The freeware Picmeta PhotoTracker, which automatically geotags your photos based on the track data from GPS exchange files, now supports Canon CR3 Raw files.
High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is also supported.
Author: hoju
High Resolution Monitors, Canon CR3
All of our software products are now DPI-aware, which means that text and photos are now displayed razor-sharp on high-resolution monitors. Multi-monitor environments with different resolutions are also supported.
PIE 7.4 and PIE Studio 6.9 now offer full support for the Canon CR3 format (display and metadata editing).
In addition, metadata from HEIF / HEIC files can now also be edited.
Support for HEIF/HEIC File Format
High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is a file format for individual images and image sequences. It was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and is defined by MPEG-H Part 12 (ISO/IEC 23008-12). The MPEG group claims that twice as much information can be stored in a HEIF image as in a JPEG image of the same size, resulting in a better quality image.
The HEIF specification also defines the means of storing High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC)-encoded intra images and HEVC-encoded image sequences in which inter prediction is applied in a constrained manner.
HEIF image files are stored with filename extensions .heif or .heic.
All software products from Picmeta Systems now support heif and heic files if there is a decoder installed. With Windows 10, you can simply download the HEIF decoder in the Microsoft App Store.
PIE and PIE Studio can display HEIF files and read the metadata, which also enables automated renaming etc.
Printstation and PIE Studio can directly print HEIF files.
The feature is available in PIE 7.10, PIE Studio 6.60 and Printstation 4.40.
SRT files and DJI Phantom videos
Transfer from DJI Phantom quadcopter
Did you know you can use PIE / PIE Studio for transferring and renaming images and videos from a DJI Phantom quadcopter? Now this works even better!
Video files produced by this quadcopter can have companion SRT files where important information such as the flight GPS coordinates are stored. These files are now transferred and renamed along with the MP4 videos, so that the assignment is not lost.
You can also manually rename the MP4 files, or use the Auto Rename feature at any time. If there is any companion SRT file, it will be renamed as well.
SRT files are also known as subtitle files, and if you are working with these, the new renaming feature will come in handy, too.
Video Improvements
Faster thumbnails without extra codec
The latest versions of PIE and PIE Studio support the internal video codecs of Windows 8 and Windows 10.
It is therefore no longer required to install additional software as was previously recommended. Display of video thumbnails is also much faster now.
Photo Data Stamp and Reduce Images
New image processing features
PIE 6.8 and PIE Studio 6.3 are available with new image processing features.
Photo Data Stamp lets you ‘print’ metadata permanently onto images. Perfect for sharing images in social networks, or for using image viewers or devices that otherwise would not display the data you need.
Finally, you can batch resize images using the Reduce Image feature. It goes without saying that all the image metadata is retained.
See the entire list of enhancements and fixes:
Bug Fixes and Latest Metadata
PIE 6.6, Printstation 4.0, PIE Studio 6.1
If you have not updated your copy for a long time you should do this now. Several bugs have been fixed and up-to-date metadata for the latest cameras has been included.
See the list of fixes and enhancements:
Powered by ExifTool
PIE 6.5, PIE Studio 6.0
More metadata tags from a wide variety of cameras are supported. Also, write support has been expanded to almost any RAW format (you can still write to sidecar files if you prefer).
German, spanish and french users will be glad to see that the tags in the full metadata panel are now displayed in the program language.
A lot has changed under the hood, and we also added support for multicore processing. Especially on systems with fast harddrives, metadata reading of folders with many files is therefore noticeably faster. This is actually the only really fast ExifTool-powered solution, without any database or caching involved.
The updated RAW decoder supports various new cameras:
• Canon EOS 6D, EOS M, PowerShot G15, S110, SX1 IS, SX50 HS
• Fujifilm X-E1, XF1
• Nikon D600, Coolpix P7700
• Olympus E-PL5, E-PM2, XZ-2
• Pentax K-5 II
• Panasonic DMC-LX7, DMC-FZ200, DMC-G5, DMC-GH3
• Samsung EX2F, NX1000
• Sony RX100, NEX-5R, NEX-6, SLT-A99
See the complete list of changes
Tweaks and Refinements
PIE 6.4, PIE Studio 5.9
The rendering quality of the viewer und the preview has improved. Because the quality comes at the cost of some speed, there are now 3 possible settings, fast, normal and best. “Fast” corresponds to the former default setting.
Two new import options, “Mark source files as transferred” and “Skip files marked as transferred” are perfect for those who usually keep the files on the smartcard instead of moving them.
Formerly there was the option “Skip files that already exist in destination folder”. The problem with this option was, after deleting unwanted files or reorganizing folders, these files would be copied again during subsequent transfers. Files that already exist in the destination folder are now skipped by default, this is not an option any longer. Furthermore, however, each file on the smartcard now “knows” whether it already had been transferred and will be skipped from the start.
Please note that this feature does not work when using MTP transfer. If your camera lets you choose between USB mass storage or MTP mode, then select mass storage. Otherwise use a smartcard reader instead of connecting the camera.
A new Quick Crop feature lets you quickly change the aspect ratio of JPG files within the file browser. It creates copies of the files, so the original files are not changed at all.
If you have enabled both grouping and sorting by metadata, e.g. group by camera and sort by capture date/time, you will notice a speed increase of about 40% in the new versions.
The updated RAW decoder supports various new cameras such as Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 650D, 1D X, PowerShot G1 X, Fujifilm X-Pro1, X-S1, Nikon D3200, D4, D800, Olympus E-M5, Sony A57.
See the full list of changes here:
Browser Enhancements and More
PIE 6.3, Printstation 3.9, PIE Studio 5.8
A clearer, more simplistic thumbnail view. Images with a check mark in Printstation and PIE Studio are now easier to see.
PIE and PIE Studio now allow to delete RAW+JPG files with a single click, even though they were imported to different folders. See context menu or press Ctrl+Del (or Shift+Ctrl+Del for permament deletion).
A custom “Open with” menu in PIE and PIE Studio for easy access to your favorite editors.
Last but not least: color management supported in all applications.
See the complete list of changes: