EXIF Metadata Viewer

The Hidden Data Inside Every Photo You Take

Every photograph taken on a DSLR, mirrorless camera or smartphone contains a block of metadata embedded directly in the JPEG file. This EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data records the precise technical conditions under which the photo was taken: the camera make and model, lens focal length and maximum aperture, the actual aperture used, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity, white balance setting, flash state, exposure compensation, metering mode, and — if GPS was enabled — the exact latitude and longitude of the camera at the moment of capture. The ToollyX EXIF Metadata Viewer extracts and displays all of this, grouped by category, with one-click copy for any field. Everything runs in your browser; the photo never leaves your device.

Camera and Lens Information

The camera group reveals the manufacturer (Make) and full model name, which identifies the camera body precisely — Canon EOS R5, Sony A7 IV, Nikon Z8, iPhone 15 Pro, and so on. The lens information includes the focal length in millimetres, the maximum aperture (f-number), and often the lens model name or identifier. For photographers who shoot with multiple lenses, this is how you identify which lens produced a specific image months later without remembering the shoot. For equipment resellers, these fields verify the camera model advertised in a listing against what the camera actually records. Firmware version, camera serial number and software name are also recorded when present — the software field typically shows the camera's firmware version or the editing software used to export the file.

Exposure Settings — Reading the Technical Story of a Shot

The exposure group contains the four core exposure parameters: aperture (f-number) — the size of the lens opening, shown as f/1.8, f/5.6 etc., directly affecting depth of field and light intake; shutter speed— the exposure duration, shown as fractions of a second (1/2000s for freezing motion, 1/30s for motion blur); ISO — the sensor sensitivity, with lower values (100-400) for clean images in good light and higher values (3200-25600) for low-light situations at the cost of noise; and exposure compensation— the intentional over- or under-exposure applied by the photographer. Together these four values completely describe how a camera exposed a scene. When you see a photo you admire and want to understand how it was made technically, these are the numbers that explain it.

GPS Data — Privacy Implications You Should Know

If your camera or phone had GPS enabled at the time of capture, the EXIF data contains GPS coordinates precise to within a few metres of where you stood when you pressed the shutter. The EXIF Viewer displays these as a decimal latitude and longitude with a link to open the location in Google Maps. This precision has serious privacy implications: photos taken at home and posted online can reveal your home address. Photos taken at a secret location reveal the location. Most social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) strip EXIF data on upload, which is why this concern is often misunderstood — but sending photos via email, iMessage, WhatsApp or Airdrop, or uploading to file-sharing services and portfolio sites, may preserve the GPS data. The Image Compressor strips EXIF data from every exported file as a privacy side-benefit of canvas re-encoding.

Date and Time — When Was This Photo Really Taken?

The datetime group records three separate timestamps: DateTimeOriginal (when the shutter was pressed), DateTimeDigitized (when the image was digitised, usually the same for digital cameras) and DateTime (when the file was last modified). These are stored in the camera's local time zone without timezone offset information, which can cause confusion for photos taken while travelling — a photo taken at 14:30 in Tokyo and a photo taken at 14:30 in London show the same timestamp in EXIF even though they are 9 hours apart. Sub-second precision is sometimes stored in SubSecTime fields. These timestamps are used by photo management software (Adobe Lightroom, Apple Photos, Google Photos) to sort and organise images chronologically — incorrect camera clock settings cause photos to appear out of order.

Image Dimensions, Orientation and Colour Space

The image data group shows the recorded pixel dimensions (which match or slightly differ from the actual file dimensions depending on software processing), the orientation tag (whether the camera was held horizontally, vertically or upside-down at capture — this is the metadata that causes sideways photos in software that ignores the tag), the colour space (usually sRGB for consumer cameras, AdobeRGB for cameras set to wider gamut), the DPI/PPI values (typically 72 or 96 for screen, 300+ for cameras set to print output), and the YCbCr positioning for JPEG colour encoding. The orientation tag is the source of the "sideways photo problem" — when this tag says "rotate 90 degrees" but the viewing software ignores it. The Rotate and Flip tool bakes rotation into the pixel data, eliminating orientation tag dependency.

Why PNG, WebP and Screenshots Have No EXIF

EXIF data is a JPEG-specific format, though TIFF and some RAW formats also support it. PNG files use a different metadata system (iTXt and tEXt chunks) that does not follow the EXIF standard — PNG files from cameras typically contain no metadata at all. WebP supports EXIF as an optional chunk, but most camera-to-WebP conversion tools strip it. Screenshots have no camera metadata because they were not captured by a camera. Social media images, heavily processed photos exported through consumer apps, and images that have been re-saved multiple times often have partial or completely absent EXIF data. If you upload an image and see "No EXIF data found", this is the reason — the tool is working correctly, the metadata simply is not present in that file.

EXIF Data in Professional and Legal Contexts

Photographers use EXIF data for professional purposes beyond reviewing settings. Copyright metadata (the Artist and Copyright EXIF fields, though these are not always present) can establish authorship. Insurance claims for damaged or stolen equipment sometimes require the camera serial number, which is recorded in EXIF. In photographic journalism, date and time metadata is part of the chain of custody verifying when an image was taken. In property disputes, GPS coordinates in property survey photographs can establish exactly where a photo was taken. For authenticating photos in legal contexts, the raw EXIF metadata values are more reliable than the visible image content, which can be manipulated. Always verify EXIF data in conjunction with other evidence — the metadata can be edited by sufficiently motivated parties, though most casual manipulation leaves traces.

✓Verified by ToollyX Team · Last updated June 2026