diff --git a/packages/markitdown/src/markitdown/converters/_exiftool.py b/packages/markitdown/src/markitdown/converters/_exiftool.py
index f605024fd..ca652d091 100644
--- a/packages/markitdown/src/markitdown/converters/_exiftool.py
+++ b/packages/markitdown/src/markitdown/converters/_exiftool.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ def exiftool_metadata(
         ).stdout
 
         return json.loads(
-            output.decode(locale.getpreferredencoding(False)),
+            output.decode("utf-8"),
         )[0]
     finally:
         file_stream.seek(cur_pos)