Importing DM-9 / DS-100 data into scans

Does anyone know of a good utility for batch copying data from the DM-9 or DS-100 into scans?

Sounds like fun, and it should be eminently doable in Perl.

If you post a few examples of the DNO-*.txt files then someone here (maybe me if I get time, maybe someone else) could write a little script to do it.

cmd.exe scripting seems like a recipe for pain and humiliation to me.

the .cmd is just the NT/XP version of a .bat file. Fortunately, some of the commands are more usable.

The motivation in using a .bat file is that the user (xp user) can readily execute the program without having to install a scripting engine, and while not necessarily knowing how to code could still manage to edit the file in notepad if they desire/need to.

Between my DM-9 and some other folks sending me output from a DS-100, it appears the code is functionally the same (if a little smaller on the DS-100 due to less data being available. Better yet, the same program could do both, and identify the right one from the contents of the DNO file.

Link to the DM-9 Manual: http://www.vikenk.com/minolta_manual.htm

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You will also need the windows version of exiftool in the same directory, as well as the DNO file, and the jpeg's, filenames consisting of numbers only plus the .jpg suffix.

Also, I guess my idea of using batch code was driven since exiftool is a command line tool anyway.

First, some pseudocode:

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Get filename for the Minolta DNO file.
Check that file exists, throw error if it doesn't exist.

Get filename for the first scanned jpeg file. Assume all scanned jpegs from the roll of film are numbered sequentially upward from that.

Open DNO-####.txt file, read the data, translate to exiftool input values:

From the DM-9, the first line is dno-####.
From the DS-100, the first line is dno-####,ISO:###
Where obviously in both cases #### is some numerical value.
So figuring out which type of file we're dealing with should be trivial. Bonus on the DS-100 is we have a global variable for the ISO.

The second line are the Column headers. For the DM-9:
Frame     Shutter     FNo.     Lens        +/-     PASM     Meter     AF     Area     AFP/RP     Drive     Flash     FL+/-     FLMeter     ISO     Up No.     Fix No.     yy/mm/dd     Time

Written in English for the DM-9:
Frame Number, Shutter Speed, Aperture, Focal Length/Max Aperture, Exposure Compensation Value, Exposure Mode (PASM), Metering Mode, Focus Mode, Focus Frame, Focus Priority, Drive Mode, Flash Mode, Flash Compensation Value, Flash Metering Mode, ISO, Count-up number, Fixed Number, Date (YY/MM/DD), Time

For the DS-100:
Frame     Shutter     FNo.     Lens        +/-     PASM     Meter     FL +/-     yy/mm/dd     Time

Under the lens column it's actually ####/## for focal length/max aperture.

Ignoring the slashes used on this line for teh +/-, the delimeters used in all subsequent lines are forward slashes "/", tabs, and spaces.

Loop starts

Read the (first/next) line, set the variables accordingly, translate as necessary and sent into exftool:

exiftool imageFileNo.jpg -Make="Minolta" -Model="Maxxum 9" -ShutterSpeedValue=shutterValue -ApertureValue=aperture -FocalLength=focalLength -MaxApertureValue="maxApertureValue -ExposureCompensation=exposureComp -ExposureProgram="Aperture-priority AE" -MeteringMode="Spot" -ISO="!ISO!" -DateTimeOriginal="2008:02:01 20:30:00" -CreateDate="2008:02:01 20:30:00" -FileSource="Film Scanner"

maybe we want to re-read the data as spit back from exiftool:
exiftool -k imageFileNo.jpg

increase the filenumber counter, check if that file exists (if it doesn't assume end of roll, or check using eof of the DNO file).

end loop

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That's the program in a nutshell.

Things that make this terribly tricky:
1. Translating
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/TagNames/EXIF.html

For example, shutter: 30 -> 1/30, 30" -> 30, 0.5" -> 0.5? What do we do about BULB?

Exposure Mode (PASM): M -> "Manual", P -> "Program AE", A -> Aperture-priority AE, S -> Shutter speed priority AE

May need to modify the format of the timestamp.

2. User defined tags to supplement stuff not part of the exif specification that we want exiftool insert for us:
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/faq.html#Q11

I am having trouble understanding this part.

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Anyway, if anyone is interested in the masochism that is batch code, here is what I've put together so far. It's not complete, some lines are commented out that shouldn't be (debugging purpose), some lines should not be there outright, and others are gibberishy comments for me:

Save as a .cmd file:

@echo off

SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

rem SET /P dbFile=Enter Minolta DNO filename:

rem if not exist %dbFile% echo no db file exists
rem if not exist %dbFile% goto :end

