codec for their increasing number of RAW format variants unlikely) or switch to the built-in RAW processing in IMatch under Edit > Preferences > Application, Search for RAW on that page.

At least the NIKON Z* samples I have here are processed nicely by IMatch's internal routines.

[jch2103]

Installing the FPC codec on the laptop fixed the problem. Now both my desktop and laptop are in sync, on that issue anyway.