Request: make use of "Image Unique ID" exif field?

[Andrew Mitchell]

My camera (the one I lost a year ago!) is a canon SX1... not officially supported (presumably) the exif data does not contain a serial number.

However... the exif fields do contain "Image Unique ID" which is a ~30 character string:

e.g. b8e55a880bde3e8697bd07a5f23359fc

I have noticed that all the photos I have taken with it (several thousand, but few uploaded) ... the field ends in:

3e8697bd07a5f23359fc

which suggests to me that the serial number is either:

3e8697bd07a5f23359fc

e8697bd07a5f23359fc

8697bd07a5f23359fc

697bd07a5f23359fc

(etcetera)

Certainly I imagine that e8697bd07a5f23359fc would be

1) unique to this camera

2) be the suffix of the next 100k photos taken with the camera.

I have searched for all the above possibilities on the serial number entry, but I'm guessing that this field does not go into the index, hence I haven't been able to find any match.

If this could be added to the index, then I should be able to see if the camera has seen use by someone else since!

I hope you collect all exif fields in the information gathering... hence just an index change... otherwise it might take a little time to regather the data.

thanks,

Andrew.

[matt burns]

Andrew,

This looks like a promising observation, thanks for sharing. I shall look at this field on some other images taken with this camera to see if it changes with physical camera and the see if can be used reliably.

I'll keep you informed if this works.

Matt 

[matt burns]

I've done a very quick look around flickr and think you may be right.

This could be great news for a whole new range of Canon users. Assuming all goes well, I'll get this integrated into my database and web crawlers as soon as possible.

I would like to confirm if this number changes when a user formats or changes the memory card. Anyone out there have one this cameras?

Regards,

Matt

[sha...@gmail.com]

Hi Matt,

ay updated on this subject?

I have lost a Canon PowerShot Sx230HS and see the same issue.

The image unique ID is taken as the serial number.

Does your DB search include sub-strings?

Thanks!

[Matt Burns]

Hi,

We have experimental support for PowerShot cameras now. We only call it "experimental" because we are yet to track down a PowerShot camera using this method but in theory it should work. 

For PowerShot ImageUniqueIDs the final 20 characters are indexed. Sub-strings of arbitrary length are not supported but we support searching for the final 20 chars. For example, if our web crawlers find an PowerShot image with an ImageUniqueID of 12345678901234567890123456789012 then we store that in the database. It will appear in the search results if you search with an image taken by the same camera, or you perform a manual search for "34567890123456789012" (the final 20 characters). It won't appear if you search for "4567890123456789012" (the final 19 characters).

Regards,

Matt

[gotli...@gmail.com]

This might be a dumb idea but if you use the same principal to track cameras can't you use it to track a phone?

[Matt Burns]

It's a good idea except that phone don't store anything useful in the exif data :(

It doesn't matter though, there are better ways to track a phone: http://www.wikihow.com/GPS-Track-a-Cell-Phone

[gotli...@gmail.com]

Hey

The idea is not to find a stolen phone but to track pedophiles and link them to the crime, but thanks for your input. 

[air...@gmail.com]

Great product/service btw - I've recommended it more than a few times to people who have had gear disappear.

This has been probably asked before, but how difficult might it be to extract and add lens serial data to the index?

I seem to recall looking at the EXIF data on my Olympus and Canon dslrs in some program and they showed lens serial numbers.  Maybe this could help people track stolen lenses, especially the expensive ones that are worth paying a subscription to find?

Just curious.
Thanks!

[Matt Burns]

It already does support lens serial numbers. The website just isn't very clear about it :)