Flickr EXIF Search, Part 2

I’ve done a bit of experimentation and learned a few more keywords one can use to search for photos in flickr by their EXIF data. I have also gleaned the pattern that seems to have been used for coming up with the keywords. They appear to be abbreviations.

Keyword	Meaning	Abbreviation for	Unit
xel	minimum exposure	EXIF exposure lower limit	seconds
xeh	maximum exposure	EXIF exposure higher limit	seconds
xfl	minimum focal length	EXIF focal length lower limit	milimeters
xfh	maximum focal length	EXIF focal length higher limit	milimeters
xal	minimum aperture	EXIF aperture lower limit	f-number
xah	maximum aperture	EXIF aperture higher limit	f-number

Perhaps there’s a way to specify an exact exposure, focal length, or aperture without having to use both the lower and higher limit keywords together. If so, I haven’t found it yet.

I also haven’t yet figured out how to specify fractional exposure times (shutter speeds of less than one second). It seems to treat all decimal values less than 1 as simply 0. The text displayed above search results is not always correct. For example, when one uses xel or xeh to search for photos taken with fractional exposure times (shutter speeds of less than 1 second), the text displayed above the search results incorrectly rounds the fractional exposure times down to 0. Similarly, when one performs a search using xfl or xfh independently, the wording displayed above the search results does not correctly reflect the way these keywords function. The words shorter and longer are interposed.

Obviously, not all of the kinks have been worked out. Maybe that’s why these keywords remain undocumented. I have started a discussion thread about this in the flickr ideas group.