Thanks for the response Bogdan. I am seeing a Z appended to the end of the timestamp however this is the EXIF last modified date/time tags which I didn't think supported time zone information. When I look at the xmp last modified timestamps I do see the timezone trailing the rest of the timestamp just as you say.

This started happening in mid December which is also when the latest Lightroom was released. So I'm not so sure I'm in the right forum here, but I need to start somewhere. :)

Just to be clear on my workflow:
1. I shoot Canon raw CR2
2. In Lightroom I cull and export the better images as DNGs without any metadata.
3. Then I use ExifTool -TagsFromFile To copy all tags from the CR2 originals to the appropriate DNGs.
4. The DNGs are further rated/culled/optimized and finally exported as JPGs, again without any metadata.
5. And last I use ExifTool -TagsFromFile To copy all tags from the DNGs to the appropriate JPGs and that is when the Z is appended to the end of the EXIF last modified timestamp of the JPGs.


Thanks again.

John