The Many Ways to Flash (or Not to Flash)

Just thought of adding some of the more fun flash codes to my ExIf tool, but have decided against it for now unless someone directly requests it. I am perfectly happy with the binary choice of 0 (Flash did not fire) or 1 (Flash fired). All of the other options are roughly as easy from a logical standpoint, but they are much harder to pass into my existing code for encoding into the ExIf of image files.

0000.H = Flash did not fire.

0001.H = Flash fired.

0005.H = Strobe return light not detected.

0007.H = Strobe return light detected.

0009.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode

000D.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light not detected

000F.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light detected

0010.H = Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

0018.H = Flash did not fire, auto mode

0019.H = Flash fired, auto mode

001D.H = Flash fired, auto mode, return light not detected

001F.H = Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected

0020.H = No flash function

0041.H = Flash fired, red-eye reduction mode

0045.H = Flash fired, red-eye reduction mode, return light not detected

0047.H = Flash fired, red-eye reduction mode, return light detected

0049.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode

004D.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode, return light not detected

004F.H = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode, return light detected

0059.H = Flash fired, auto mode, red-eye reduction mode

005D.H = Flash fired, auto mode, return light not detected, red-eye reduction mode

005F.H = Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected, red-eye reduction mode

On the other hand, I have decided to add all 21 types of light, since that seems more useful (and is less likely to give me a headache)

1 = Daylight

2 = Fluorescent

3 = Tungsten (incandescent light)

4 = Flash

9 = Fine weather

10 = Cloudy weather

11 = Shade

12 = Daylight fluorescent (D 5700 – 7100K)

13 = Day white fluorescent (N 4600 – 5400K)

14 = Cool white fluorescent (W 3900 – 4500K)

15 = White fluorescent (WW 3200 – 3700K)

17 = Standard light A

18 = Standard light B

19 = Standard light C

20 = D55

21 = D65

22 = D75

23 = D50

24 = ISO studio tungsten

255 = other light source

2 thoughts on “The Many Ways to Flash (or Not to Flash)”

  1. Hi Curtis,
    I know what you are going through. Exif is a pain. If it helps, my exif utility (http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/) has some diagnostic outputs (the -htmldump output in particular) that may be useful in understanding the EXIF structure.
    But I’m posting this comment because I collect sample images from different cameras and I would like an original image from an N80QD. If you could send me one that would be great. phil at owl.phy.queensu.ca
    Thanks.

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