Image::...::Pentax(3)

💖 Image::...::Pentax 💖

okay bestie, so this is the User Contributed Perl Documentation page for Image::...::Pentax(3) and it's literally just the Pentax/Asahi maker notes tag situation. pull up a chair, we're getting into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

Image::ExifTool::Pentax — the Pentax/Asahi maker notes tags. that's it, that's the name, slay 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

This module is loaded automatically by Image::ExifTool when required.

like… you don't even have to do anything. it just shows up when it's needed. main character energy, honestly 👑

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

This module is holding all the definitions that Image::ExifTool needs to interpret Pentax and Asahi maker notes inside EXIF information. it's giving backstage crew for your photos 💖

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👑 NOTES 👑

so ngl, the author could not find a good source for Pentax maker notes information 😭 but they managed to discover a fair bit by analyzing sample images downloaded from the internet, plus running tests with their own Optio S, Optio WP, K10D, K-01 and K-5, and with help from other ExifTool users (peep the "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS" section, we love a callback 🫶).

The Pentax maker notes are stored in standard EXIF format, but the offsets used for some of their cameras are wacky. fr fr. watch this:

• The Optio 330 gives the offset relative to the offset of the tag in the directory
• The Optio WP uses a base offset in the middle of nowhere 💀
• The Optio 550 uses different (and totally illogical) bases for different menu entries

very weird. (it wouldn't surprise me if Pentax can't read their own maker notes! 😭) Luckily, there are only a few entries in the maker notes which are large enough to require offsets, so this doesn't affect much useful information. ExifTool attempts to make sense of this fiasco by making an assumption about where the information should be stored, to deduce the correct offsets. icon behaviour, honestly ✨

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💜 REFERENCES 💜

• Image::MakerNotes::Pentax
• <http://johnst.org/sw/exiftags/> — for the Asahi models 🦋
• <http://kobe1995.jp/~kaz/astro/istD.html>
• <http://www.cybercom.net/~dcoffin/dcraw/>

(...plus lots of testing with my Optio WP, K10D and K-5! 🎀)

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🌈 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 🌈

shoutout time, because these people ATE 💅

Thanks to Wayne Smith, John Francis, Douglas O'Brien, Cvetan Ivanov, Jens Duttke, Dave Nicholson, Iliah Borg, Klaus Homeister, Louis Granboulan and Andras Salamon for help figuring out some Pentax tags. also Ger Vermeulen and Niels Kristian Bech Jensen for contributing print conversion values for some tags. and everyone who helped contribute to the LensType values — y'all are the moment 🫶✨

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🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Copyright 2003-2026, Phil Harvey (philharvey66 at gmail.com)

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. so like, go off, but respectfully 💖

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• "Pentax Tags" in Image::ExifTool::TagNames
• Image::ExifTool(3pm)
• Image::Info(3pm)

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ok that's the whole thing bestie, no notes, go read your EXIF data, you're doing amazing sweetie 💅✨

perl v5.42.1 · 2026-03-31 · Image::...::Pentax(3) — mwah, bye 👑💖🌸