SET /P imageFile=Enter first jpeg file in sequence:
if not exist %imageFile%.jpg goto :eof
set /a imageFileNo=%imageFile%

pause

for /f "skip=2 tokens=1-23* delims=/      " %%A IN (DNO-0001.TXT) DO (
set frame=%%A
set frame
set shutter=%%B
rem check for double quotes character in shutter value
rem if present, remove it (shutter slower or equal to 0.5 sec)
rem if not present appent 1/ to the front
set shutter
set aperture=%%C
rem need to decide case where value is -- (null) and what to do about it
set aperture
set focalLength=%%D
rem need to decide case where value is ---- (null) and what to do about it
set focalLength
set maxAperture=%%E
rem need to decide case where value is -- (null) and what to do about it
set maxAperture
set exposureComp=%%F
set exposureComp
set exposureProg=%%G
rem if P A S M etc
set exposureProg
set meteringMode=%%H
rem cases
set meteringMode
set focusMode=%%I
rem cases
set focusMode
set focusFrame=%%J
rem cases
set focusFrame
set focusPriority=%%K
rem cases
set focusPriority
set driveMode=%%L
rem cases
set driveMode
set flashMode=%%M
rem cases
set flashMode
set flashComp=%%N
rem cases
set flashComp
set flashMeteringMode=%%O
rem cases
set flashMeteringMode
set ISO=%%P
set ISO
set CountUpNo=%%Q
set CountUpNo
set FixedNo=%%R
set FixedNo
set Year=%%S
set Year
set Month=%%T
set Month
set Day=%%U
set Day
set Time=%%V
set Time
@echo on
exiftool !imageFileNo!.jpg -Make="Minolta" -Model="Maxxum 9" -ShutterSpeedValue="1/50" -ApertureValue="!aperture!" -FocalLength="!focalLength!" -MaxApertureValue="!

maxAperture!" -ExposureCompensation="0" -ExposureProgram="Aperture-priority AE" -MeteringMode="Spot" -ISO="!ISO!" -DateTimeOriginal="2008:02:01 20:30:00" -

CreateDate="2008:02:01 20:30:00" -FileSource="Film Scanner"
exiftool -k !imageFileNo!.jpg
@echo off
pause
set /a imageFileNo += 1
echo imageFileNo=!imageFileNo!
if not exist %imageFile%.jpg goto :end
)
:end
pause

rem Frame Number, Shutter Speed, Aperture, Focal Length/Max Aperture, Exposure Compensation Value, Exposure Mode (PASM), Metering Mode, Focus Mode, Focus Frame, Focus

Priority, Drive Mode, Flash Mode, Flash Compensation Value, Flash Metering Mode, ISO, Count-up number, Fixed Number, Date (YY/MM/DD), Time
rem Shutter Speed - Append 1/## <-- what if T>1 second?
rem Exposure Program: M="Manual"; P="Program AE"; A="Aperture-priority AE"; S="Shutter speed priority AE"
rem Metering Mode: Multi="Multi-segment"; Ave="Average"; Spot="Spot"
rem S="Single-shot AF"; C="Continuous AF"; A="Automatic AF"; M="Manual"
rem -xmp:FocusMode="Single-shot AF" <-- needs to be user defined tag
rem focus frame needs to be user defined tag
rem focus priority needs to be user defined tag
rem drivemode needs to be user defined tag
rem Flash Mode needs to be user defined tag (and stripped down exif one)
rem flash compensation value
rem flash exposure compensation
rem Flash Metering Mode needs to be worked on
rem FilmType (eg reala) user input needs to be user defined tag

Edited by hotwire - 08 March 2008 at 04:09

Thanks for writing that, but unfortunately, it leads me into the aforementioned problem of understanding how to install everything to get it to work.

That is something I feared. My intent was to create something that most users can utilize with a minimum of effort. While I have limited experience with cygwin, my fear is that these steps will be too much for some-most other users.

I will attempt to put this all together now though.

I managed to come up with a slightly more friendly windows method.

download this Perl distribution (the free one): http://www.activestate.com/Products/activeperl/features.plex

Install, then dl the Perl version of exiftool. Follow the instructions on the exiftool webpage: http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/install.html
but instead of putting in c:/windows, put in c:/Perl/lib

So you should have: exiftool.pl, exiftool.pm, and exiftool.pod in the /lib directory, and well as the /file and /image directories in /lib.

dm9toexif.pl should be in the directory with the images and the dno file, and is called by: dm9toexif.pl dno-0001.txt (or whatever number) from the command prompt.

----

Anyway, after successfully getting that far, I got the following:
Processing DNO-0001.txt
bad header in DNO-0001.txt

polyglot, check your pm's.

Edited by hotwire - 09 March 2008 at 17:44

Sorry about not being able to email you back last night, polyglot. I went to bed, work up and am now at work.

Your latest version seems to run. However, I think a few things need to be changed.

Instead of using upno, we should use frame instead. On a roll of film, it's a maximum of 36 exposures, whereas upno is a five digit integer (and I still don't quite understand the use of this column from the DM-9 manual), notwithstanding the fact there is no upno field for the DS-100.

Also, do the image files have to end in -##, can the dash be excluded? We would have to check the default neg scanner output file names for various makes and models, but I know the neg scanner at my local costco (I know, shame on me...) outputs ########.jpg on the photo cd.

Edited by hotwire - 10 March 2008 at 14:49