Getting Your Camera Verified

Why get verified?

Camera verification badges are trust signals visible on your posts and marketplace listings. A green "Camera Verified" badge tells other community members that your image genuinely came from the camera you claimed.

Step 1: Preserve your EXIF data

The most important step is uploading images with intact EXIF metadata:

• Copy directly from media — Get JPEGs straight from the floppy disk, Memory Stick, or CD
• Avoid social media re-downloads — Instagram, Twitter, and most platforms strip EXIF
• Be careful with editors — Some software removes EXIF on export. Use "Save As" with metadata preservation enabled
• Don't convert formats — Keep images as the original JPEG; converting to PNG strips EXIF

Step 2: Register your camera

Go to the Upload page and select your exact camera model from the Gearbase picker. If the system detects your camera from EXIF data, it will auto-suggest the correct model — just confirm it.

Pro tip: Register your camera in your profile under "My Cameras" for one-click selection on every upload.

Step 3: Upload at native resolution

For the strongest verification:

• Upload the original file without resizing
• The system checks that image dimensions match your camera's known output
• A 640×480 image from an FD88 will verify perfectly; a resized 1920×1080 version won't match

Understanding your scan results

After uploading, expand the "Image Verification Pipeline" on your post to see:

Tier 1: Safety Scan

• Shows content safety score and processing time
• Most Mavica photos pass instantly

Tier 2: Camera Verification

• Shows detected camera model from EXIF
• Shows whether resolution matches expectations
• "Camera Verified" = perfect match

Tier 3: Sensor Fingerprint

• Only available for cameras with reference signatures
• Shows NCC (Normalized Cross-Correlation) confidence score
• "Sensor Verified" = strong match; "Sensor Plausible" = moderate match

Troubleshooting

"Unverified" despite using a real Mavica?

• The image likely lost its EXIF data. Try uploading the original file from the camera's storage media.

"Camera Mismatch" warning?

• You may have selected the wrong model. Check that your camera selection matches the EXIF Model tag (e.g., "MVC-FD88" not "FD87").

No Sensor Fingerprint badge?

• Not all camera models have reference signatures yet. Check the Gearbase page for your camera to see if a signature exists.
• Reference signatures require multiple verified images to build. As the community uploads more verified photos, coverage will expand.

Badge reference