Great work. Again.

Hi Jeffrey
I forgot to mention :
do you think possible to modify the smart collection menu so we can sort photos by range of focals (between xx and yy)
For the moment we can only use “contains” etc….which, if I write “17”, selects 17mm AND 170mm ,
Logical, but not very useful

No, sorry, LR doesn’t allow for it. —Jeffrey

Hi Jeffrey,

This plugin is more than welcome. Works like a charm!

Thanx, Martin

Jeffrey,

I use this plug-in and discovered that in some cases it displays a question mark (?) if the image does not have the FocalLengthIn35mmFormat label defined. Upon clicking on the ? line, the images that do not have that label are displayed (filtered). This is working as expected.

However in some cases there another entry “No Value” which is always at the bottom of the. Upon clicking that entry the line is highlighted but the filter is not engaged, the same set of pictures is displayed. Thus, I can not determine what metadata tag is involved.

This is not a big deal, but it is in all likelihood a bug that you might want to eliminate at some point.

Regards, Josh

I’m guessing that it’s a bug in LR2. Plugin custom metadata can be frustratingly iffy in LR2’s filter (try restarting LR, and it might work). Try it again in the real LR3 when it comes out and it should all work fine. —Jeffrey

I see. What a pity. How often can you update the database? My new little cam is apparently not in it yet (FujiFilm FinePix JZ300). When I run “Calculate focal length sort” on it, the FocalLength in 35mm changes from “No value” to “?”, I take that’s because there is no entry for it in the database.
I asked a similar question (the 35mm value is computed) on Phil Harvey’s exiftool forum and Phil replied:

The computation is based on the FocalPlaneX/YResolution tags unless the FocalLengthIn35mmFormat tag exists already in which case it is used. See the Composite tag name documentation for a list of tags used in the calculation. (Also look up the tags used in calculating ScaleFactor35efl. Note that some of these are used only if others are not available.)

Maybe one needs a LR Plugin Interface for exiftool 🙂

Thanks, Josh

Send me a sample shot (of a blank wall, or better yet, something interesting 🙂 ) and I’ll add it to the database. I use ExifTool in a number of my plugins, but limitations in Lightroom and in Windows make it somewhat of a heavy hammer. Macs come with Perl installed, but Windows doesn’t and never will, so I have to include a full Perl run-time environment in the plugin, which is both fragile and bloating. And frankly, it’s not all that popular of a plugin, so I’m reticent to spend much time on it when time spent elsewhere can benefit many. —Jeffrey

I have installed LR 4.1 and it works now

thank you

Hi Jeffrey:

I just installed the Focal-Length Sort plugin, which is a godsend for me as I have used many small-sensor cameras over the years and until now have had no idea what focal length equivalent I was shooting at. After running it on my catalog, I noticed that all my Ricoh GRD2 images came up with question marks (?), which I take to mean that the GRD2 isn’t in your database. It has a fixed 28 mm equivalent lens, so a) can you add it to your database, and/or b) is there a way for me to manually edit the image files in my catalog to insert “28” in the correct field (e.g. using an EXIF editor and then instructing LR to read the updated metadata from the file)? Thanks!

I just pushed a new version of the plugin with that camera added. —Jeffrey

Hi Jeffrey:

Thanks for the quick update to include the Ricoh GRD2. I have been using the Focal Length Sort plugin together with your Data Explorer plugin to figure out what focal lengths I typically shoot at, to help in deciding which prime lens(es) to purchase. I’m not sure yet if the plugin will save me money or prompt me to spend more. 🙂

I ran into a glitch today with the plugin. I ran it on an image from a Micro 4/3 camera shot at 21 mm, and it correctly reported an equivalent FL of 42 mm. I cropped the image slightly, so it also reported a post-crop equivalent FL of 44 mm. After adjusting the image in LR, I opened it in Photoshop for some final retouching. When I later ran the Focal Length Sort plugin on the resulting TIFF file, it correctly calculated the equivalent FL as 42 mm, but calculated the post-crop FL as 42 mm also, not 44 mm as it did for the raw file. Any idea as to why it didn’t calculate the post-crop FL properly for the Photoshop image?

