Metadata mistakes with Vista

Editing metadata through Photo Info may render the file unreadable in Photoshop

12 February 2007 17:58 GMT / By Amber Maitland

Photographers be warned before jumping in with both feet to Microsoft Vista - you might want to reconsider using its metadata editing tools for the time being.

The Photo Info tool is designed to make it easy for you to edit the metadata or your image without using a standalone application, but it seems that Microsoft has not worked out all the kinks in the system yet.

To start with, Microsoft has posted about the problem to its support site, saying that when you edit, the software for the digital camera may no longer recognise the metadata that is added to the photo by the camera itself.

Rather disappointingly, Microsoft's "workaround" suggestion says not to use the Photo Acquisition Wizard to download photos to the hard disk, and don't use the photo editor.

A recent post on the company's photo blog flags up issues with Nikon proprietary RAW format as well.

It says that there have been reports that tagging the NEF files through Vista and Photo Info makes the files unreadable in applications include Photoshop, although they can still be opened in Nikon Capture.

Worrying.