EXIF Viewer

What it does

Reads the EXIF block a camera or phone writes into a JPEG, HEIC, TIFF, PNG or WebP file and lists the technical fields it finds: camera make and model, lens, focal length (and 35mm equivalent), aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, exposure program, metering, flash, white balance, date taken, recorded size, orientation, colour space and the software that last saved it.

What you'll need

• A photo from your device — ideally the original file, not a copy exported from a social app.

Steps

1. Tap "Upload a photo" and choose an image.
2. The fields appear automatically, grouped into camera & lens, exposure, and image & file.
3. Upload another photo any time — nothing is kept between photos.

Reading the result

Only fields present in the file are shown, so a short list means the file carries little metadata, not that the tool failed. A photo with no EXIF at all is usually one that has been through a social platform, a messaging app, a screenshot, or an editor that strips metadata on export.

Tips

• Focal length is the lens's real focal length; the 35mm-equivalent line, when present, is what the camera itself recorded and is the one to compare across sensor sizes.
• Date taken is the camera's own clock with no time zone attached — if the camera's clock was wrong or on a different zone, so is this.
• To remove all of this before sharing a photo, use the Metadata Stripper — it re-encodes the image in your browser and produces a clean copy.

What is EXIF data?

EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is a block of metadata a camera or phone embeds inside the image file at the moment of capture. It records the technical state of the camera — which body and lens, the focal length, aperture, shutter speed and ISO, the exposure and metering modes, whether the flash fired, the white balance setting — plus the date and time, the orientation the camera was held at, and often the software that last processed the file. Many devices also write GPS coordinates into a separate GPS block; this tool never reads that block.

Why photographers use it

EXIF is the honest record of how a shot was made. It lets you check exactly which settings produced a result you liked (or didn't), compare two frames of the same scene without guessing, learn from other people's originals, and confirm what a file really is — a genuine camera original tends to carry a full set of fields, while a re-saved or exported copy carries few or none. It's also the first thing to check before sharing: the same block that records your shutter speed can record where you were standing.

Common mistakes

• Reading EXIF from a copy that has already been stripped. most social platforms, messaging apps and screenshot tools remove metadata on the way through. If you want the real settings, read the original file from the camera card or the phone's photo library, not a downloaded or forwarded copy.
• Treating focal length as comparable across cameras. 35mm on a Micro Four Thirds body frames like 70mm on full-frame. Use the 35mm-equivalent line when it's present, or convert with the Crop Factor Calculator, before comparing settings between two different cameras.
• Trusting the date and time blindly. EXIF stores the camera's own clock with no time zone. A camera that was never set, or still on home time while travelling, writes a confidently wrong timestamp that every tool will faithfully repeat.
• Assuming a missing field means the camera didn't record it. some fields are written by the camera, others only by editing software, and some are dropped by specific export settings. An empty lens field on a manual-focus adapted lens, for example, is expected — the camera has no electronic contact to read it from.
• Sharing an original without checking what's inside it. the technical fields are harmless, but the same file can carry your name (Artist), copyright text, the exact editing software and, in a separate block, GPS coordinates. Strip metadata before posting an original anywhere public.

Example settings

FAQ

Is my photo uploaded anywhere?

No — the file is parsed entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server for this tool, and nothing is stored once you leave the page.

Does it show where the photo was taken?

No, by design. The GPS block is switched off in the parser, so coordinates are never read, never displayed and never stored — even if the file carries them. If you need to remove them from a file, use the Metadata Stripper.

Which file types work?

JPEG, HEIC/HEIF, TIFF, PNG, WebP and AVIF files that carry an EXIF block. RAW files (CR3, NEF, ARW, RAF and so on) are not supported here.

Why does my phone photo show a different focal length from the lens marking?

Phones report the tiny physical focal length of the actual lens (often 4-7mm). The 35mm-equivalent line, when present, is the familiar number — a 26mm equivalent for a typical main camera.

Can I edit or add EXIF fields here?

No — this tool only reads. The Metadata Stripper is the one that changes a file, and it only ever removes metadata, never adds it.