Accessing Camera Maker, Model and serial number properties

Camera Maker and Model

This data which a camera or camera-phone adds to each photograph which is taken. It reveals the make and model of a particular camera. Identification of this makes it very easy to identify photographs which were taken by different cameras.

It may be edited by software, including Windows Explorer, so its presence does not mean for certain that the photograph was taken on the make and model stated. However, sometimes when photographs are edited, especially if they are resaved into a different format, they might lose their photograph metadata and only retain picture data. This is clear evidence that they have been resaved (but not necessarily that the picture has been edited).

You can see the make and model by right-hand clicking on a photograph in Windows Explorer, and going to Details, and scrolling down to Camera. As you can see, it is editable. (Also note that Windows Explorer uses the term “Camera maker”).

Assuming it has not been edited, camera make and model can be used, along with Date Taken and Size, as uniquely identifying photographs. If more than one photograph has the same camera make, model, Dake Taken and Size, then it can be assumed that they are duplicates.

If the first three are the same, but the size is different, then one might conclude that one (or more) of the photographs has been edited, as edits to photographs are unlikely to result in exactly the same size of file.

Camera Serial Number

Some cameras also have encoded their serial number. If present on a photograph, this can be found by right-hand clicking on a photograph, going to the Details tab, and scrolling down to Advanced Photo.

It is probably only the high-end camera which have this set. An examination of several tens of thousands of photographs received during projects has revealed that not one photograph had this set. However, if it were, then this could make isolation of photographs not just taken with a generic model but with a specific camera possible.

Please note that this property is editable from Windows Explorer, and is readable using the metadta extractors Filecats Professional and Filecats Metadata.

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