From Canon:Windows Vista can corrupt TIFF Metadata

[plawrence]

Just a heads up for those who haven't been already notified.  Canon USA has issued a Service Notice regarding a bug in Windows Vista Explorer and Vista Windows Photo Gallery software the causes a loss of metadata in TIFF files from Canon EOS-1D and EOS-1Ds cameras.

Here's a link to Canon USA Service Notice:
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controll...15&modelid=7474

Here is part of what Canon states in its Service Notice:

"We have discovered that the original image data of TIFF (RAW) images shot with an EOS-1D or EOS-1Ds Digital SLR Camera, and rotated or edited using Windows Explorer or Windows Gallery on a computer running Windows Vista, will disappear from the computer's memory. The image data that disappears cannot be recovered. Customers who use the affected products should follow the countermeasure below."

Canon's countermeasure:

"When you rotate TIFF images, or edit the properties of TIFF images, shot with an EOS-1D/EOS-1Ds Camera, please use Canon's ZoomBrowser EX image browsing/editing software instead of Windows Explorer or Windows Photo Gallery when using a PC computer running Windows Vista."


Here's a link to Microsoft's view of the problem:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927527/en-us


- Peter

[joedecker]

"When you rotate TIFF images, or edit the properties of TIFF images, shot with an EOS-1D/EOS-1Ds Camera, please use Canon's ZoomBrowser EX image browsing/editing software instead of Windows Explorer or Windows Photo Gallery when using a PC computer running Windows Vista."...

Thanks for the pointer.

Microsoft's response strikes me as rather unhelpful, users could easily and unconsciously rotate and unknowingly damage the file metadata.  One long term patch seems feasible--Microsoft should stop, or at least warn before attempting, modifications of files it doesn't know how to properly modify.  

--Joe