Faking a Camera Serial Number for Adobe Camera Raw

[tksharpless]

Sony has never put camera serial numbers in the metadata, so Sony owners have not had the benefit of the very convenient feature of Adobe Camera Raw that associates development presets -- most important, color profiles -- with specific cameras.  I shoot a lot of stereo pairs and it is essential that each photo gets processed with the proper profile.

 

Recent Alpha models do have an "Internal Serial Number" in the metadata, but ACR does not recognize this. However it is possible to convert it into a proper "Serial Number" with exiftool. 

Here is the command for converting a batch of raw files:

exiftool "-SerialNumber<InternalSerialNumber" *.ARW

 

The quotes are needed to prevent the Windows shell from interpreting the < as a file redirect.

 

You must do this before importing the images into LightRoom, because Adobe makes a private copy of the metadata at import, and ignores any subsequent changes in the ARW files. The batched ARW files can be from different cameras. 

 

I have tested this with ARW files from the a7r and a6000. The NEX series don't have "Internal Serial Number" so you still have to manage those by hand.

 

To see if a file is a candidate for conversion, or has been converted, you can use

exiftool -*SerialNumber name.ARW

If exiftool displays one line like:

Internal Serial Number : 34ffc409

then the file is convertible. If it displays nothing, it is not. Or it may show that the file already has a Serial Number:

Internal Serial Number : 21ff740d

Serial Number : 21ff740d

 

[Guest Peter Kelly]

In Lightroom I just apply whatever preset I want on import, which includes my chosen profile.

I'd have thought doing your batch processing prior to that simply adds a step and, more importantly, physically alters the file, which I prefer not to do.

I appreciate the issue you have, but I think you're making a little unnecessary work for yourself.

[Golem]

The OP expresses a certain specific concern, which

I don't address here. But to any who may be reading

this thread about serial numbers for another reason,

such as the need to know which body is responsible

for which image, it seems that you could use the exif

file's copyright feature. Just add a suffix to your usual

copyright, if you use copyright, or just use the entire

copyright line to identify each camera body. I don't

happen to use that line [and I have three brands of

body] but IIRC one or more brands refer in the menu

to an "author", which shows up in exif as copyright.