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Profiles as XLS, JSON, qrcode instead of PDF?

Hi, first of all, I own Sony Cameras for years now and I never touched the Photo Profiles section. Film simulations are a great project for enabling a jpg image workflow without dabbling around with raw files (something I grew so tired in the last couple of years ... ).

What I am missing a bit, is the (personal) workflow to keep track of the profiles you are having configured on your camera and what profiles you were actually using out in the field.

Taking the pdf with you is quite impractical. Hence the question to @veresdenialex: Do you intend to publish your profiles in an alternative format? It would be nice to have profiles available as an XLS/CSV spreadsheet or for the more technically inclined to have them as JSON files. For my own purposes, I copied over some of the profiles into a JSON, and I am creating QR Codes using a small python program to be used for printout (on a sheet containing a qr code for each profile). That way I can quickly lookup, under which profiles I did save some of the presets on my camera I can selectively call up all params on my smartphone so I am able to copy them over to my Sony cam ... Find a screenshot with some bogus profile values: Input is a json file (1), the program will out put the generation (2), and as a result you'll get a qr code containing profile information, that you can manually copy over to your sony camera. If the fields "preset" / "preset save" are entered, if the profile is saved for a picture profile (PP1-PP10) and saved preset (MR1-MR6) .

Here's a sample with some bogus entries (and you can even try the QR Code where the information is stored as txt input):

6 answers0 replies

Comments (6)

Veres Deni Alex

Jun 08

Hi there! I'm glad you're enjoying the recipes!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts — I appreciate your input, though I’m not sure I fully understand your perspective yet. Could you help clarify a few things?

I’m a bit confused: why do you find downloading and storing the PDF on your phone less convenient than using a JSON file, which also needs to be stored on the phone? You don’t need to "carry it around" unless you're printing it.

Also, what makes reading numbers from a plain sheet more useful than reading them within a visually structured PDF that includes an image reference for each film simulation?

As for QR codes — they can be handy, but in this case, they seem to add extra steps. You’d need to select your recipes, generate a QR code for each, label them with their Film Simulation (FS) and Custom Setting slot (MR), print them, and then carry that paper with you. It feels a bit counterintuitive.

Wouldn’t it be simpler to just note in your phone which FS you’ve loaded into each memory slot? For example:

MR1 – VEKTRO 100

MR2 – KODAK GOLD

Then you can just use the PDF's search function to instantly locate any FS.

To me, that seems like a much faster and more convenient approach — but I’d love to hear more about how you’re using it!

Unknown member

Jun 08

Thanks for reply! Right now I try to figure out the best options.

If you have a max of 6 Profiles, you're set with the MR option on the camera. and all you need to do is write them up somewhere.
In case you want to change them, you'd need the value set to enter into the camera. I tried setting up all profile values in an xls table ... so it would result in 2 sheets of paper or so ... (see a screenshot here with blurred values ). This would do the same job, but you could up entering values from different values by chance. Hence the trick with the qr codes => You'd get the values for exact one profile and readability on Smart Phone is much better (so it's sorta an ergonomics feature)

Veres Deni Alex

Jun 08

Replying to

If this works for you better, sure, but I think this is overcomplicating things.

Here’s how I personally streamline my workflow for using film simulation recipes:

I simply have a PDF shortcut on my phone screen for instant access. Open it, either scroll through a couple FS to see which one matches my vibe for the day, or simply type in my favorites. Then I manually load the settings, save them with Memory Recall and use them. Loading a film simulation from scratch takes about 1-2 minutes tops. I note the film simulations I have loaded in my phone Notes app, to be sure I know which is which.

I found this to be the simplest workflow at the moment.

Checking values in a sheet, it's very eye strenuous and not aesthetically pleasing. You can easily mix up values, which inevitably make the final process of the QR code impractical, leading into more frustration. I like to keep things as simple as possible and straightforward.

The information in the PDF is nicely organized and spaced on each page, so it's easy to read and a pleasure to use for most users. You also have references, which are essential in the choosing process.

The idea with the QR code it's a bit overcomplicated, and it's not 100% accurate, as EXIF Data does not include all picture profile settings. If you have the EXIF data you can already make a guess of which film simulation was used, so I don't see the reason to go through the extra steps of generating QR codes, printing and so on.

Also, some film simulations share identical white balance settings, which means QR codes won't be able to accurately distinguish between them. It would be ideal to have a precise way to instantly identify which simulation was used, but so far, I haven’t found a simpler or more reliable method to achieve that.

That said, you’ve given me a great idea — in the next version, I might add a drop-down menu for each Memory Recall (MR) slot, so users can easily note which film simulations they’ve used on a given day, directly within the PDF. Thanks!

Unknown member

Jun 09

Replying to

Thanks for sharing your workflow. Right now I am just experimenting what fits best to my working style (Sony seems not to have it on their top Prio list to allow for seamless reading/writing Photo Profiles, alongside with the possibility to give them names 😀). On loading presets: There was the other post about storing them on several SD Cards and load them from there.

It's a good Idea. But maybe there's an alternative:

In the /PRIVATE/SONY/SETTING folder, beside the /RX100M7 in my case, store the other (non used) profiles in a separate subfolder there /PRIVATE/SONY/SETTING/GROUP1 ... .../GROUP2 ... and so on.
In the /PRIVATE/SONY/SETTING folder, supply dummy txt files like 01_Acros_Velvia_Astia.txt (01 = Group1), that will give you a hint in which group you'll find a certain film simulation / or even more simple give these folders the name of the Film Simulations .anyway ..
When there's the need to load a Film Simulation at all from the non used Profiles: Directly connect the Camera with your smartphone, delete files from /RX100M7 and copy the files from your saved ones ...

Question is, whether plug into your smartphone and adjusting the profiles will save you any time, compared to manually editing a profile directly in Camera, after all ...

And one other thing remaining is to keep track of used Simulations, in case you won't just be using exactly one of the presets during your photo tour: Probably I'll just shoot a printed sheet of paper where film simulations are listed (just as using a white balance card) ... so I can see that the following photo sequence will be using Film Simulation XYZ ... all you need to do is not to forget taking this shot again in case you'll change simulation

Yesterday I tried finding any clues in the exifs using Exiftool (command: exiftool -j -U file.jpg will list you all metadata, including undocumented ones) in the maker notes, but wasn't successful figuring out the relevant sections in metadata.

Unknown member

Jun 09

Replying to

On A Second Note: Maybe I'll just create a Template in Powerpoint to create To Go Profile Information using PocketMod: Pocketmod: The Free Recyclable Personal Organizer

Unknown member

Jun 08

And on a second note: What I might do as a project .. Based on the metadata in the Image files: You can extract metadata using exiftool. and general idea would be: trying to match the metadata with the profile values (as the set of metadata provides sort of a film profile "fingerprint"), and try match these with used Film profile ("Kodakchrome", ... ) from there. Unfortunately, the detailed Profile Settings are not available in the meta data, so you can't exactly match the profiles, but at least an educated guess would be possible

In the end the Camera Profile could be written into Image EXIF Metadata / if I have the time, then I probably will just start appending profile name to the image file a output of a script yet to be written.

That's where the json Representation would be useful, but I have prepared them for personal use anyway for some of the profiles you created. Example: Exiftool gives a couple of relevant EXIF Metadata as shown in the screenshot. My hope would be that The WB Shift Values, Picture Profile, and Color Temperature will be "unique enough" to determine the original Film Profile

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Profiles as XLS, JSON, qrcode instead of PDF?

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