ASP - Sony / Minolta Lenses

[jeronimo]

Hello,

I am currently evaluating Aftershot pro (trial version / 1.0.1.10) in order to decide what Cataloguing / processing software I am going to use.
I really like the user interface and processing speed, but I have a problem with the detection of lenses in the metadata.
For the RAW and JPG images from my Sony SLT-A65V, the DSLR Model is indicated in the metadata, but the lens displayed is always "Lens". In the optical corrections tab, only the brand is recognized, not the DSLR model, neither the lens.
I can select a77V (same sensor) in the drop-down box, but it still doesn't detect the lens. I have to set these informations manually if I want to use the optical corrections, but I still can't search for images by lens ID.

I tried with my older Sony A350, to see if ASP doesn't like Sony DSLRs or only A65V. I cannot get lens info from any JPG ! For RAW files it depends on lens model / focal length (!!!)

ex :
Sony AF DT 18-250mm F3.5-6.3, Minolta AF 75-300/4.5-5.6 (D), Sony DT 35 F1.8 SAM : ok
Sony AF DT 18-70 F3.5-5.6 : ok @ 17mm, but @ 70mm it is detected as "Sony AF DT 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3"
Minolta AF 100-300/4.5-5.6 APO (D) : ok @ 100mm, @ 300mm becomes "Sigma 100-300mm f/4 EX (APO (D) or D IF)"

Has anyone ever had this kind of problem ? Is there a solution or a workaround ?

[greerd]

One way to do it is to eliminate the competition. Edit your AfterShotPro/supportfiles/Profiles/LensProfiles and just delete or comment out the culprits. Looks like profile_konicaSLR.txt and profile_genericSLT.txt are the only two you would have to deal with.

Note that any update or reinstall with undo your edits.

[jeronimo]

One way to do it is to eliminate the competition. Edit your AfterShotPro/supportfiles/Profiles/LensProfiles and just delete or comment out the culprits. Looks like profile_konicaSLR.txt and profile_genericSLT.txt are the only two you would have to deal with.

That could solve the Minolta detected as Sigma, but it would not resolve the non-detection of lenses in all JPGs and all files coming from my A65.

However, I think I have found a workaround :
- When I want to import a new folder, i go into filesystem view in ASP, select all files, and press Ctrl-R. This makes ASP generate an XMP sidecar file with default processing for all JPGs and ARWs (Sony RAW)
- Then I edit the XMP (which is a text file) to include correct lens info in the "lens" and "profilelens" and put "a77v" in "profilemodel". For now I only tried this manually, but it could be automated with some script using exiftool for correct lens detection
- Then I import the files and voila !
It seems that once the pictures are imported I can even delete the XMP files if I don't want to clutter my filesystem, all relevent info being in the catalog database. And I can reset the processing settings, the lens info stays.

The downside is that it makes importing longer and more complicated, and although I like ASP and its compact and efficient user interface, I am not sure I want to be bothered with that.

[jeronimo]

I have written a Perl script (that uses the Exiftool library) to fix these problems. It automates the editing of the XMP files.
How to use :
- before importing a directory, do all the sorting, tagging, editing you want to do, then select ail pictures you are going to import
- Edit->XMP->Write Aftershot XMP files
- use the script (ASPfix -m -l -d -t <translation table> files and/or directories)
- import

you have to provide a table with translations between
- EXIF camera model name => Aftershot profile model name
- Exiftool lens name => Aftershot lens profile name

The script can be found here :
http://ginesj.free.fr/misc/ASPfix.pl
example translation table (I used a77v profile for my A65 because there is no profile for it):
http://ginesj.free.fr/misc/trans2.txt

You can see the exiftool camera model name and lens names by using the script with only the directory argument.
You can find the Aftershot profile names in the files in "Program Files\Corel\Corel AfterShot Pro\supportfiles\Profiles\LensProfiles" (Windows)

invoking the script without arguments gives information about the different options.

on Linux, you probably already have perl and exiftool should come with it
on Windows, you can install ActivePerl (download from http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/downloads), and then use Perl Package Manager to get the Exiftool library (Image-ExifTool)

Unfortunately I found no way to fix these problems for pictures that already have been imported.

Keep in mind that this is experimental. The script only reads image files, so it can't do any harm to them, but it writes to .XMP files, so if something turns wrong, it might have an effect on you editing/tagging.