The trip through Photoshop removed the knowledge that the image was cropped. When you crop in Lightroom, you’re just adding a bit of metadata that you’re interested only in this sub-rectangle, but once you go through Photoshop, the crop is “baked in”, and the plugin no longer knows that it was cropped because within Lightroom, you’re seeing the whole thing. —Jeffrey

Hi Jeffrey:

Can you add the Fujifilm XF1 to the database? The manufacturer website for the camera is http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/x/fujifilm_xf1/, and you can download a sample image at http://tinyurl.com/p7vns2c. Thanks!

Richard in Vancouver Canada

Sure, done. Thanks for the direct links. —Jeffrey

Additional issue with smartphones is that since a lot of them don’t have any zoom, quite a few of them don’t store any focal information in exif. And then there are Nokia phones that that shoot at different focal lenght in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios (according to specs)

So in case of some Nokia phones you have to not only check if original photo was in widescreen or not, then add what focal lenght it was then calculate 35mm equivalent

Is there a way for us to add our own cameras? I have a couple of old ones that I would like to be included in the calculations of your plugin. I’d be interested in seeing the HP Photosmart 618 and iPhone 3GS added. Those two come up as ‘?’ in the plugin data.

Thanks!

There’s no way to add custom data, sorry, but I’ve gone ahead and updated the plugin with the two cameras you mentioned. —Jeffrey

Hi Jeffrey! I just noticed that the Focal Length Sort plugin does not correctly calculate the post-crop focal length if the image has been cropped from landscape to portrait or square. For example, I cropped a photo that is 4608 pixels wide by 3456 pixels high to 2592 pixels wide by 3456 pixels high, and the plugin reports the same 24mm equivalent focal length before and after cropping. I assume that this is because the vertical dimension remains the same. Is it possible to have the plugin check both the horizontal and vertical dimensions when calculating the post-crop focal length?

All the best,
Richard in Vancouver BC

It’s perhaps not intuitive, but I think the plugin is correct. Despite what’s cropped from the sides, you’d need that 24mm to capture the full height of what you see after the crop. If you’re looking at your post-crop photos to see what kind of prime lens to buy, for example, you’d need a 24mm to capture the photo in question (unless you rotated the camera by 90°, which perhaps is what you want it to take into account?). Sort of unintuitive that the data doesn’t change despite half the photo being cropped away. There is perhaps room for another kind of number that does reflect this, using the most restrictive angle instead of the widest angle. Not sure what to call it, or even what to think it might mean. —Jeffrey

Thanks for adding Phase One crop factors last year!

However, the crop factors for the 100MP IQ3 appears to be incorrect?

A Schneider blue ring 240mm lens has a 149mm equivalent (https://www.phaseone.com/en/Products/Camera-Systems/Lenses/Schneider-Kreuznach-240mm-LS.aspx), yet this plugin shows 143mm equiv.

With the 2X extender, it should be 298mm but it shows 285mm.

Here are Phase One’s equivalents for Schneider…
17mm <- 28mm [0.607 crop]
25-50mm <- 40-80mm [0.625 crop]
47mm-93mm <- 75-150mm [0.627 crop]
149mm <- 240mm [0.6208 crop]
+2X
73mm <- 120mm f4 Macro ) [0.608 crop]

Hi, Jeffrey.

It looks like a few cameras that I use or have used are missing — Fujifilm X100F and a few older ones — HP Photosmart 618, iPhone, iPhone 3GS

These should all be handled. The iPhones don’t need to be in the database because they include info about their sensor in the image metadata, but the other two are explicitly in the database. If you’re not seeing this, please send a log after a failure. —Jeffrey

Hi,
I’m trying to calculate the focal length values for the Canon G7X m2 and I’m getting the message “InitPlugin :62: attempt to perform arithmetic on a nil value.”
Is it because the g7xii isn’t in the Crop Factor database? If so, could you please at it? 🙂 It has a 1-inch-sensor.
Thank you very much for the great plugin!
Mario

I don’t think the bug is a direct cause of the camera not being in the database, so I’d like to ask that you get the bug to happen and then send a plugin log. Then update to the latest version of the plugin, which I just released, that now includes that camera… the bug may or may not happen with that. —Jeffrey