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I found that adding 

RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE:%{HTTP:If-Modified-Since}]
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_IF_NONE_MATCH:%{HTTP:If-None-Match}]

To the bottom of my htaccess file (below all rewriterule) solved my issue (HTTP_IF_MODIFIED_SINCE was not being set) with caching dynamic generated images. Brilliant.

Although what does this actually do and why it is needed? Is it necessary I have this in every .htaccess or can I change the apache server config so I dont have to add this to every website project?

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If-modified since is an HTTP packet header ENV variable which basically sets a time in which if a client has visited a server, and the content which the client is requesting has changed then the server will return the changed content, else it will return a 304 not-modified response without the documents content.

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Ok I understand how it works now thanks. How come I need the setting in the .htacces to make this work though? Would this be related to the apache setup or the PHP CMS with rewrite. – John Magnolia Dec 18 '11 at 22:31
no this is related to php and apache setup, because php cannot access – s1los Dec 20 '11 at 22:32
the php script is recieving info from apache through the $_SERVER superglobal, the above headers mentioned in your script, are grabbed by php, alternatively instead of apache_request_header – s1los Dec 20 '11 at 22:48
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