S3IS JPG Compatibility

As I am the keeper of the camera, I am also the keeper of the images. Here at home, I share out my camera folder on the LAN so my wife can get to the camera images.

When the Canon S3IS entered the scene, it was not long before we noticed that she could not view certain images. The icons for the JPGs show up in Explorer, but some thumbnails fail to render. If she tries to open these images (e.g., using Irfanview) she gets an error about not being able to read the file header.

Tonight I narrowed down the problem somewhat: Across the network, my wife cannot view any image taken in portrait orientation. Shots taken in landscape orientation are fine for her.

Here's the extra weird thing: I have a web server (IIS) running on my machine. The web server cannot read any untouched S3IS image. If I place any untouched S3IS image in a certain folder where my server looks for images, the server simply does not see the file at all.

Now, if I open an untouched camera image and save it again, say with Irfanview or PSP, the new image appears fine everywhere.

So, my conclusion at this point is there is something wonky about Canon's treatment of JPG. Resaving an image in another application appears to "reset" the headers in some way that makes it viewable.

Any ideas of what's going on here?

Actually, Microsoft's software is what's wonky. It lags (at least through XP) the JPEG standard in that (among other things) it doesn't recognize the "Orientation" flag which came in with JPEG 2.2 so Portrait images will display, even locally, in Landscape mode when viewed with MS products.

What version of Windows are you using? And remember that Canon's software isn't supported on Windows Server 2003. Also, Canon's software doesn't (with the possible exception of the latest versions) support network drives. However on my XP/W2K network I have no trouble viewing any images from any available local or network drive on any machine using Irfanview, Paint Shop Pro or Windows Explorer, to name a few.

Jon wrote in post #3145639
Actually, Microsoft's software is what's wonky. It lags (at least through XP) the JPEG standard in that (among other things) it doesn't recognize the "Orientation" flag which came in with JPEG 2.2 so Portrait images will display, even locally, in Landscape mode when viewed with MS products.

What version of Windows are you using? And remember that Canon's software isn't supported on Windows Server 2003. Also, Canon's software doesn't (with the possible exception of the latest versions) support network drives. However on my XP/W2K network I have no trouble viewing any images from any available local or network drive on any machine using Irfanview, Paint Shop Pro or Windows Explorer, to name a few.

Thanks for your thoughts, Jon. I am running XP Pro SP1. I think you are right, it's an MS problem, not Canon. I am still mystified though why a portrait image breezes fine through any process on the local PC (save the web server) but cannot be interpreted by any remote PC.

I have found only a couple references to the same dilemma on Usenet, but no solutions yet.

Thanks!

Regardless of this problem you need to get to SP2 for computer security reasons!

UPDATE. I tried to create a test file for someone today and discovered some interesting twists. This is truly becoming bizarre to me, but perhaps my findings narrow down the problem.

To reiterate/restate the problem, there are two parts: (1) Others cannot render the file on my network share. A generic JPG icon is displayed in place of a thumbnail. Photo software (e.g., Irfanview) starts to open the file but chokes, claiming "cannot read file header". (2) The web server running on my PC cannot process the file.

I zipped a pristine problem image. Why? Because I discovered that if I upload a problematic JPG as-is to an external web site, and download it again, the problem goes away completely. This is true whether I save the downloaded image from the browser or copy the downloaded file from the cache.

Next I found that the zipped JPG, when unzipped (whether up+downloaded or simply unzipped on my PC) makes /one part/ of the problem go away. It resolves the problem on the network share. I.e., others can now open and view this image on my network share. It does not resolve the problem with my local web server. The server on my PC still cannot process these images.

Here is the zipped image anyway, posted on my web site:
http://vfdrake.home.co​mcast.net/images/test_​image.zip
(2.4 MB download)

Not sure what good it does to test it unless you have a web server running on your machine.

What a conundrum...

That almost sounds like a permissions problem then. Have you looked at the file attributes on the original and post-zip ones?

Based on suggestions here and elsewhere I investigated the files and the security more closely.

Files: Binary compare = no difference between unprocessed and unzipped files, as expected.

Security: Interesting. Unprocessed images (only the portrait ones) do not inherit parent permissions completely. In particular, they do not give Read permission to the Everyone group, as landscape images (and other files) do. Unzipped images do inherit correct permissions, including Read for Everyone. I believe this answers the network sharing question. While I can't explain why the permissions anomaly exists, it is easy to correct on a case-by-case basis.

When I place /any/ image straight off the camera in my web server folder, file permissions look correct. I.e., Everyone has Full Control security settings, same as other files. However, the server is still unable to read these images. If I open a pristine image and resave it, changing anything or nothing, the server is happy with it. So, the server issue must be related to Canon's JPG headers, whether the image is rotated or not.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

The permissions issue may be tied to how you installed Canon's software (single user or all users). Try using a card reader and Explorer to move files onto the computer, and/or opening files right off the card via a shared reader. JPEG headers, being internal to the file, should have nothing to do with permissions.

Everything on this PC is installed as admin, for all users. I did discover this today:

By default, Canon Zoom Browser rotates images that the camera stamped as rotated. Is is at this step where the file permissions get screwed up on my PC.

Before ZB had a chance to rotate my shots from today, I checked some portrait images. Sure enough, security included Read for Everyone, as it should in this particular folder. After ZB processed the file, Read for Everyone was stripped away.

So somewhere between ZB and Windows, someone isn't playing fair. I kind of like the self-rotating feature so I'm leaving it on for now. It's easy enough to fix the security afterward.

Still no word on the web server question but it seems to be a problem somewhere between Canon's headers and my version of IIS. I'm not too worried about it though.

I am having a similar problem and wondered if anyone here had an answer. I have a home network, and pictures edited in ZB are not accessible to other apps. ZB 5.6 version. When I edit in another package on the original PC where ZB exists, it resets the permissions and the other networked PC's can see it now.

Is there a new version of ZB that solves this problem? If not, is there any other way around it by resetting the permissions?

darps20 wrote in post #4594932
I am having a similar problem and wondered if anyone here had an answer. I have a home network, and pictures edited in ZB are not accessible to other apps. ZB 5.6 version. When I edit in another package on the original PC where ZB exists, it resets the permissions and the other networked PC's can see it now.

Is there a new version of ZB that solves this problem? If not, is there any other way around it by resetting the permissions?

How was ZB installed (all users as Admin, or by a non-admin user), and what are the directory permissions on the directory the pictures are stored in?

directory permissions are set to shared across the network, including allowing network users to change files. installed by Admin for all users; using that app under my account as admin has the same effect as using it under my wife's account (which is also admin). it seems that only files that have been edited by the zoom browser app are affected (versus just star ratings assigned).

I do know that ZB hasn't been especially network savvy in the past. Maybe this is another symptom of that. I find Irfanview handy (and free) for those minor photo tweaks like mass resizing/rotating. It has a batch mode setting for this. That might be a good alternative for you to look at. I scarcely use ZB any more except to look at EXIF data :{)#

You need to get your computer to SP2 last week.

SP1 was released 5 years ago and Microsoft discontinued support for it over a year ago. SP3 is imminent.

I'm on XP SP2; fully updated with all patches. it was an earlier poster who was on SP1.

Can you tell me the attribute I need to look at that tells me what permissions are set on the file (world readable, or user controlled, etc) and how to do it?

OR can anyone tell me if 5.6 is the latest version of ZoomBrowser or if it's worth getting the latest update