When we look at the two methods for setting image metadata
public void setImageMeta(File image, Map<? extends Tag, String> tags)
and
public void setImageMeta(File image, ExifToolOptions options, Map<? extends Tag, String> tags) throws IOException
The first one assumes the format to be numeric, while with the second the default builder value is human_readable, not sure if this is intended, but it took me quite some time debugging and I thought I'd bring it to your attention.