EXIF Reader is a Google Chrome extension that shows you photo meta data. Its functionality is limited and there are a few complaints from users, but if you want to see camera settings for photos on the web then this extension gets the job done.

EXIF Reader has a few complaints which you can read for yourself in the reviews on its page in the Chrome Extensions site. A few users report that the extension does not work. I have no problems with it, using Chrome 5 beta for Mac OS X. Others complain that its adds an unecessary icon to the Chrome toolbar, which I can agree with. There is not much of a reason for this extension to take up menu bar real estate since all that is necessary to see photo meta data is to hover ones mouse over the image in the browser window. Apparently the reason for this icon is that the CSS used on some sites interferes with EXIF Reader, and the icon is able to display its data in a separate tab.

Aside from those complaints, EXIF Reader’s basic functionality is intact. When you hover your mouse cursor over an image containing EXIF meta data, you will see the exposure settings and camera model used. Additional data such as keywords, copyright/photographer information and Photoshop settings are not displayed.

I keep this extension disabled unless I intend on using it at the moment. This keeps the icon out of my Chrome toolbar. The extension also appears to create some small floating elements in web pages, which were inconspicuous but still annoying. Disabling it gets rid of those floating elements.

EXIF Reader can be installed from the Google Chrome extensions site.