User comment field only?

1

Good morning!

I am investigating using SS 5 or 6 for tethering with an attached barcode reader. Have not downloaded a trial yet.

However, initial research shows that any scanned data is placed into (and only into) the EXIF {User Comment} field, as well as part of the filename according to the filename policy. Is that correct? It can’t be placed directly into any other IPTC field, like {caption} or {source}?

I ask because the user comment field is impossible to interact with in Adobe Lightroom via scripting. It has been an adobe oversight since the start of LR. I do not want to have to script my requirements via exiftool.

If so, I won’t be able to manipulate the embedded data from SS if user comment is the only option and better to know at this stage.

Thanks.

2

Yes thats correct, when the “Add barcode to photo metadata” option is enabled, then the current software will do this:

  • Add the barcode text to the EXIF “UserComment” field
  • If the camera is a Canon, also add it to the “Copyright” field

If you need an option to populate different fields, please list them out, and I will update v6 to do that.

3

Hello Francis

Thank you for your reply.

That gives me options then with our Canon cameras.

Good to see that other IPTC fields are / might be available.

The problems with the current two fields (for our purposes at least) are:
a) usercomment - as mentioned, not accessible from Adobe’s LR SDK.
b) copyright - really should be used for its intended purpose and which we need to retain when images are used for other purposes.

We find the {Caption} field is most suitable for our current academic data embedding workflow as the LR SDK means we can access it via .lua scripting (which we use to split our considerable data into multiple other fields), LR presents caption over three lines (not that other fields won’t expand) and {Title} (the other obvious field to use) we use for a specific other purpose.

Shall download the trial and test it out.

By the way, I assume the ‘three install-able copies’ mentioned by your SS6 EULA permits simultaneous usage, and do you offer an ‘up to ten install-able simultaneous usage copies’ licence?

Thanks again Francis.

K.

Sorry, one follow up question - is it possible to retain focus on the barcode entry field in SS6 from one shot to the next without requiring any user interaction when using a hardware scanner?

4

Regarding why the “Copyright” field is being populated for Canon cameras, this was a requirement of some other legacy system that was being integrated with Smart Shooter.

So going forward, for Smart Shooter v6, I will add the option to customise which fields are being populated (and default the same behaviour of v5).

About the licensing; you need a unique license for each person using the app. So if you plan to support 10 people using the app, you need 10 licenses.

is it possible to retain focus on the barcode entry field in SS6 from one shot to the next without requiring any user interaction when using a hardware scanner?

Is this not working already? I don’t think the app will change focus of the UI elements, unless the user interacts with it.