Saturday, October 3, 2009

Flickr App & EXIF data

I was browsing through Flickr earlier and I noticed this photo from Gruber. The tags showed that it was processed with the Best Camera app, but the EXIF data was still there. Hmm. I also noticed that the photo was uploaded with the official Flickr app. I decided to test some things out (I did the same tests with Camera Bag as well, with the same results).

  1. Uploading a photo from the desktop via the Safari does not maintain the EXIF.
  2. Uploading a photo via email from within Best Camera does not maintain the EXIF.
  3. Uploading a photo from the iPhone camera roll—that has been processed in Best Camera—via the Flickr app does maintain the EXIF.

What’s very interesting is that the EXIF data doesn’t appear when you check for it in Preview, yet the Flickr app keeps it. It does not appear to keep geolocation data, but the Flickr app allows you to “Tag Current Location” so if you’re uploading on the spot taken, it’s accurate (however, I tested it with a photo taken in NYC, and it tagged it as my home in Boston).

I’m not clear on exactly how this is happening, but until 3rd party apps are able to maintain the EXIF data, this is a great workaround.

I threw all my test photos into a Flickr set

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