=== modified file 'src/pyexiv2/exif.py'
--- src/pyexiv2/exif.py	2011-08-12 06:29:47 +0000
+++ src/pyexiv2/exif.py	2012-02-28 22:50:00 +0000
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 from pyexiv2.utils import is_fraction, make_fraction, fraction_to_string, \
                           NotifyingList, ListenerInterface, \
                           undefined_to_string, string_to_undefined, \
+                          latin_to_ascii, escape_unprintable, \
                           DateTimeFormatter
 
 import time
@@ -286,6 +287,10 @@
             # There is currently no charset conversion.
             # TODO: guess the encoding and decode accordingly into unicode
             # where relevant.
+            try:
+                return value.decode('utf-8')
+            except UnicodeError:
+                return value
             return value
 
         elif self.type in ('Byte', 'SByte'):
@@ -330,7 +335,7 @@
             # There is currently no charset conversion.
             # TODO: guess the encoding and decode accordingly into unicode
             # where relevant.
-            return undefined_to_string(value)
+            return escape_unprintable(undefined_to_string(latin_to_ascii(value)))
 
         raise ExifValueError(value, self.type)
 

=== modified file 'src/pyexiv2/utils.py'
--- src/pyexiv2/utils.py	2011-10-24 07:35:44 +0000
+++ src/pyexiv2/utils.py	2012-02-28 22:51:40 +0000
@@ -133,6 +133,30 @@
         return (self.sign == other.sign) and (self.hours == other.hours) and \
             (self.minutes == other.minutes)
 
+def latin_to_ascii(s):
+    s2=''
+    for c in s:
+        if ord(c) < 128:
+            s2 += c
+        else:
+            s2 += '\\x'+hex(ord(c))[2:].zfill(2) 
+    return s2
+
+PRINTABLE = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!"#$%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_`{|}~ \t\n\r\x0b\x0c'
+def escape_unprintable(s):
+    s2=''
+    for c in s:
+        if ord(c) < 128 and c in PRINTABLE:
+            s2 += c
+        else:
+            s2 += '\\x'+hex(ord(c))[2:].zfill(2) 
+    return s2
+
+def tryint(s):
+    try:
+        return int(s)
+    except ValueError:
+        return False # return 0
 
 def undefined_to_string(undefined):
     """
@@ -148,8 +172,7 @@
     :return: the corresponding decoded string
     :rtype: string
     """
-    return ''.join(map(lambda x: chr(int(x)), undefined.rstrip().split(' ')))
-
+    return ''.join(map(lambda x: chr(tryint(x)), undefined.strip().split(' ')))
 
 def string_to_undefined(sequence):
     """