Panasonic LZ2:Input Device Info is not fully seen - resolved

[Konstantin]

Hi NIteam,

Great program! Congratulations!

A small problem:
Neat Image reads some EXIF fields and use them for searching. In my case (Panasonic LZ2) this works not always. For a 'normal' image (just taken from the camera) I see the 7 fields:
Device maker: ...
Device model: ...
Software: ...
ISO level: ...
Compression: ...
Sharpness: ...
Exposure time: ...
If the image was modified (e.g. by 'JPG Lossless transformations' of IrfanView, or even as a cleaning result by Neat Image!), some field are gone and a new field appears:
Device maker: ...
Device model: ...
Software: ...
Resolution: 0.00 dpi
(that's it, no more fields)
However, I can see the whole EXIF by other programs and by standard Windows means as if nothig really happend to it.

You know, without ISO recognition it is not so convenient to use Neat Image...

In the Plugin version the problem is even harder: EXIF is not read for ALL
my images and as a result Neat Image complains that it cannot find a suitable profile.

Now some suggestions:

1) It would be good to have an option: "apply original EXIF date/time to the output file"
2) supply Tools/Option with a key-code (as usual, Ctrl+O)
3) In the "Filtration Queue" window assign to Enter the editing function (as for double-click)
4) It makes sense to group the saving options into a new tab in the Options dialog. Then they will have a better access and you don't have to grey them in the plugin version, just grey the whole tab.
5) In the Filtration Job Editor/Device Noise Profile I miss the button "Profile Matcher" somewhere near the blue-diskette buttons.
And also a button referring directly to Options/Matching would be nice.
6) Device Noise Profile: "Device mode:" list box has 6 strings and only shows 5 so that it must be scrolled for the last one. Can you expand it a bit for 6 visible strings? By the way, the last string is "White balance", which doesn't show up in the Options/Matching dialog. Is white balance not so important for matching? Why then it is present in the device mode
list box?
7) And finally, the overall design is nice except for the first 6 pictograms in Filtration Queue window. Especially "Queue" and "Hold". I would re-draw them.

In total, I was pleased to work with the program. Great!
Just would be nice to resolve the EXIF reading problems...

[NITeam]

Hi Konstantin,

Thank you for the feedback. I will comment below:

A small problem:
Neat Image reads some EXIF fields and use them for searching. In my case (Panasonic LZ2) this works not always. For a 'normal' image (just taken from the camera) I see the 7 fields:
....
If the image was modified (e.g. by 'JPG Lossless transformations' of IrfanView, or even as a cleaning result by Neat Image!), some field are gone and a new field appears:
....
However, I can see the whole EXIF by other programs and by standard Windows means as if nothig really happend to it.

In the Plugin version the problem is even harder: EXIF is not read for ALL
my images and as a result Neat Image complains that it cannot find a suitable profile.

Could you send us (support at neatimage.com) a sample photo from your camera? We would try to reproduce the effect to see what is going wrong.

1) It would be good to have an option: "apply original EXIF date/time to the output file"

Maybe, though I wouldn't use it myself for example. - Edited files should normally have different names and dates to clearly distinguish them from the originals. However, I add the suggestion to our wish list.

2) supply Tools/Option with a key-code (as usual, Ctrl+O)

Ctrl+O is already used for opening image files, this is the standard use of this shortcut. Probably another shortcut could be used in Options.

3) In the "Filtration Queue" window assign to Enter the editing function (as for double-click)

This is reasonable. We will take this.

4) It makes sense to group the saving options into a new tab in the Options dialog. Then they will have a better access and you don't have to grey them in the plugin version, just grey the whole tab.

This can be useful. Those options would be "Default output file format", "Quality" (in case of JPEG), and probably "Filtered file name suffix", "Defaut output bitdepth" with two "auto" checkboxes. We will check if this can be done without introducing any inconsistency in program logics.

5) In the Filtration Job Editor/Device Noise Profile I miss the button "Profile Matcher" somewhere near the blue-diskette buttons.

Yes, we moved it to the Auto Profile dropdown menu to make more space for profile name and to make the means of getting a profile for an image grouped together. I think we can add a shortcut for Profile Matcher in the menu, that would help too.

6) Device Noise Profile: "Device mode:" list box has 6 strings and only shows 5 so that it must be scrolled for the last one. Can you expand it a bit for 6 visible strings? By the way, the last string is "White balance", which doesn't show up in the Options/Matching dialog. Is white balance not so important for matching? Why then it is present in the device mode list box?

It is the least important of all device mode parameters listed there. I agree that it would be better to make the box larger. It is small now to fit the whole window into the 800x600 screen resolution when all controls are visible. I think we will improve this in the future versions.

7) And finally, the overall design is nice except for the first 6 pictograms in Filtration Queue window. Especially "Queue" and "Hold". I would re-draw them.

Well, I wouldn't mind replacing them. If you have any specific idea of how they could look like please let me know.

In total, I was pleased to work with the program. Great! Just would be nice to resolve the EXIF reading problems...

Once again, thank you for your constructive feedback. I will expect your e-mail with a sample so that we could try to diagnose and resolve the EXIF issue.

Thank you,
Vlad