Why can EXIF DateTimeOriginal be later than the actual capture time?
Asked 7/6/2020
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2 answers
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What could cause an image’s EXIF DateTimeOriginal to show a time later than when the photo was actually taken, assuming the EXIF hasn’t been maliciously edited? In this case, DateTimeDigitized and DateTimeOriginal are the same.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
1
The simplest explanation would be that the time and/or date set inside the camera was incorrect at the moment the photo was captured.
It's pretty easy to set the camera to a date or time in the future, take a photo, and then set the date/time back to the correct setting for one's locale. The EXIF info is static. It won't be affected by any changes made to the camera's date/time after the image was captured. It is recorded data that will still reflect the date/time imprinted at the time of capture.
If your camera was set to the local time zone where you live and you got on a plane and flew halfway around the world without changing the camera's clock to the new locale, then the date/time stamp on the photo would be twelve hours off one way or the other, depending on both locations' position relative to the international date line.
Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user15871
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The most likely reason is that the camera’s internal date/time was set wrong when the photo was taken. EXIF DateTimeOriginal is written using the camera clock at capture time, and it does not automatically change later if you correct the camera’s settings.
Common causes include:
- the camera clock being set to a future date or time
- the wrong time zone being set
- traveling to another time zone and not updating the camera clock
If DateTimeDigitized matches DateTimeOriginal, that usually just means the file was digitized at the same time it was captured, which is normal for digital cameras. It doesn’t point to a different cause by itself.
So if the EXIF time is later than the real capture time, the simplest explanation is an incorrect camera clock or time-zone setting at the moment of capture.
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