What EXIF is for
EXIF commonly describes camera settings, time, orientation and GPS. It is useful for photography and file organization, but ordinary EXIF fields do not provide cryptographic tamper evidence.
- Camera and lens
- Exposure settings
- Capture time
- Orientation
- Optional GPS
What C2PA adds
C2PA can bind signed claims and assertions to an asset. A manifest may describe actions, ingredients, the claim generator and digital source type, while validation checks linked data and signatures.
- Signed claim
- Validation status
- Actions and ingredients
- Signer and trust context
- Possible remote manifest references
How to use both
Start with ordinary metadata for practical file and privacy facts. Check Content Credentials when provenance matters. Keep the results separate: valid credentials do not prove the visible event, and missing credentials do not make an image fake.
What this does not prove
A metadata result describes the fields and structures that the supported parser could read. It does not, by itself, prove authenticity, intent, authorship or the truth of the visible scene.