Exiftool is outdated application now. It was replaced by Dalifer.

I have spent a lot of time trying to decode MakerNote tag in EXIF data. I think I was quite successful as I have managed to decode a substantial part of it. In this tag is stored almost complete setting of your digital camera used when shooting a picture. I do not have the time to publish my findings right now but at least I can give to you a tool which is able to decode this secret tag. This tool is at this time Windows only.

Please read ReadMe.txt inside or bellow. It contains some hints how to use this utility and also there is my request for your help to decipher the rest of the tags.

The tool is here (500 kB).

Please send me your comments or just inform me if you like it.

If you do not like command line utilities then you can use Exifer. But the most complete and accurate information you can get only with exiftool.

Update: Version 1.40 - fixed a problem with overflow when displaying histogram of .mrw file, updated WideFocusZone tag

============================================================
Exiftool 1.40
(c) 2002 Dalibor Jelinek
exiftool@dalibor.cz
http://www.dalibor.cz/minolta/
============================================================


Disclaimer
==========
This tool is a copyrighted work.
You can use this tool for non-commercial use freely.
For commercial use you have to ask for permission first.
Reverse engineering is prohibited.
There is no warranty on the usefulness for whatever purpose.
There is no liability for any possible damages cause by use
of this software.
You can reach me at exiftool@dalibor.cz


What exiftool can do?
=====================
This little utility can extract EXIF tags from Minolta DiMAGE
5, 7, 7u, 7i, 7Hi, S304, S404 digital cameras' pictures
and display them in different formats. Works with .jpg, .jpe,
.tif and .mrw files.
The specialty of this tool is that it can decode tags in
MakerNote field which format is not published and also
some special bytes in RAW files.
In MakerNote is stored almost complete setting of the camera
when taking pictures. You can display for example:
- real focal length (without Minolta's swindles)
- if you have used internal or external flash
- focus distance, focus mode, focus area (even the coordinates of flex focus)
- real ISO speed (even ISO 154 or ISO 1037)
- if you were bracketing and what you were bracketing
- not rounded shutter speeds
- color mode (vivid, natural)
- drive mode
- interval length
- saturation, contrast, sharpness settings
- display histogram of raw file
- extract large 640x480 thumbnails stored in pictures
- ...


How to use it on Windows (DOS)
==============================
- put the exiftool.exe and python.dll in the same folder
for example "c:\exiftool" or in some directory in %PATH

- "exiftool -i"
this dumps preformated tags found in pictures in current folder to screen

- "exiftool -v"
this dumps all tags found in pictures in current folder to screen

- "exiftool -i -s c:\pictures"
scans a folder and it's subfolders

- "exiftool -v -p"
displays histogram for .mrw files in current folder

- "exiftool -x"
extracts large thumbnails from pictures in current folder

- "exiftool -v > output.txt"
you can capture the output to a text file and then open output.txt file in editor

- you can create a template.txt to have different looking output
all possible tags are listed in mlt.txt
"exiftool.py -v -t template.txt"


Known problems
==============
- for D5 displays incorrect picture sizes
I need to know the correct ones, please send me some samples

- values for S304 and S404 are probably incorrect
I could fix it but I do not have the camera and I would need
some samples

- use it on original pictures only otherwise it could crash
(Photoshop strips Minolta tags)
(ACDSee corrupts the exif data so the program is confused)

- you cannot specify files by wildcards (exiftool *.mrw)

- I do not print Minolta tags 0x10, 0x20, 0x81 because they are
quite long so they mess the output a lot

- Tags named MLTxx are unknown to me. I would be glad if you would
send me any ideas about their meanings

- If you don't like the names, formatting, spelling, ... please
let me know.


Request for help
================
If you want to help me with development and deciphering the rest
of the unknown tags here is how you can help me. Please let
exiftool scan as much of your pictures as possible and email
me back the resulting text file.
Run exiftool like this on one folder or
"c:\exiftool\exiftool -i -p -s -t c:\exiftool\mlt.txt c:\pictures > c:\exiftool\xexif.txt"
or use supplied xexif.bat and run it in every folder with pictures


Credits
=======
Thanks to Robert F. Tobler for creating exiftool.py
which I have used as a starting point.

Thanks to Bryan Biggers for maintaining wonderful
Minolta forum http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/151930

Thanks to Friedemann Schmidt for incorporating
my findings into his nice Exifer program
http://www.exifer.friedemann.info/

Thanks to Patrick Porlan, Mark Horton for valuable ideas.

Thanks to Molnár Barback Balázs, RS Blum, Pete Ganzel,
Bill Hall, Dan Heimsoth, Jim Hunt, Graeme Knox,
Bob Kouré, Pete Nicholls for sending me their exif data.