RAW to DNG: Moving annotations, stars, labels w/Metasync

[Joe Reifer]

I've been testing the conversion of archived Canon RAW files (CRW and CR2) to DNG.

The iView "Duplicate Annotations" script works fine for moving most of my RAW metadata to the DNGs, but doesn't handle star ratings and labels as it was written for iView 2.6.

I have tried using MetaSync (from smackie.org) but can't get it to work - I have an email in to Scott Mackie to see if I'm doing something wrong. Metasync version 1.5 does allow you to move star ratings and labels over, and the interface looks great. I'm just can't get it to work.

Here's the test scenario using Mac OS 10.4.5 and iView Media Pro 3.02

I put 10 canon CR2 files in an iView catalog and added annotations in iView (but didn't sync annotations). This catalog is called raw.ivc
File name example: test_123.CR2

I converted the 10 CR2 files to DNGs with the same name, and saved them in a separate iView catalog - these have no annotations. This
catalog is called dng.ivc
File name example: test_123.DNG

I tried to run Metasync 1.51 (latest version) but it kept erroring out. I tried CR2 files from both the 5d and 20d.

I'm planning to convert all my CR2 and CRW files to DNG, but don't want to lose my star ratings and labels (which is what would happen with the iview duplicate annotations script written for v2.6).

Any clues what i'm doing wrong? Does the file folder structure have anything to do with it?
Another question - will catalog sets move over?

Thanks,

Joe

[Joe Reifer]

Perhaps someone has migrated from previously archived RAW to DNG using another method?

If so, how did you move your stars and labels across?

Thanks,

Joe

[peterkrogh]

Joe,
I would expect to see some better tools to do this soon.  If you don't have to do this right away, it might make sense to wait a bit.

That said, have you tried to sync annotations to the CR2 from iView and then build your DNG files?  You will want to test on some duplicate files first, but I *think* this should work fine in the current version of iView.
Peter

[Joe Reifer]

Thanks Peter. Do you think iView will build a more advanced annotations duplication option into a future version?

Syncing to CR2s would probably work, but I'd rather wait for a proper tool than risk syncing to an undocumented format and risk any file corruption (I plan to keep CR2s rated 2 stars or more after DNG conversion).

I've considering using the old Sync Annotations script to move most of the metadata across, and then grouping images in Catalog Sets somehow to move star ratings and labels, but this seems too laborious.

Cheers,

Joe

[Joe Reifer]

Update: Scott Mackie who created MetaSync has offered to look at some screenshots to help me troubleshoot this issue.

Note: Star ratings and Labels are moved over with Metasync, catalog sets are not.

I'll update this thread when I figure out what's going on.

Cheers,

Joe