digikam: problems with EXIF (nikon D300)

[Itay Furman <deb-photo@itayf.fastmail.fm>]

Hi,

I am new to digikam and digital photography.  I experience few, 
perhaps related, problems.

1. The metadata in exif and makernote are lost after transforming a 
photo.  (Tested on rotating and resizing.)

2. After starting digikam, my terminal gets cluttered with warning 
such as this

Warning: Size 5291 of Exif.Nikon3.0x0091 exceeds \
  4096 bytes limit. Not decoded.

Q: How can I preserve all the photo metadata?
Q: Should I worry because of the warnings I get?
   Even if not  - how to avoid them?

I use a Nikon D300.  Photos are recorded in large tiffs.

Versions:
  digikam	: 0.9.4
  kde		: 3.5.10
  libtiff4	: 3.8.2-11

Thanks,
Itay