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Maker Notes

Camera manufacturers usually want to enhance EXIF metadata with their own custom information. This may be a camera specific setting, camera identification, current environment, and others.

Maker notes are stored inside EXIF metadata in a special section. And these information are always defined by the manufcturer. The maker notes are not published, so only a reverse engineered subset of tags is known.

Also note that because these tags are non-standard, there is no standard way to tell which manufacturer's maker notes a file contains. Some metadata readers can recognise maker notes by their internal header, but many of them, and also some manufacturers' own formats, rely on the camera Make tag.

Exif Editor shows maker notes only when all of the following is true:

  • the Make tag exactly matches one of the supported manufacturers,
  • the file type is one that Exif Editor reads maker notes from for that manufacturer (usually JPG and the manufacturer's RAW format),
  • the file actually contains maker note tags of that manufacturer.

Exif Editor reads maker notes of these manufacturers:

ManufacturerMake tag valueFile types
AppleAppleJPG, HEIC
CanonCanonJPG, CR2, CR3
FujifilmFUJIFILMJPG, RAF
LeicaLeica Camera AGJPG, DNG
NikonNIKON CORPORATIONJPG, NEF
OlympusOLYMPUS IMAGING CORPJPG, ORF
PentaxPENTAX CorporationJPG, PEF
SigmaSIGMAJPG, X3F
SonySONYJPG, ARW

Exif Editor currently has no editors for Fujifilm and Sigma maker notes.

So, if you clear or change the Make tag, Exif Editor and possibly other software will no longer show the maker notes. See Changing camera maker name.