File Naming for 2 Cameras

[Kiwigeoff]

Now I have two bodies to use and they will be used on the same jobs, I am after some file naming suggestions to differentiate the cameras and keep the files in time order.
Currently I use : GW2''9'1'4_DSC1234.dng

Thanks...

 

[johnbeardy]

Some like to put the camera name in the file, Geoff, so you might have GW2''9'1'4_A_DSC1234.dng where A indicates one camera and B the other. I don't see the value of seeing this info in the file name, as all camera info is in the EXIF. When I was only using one body, I did use a method like yours, keeping the original camera file name, but with two bodies that was more trouble than it was worth, and always ran the risk of names duplicating. So I switched to a simple sequential system based on capture time GW2''9'1'4_'123.dng, doing this renaming after trashing all the rejects.

John

 

[Kiwigeoff]

I knew you would have a sensible logical response John, thanks.
I'm not a deleter (old habit)but could still apply your method well and yes I guess I don't need to distinguish between the bodies - I think I had seen it somewhere, that's all. Any how I need to head to bed as it's late here and I'm up at 5 am for ballooning !!
Thanks again....

 

[johnbeardy]

Lucky devil!

This sort of thing has been discussed q a few times at the DAM Book Forum, so I've had plenty of time to straighten out my logic, or prejudices.

John

 

[philip merry]

Geoff - greetings from just up the road !

I too use more than one camera on a job.
The filenames you settle on probably depend on how you archive images - for me I keep each camera's files in separate folders and tie them into the jobs with keywords, so I use the A/B/C id as part of the filename, but whatever suits...

However, what I thought I would particularly point out is the usefulness of getting the cameras' clocks in sync, so that the total take can be sorted in capture sequence. For some jobs it can avoid a lot of confusion.

cheers, Philip

 

[johnbeardy]

"the usefulness of getting the cameras' clocks in sync"

Absolutely - some people include that in their pre-shoot checklist. I spoke to a guy last year who had wasted a day figuring out why his renaming was so skewy, finally spotting the issue was that his cameras' clocks weren't in sync - and while correcting them he accidentally set one to the wrong year. He eventually got it right!

John

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Thanks Philip and John for your input.
I finally decide to go for:
GW2''9-'1-'1_''''1.dng
So I will number consecutively all the files from the beginning of the year consecutively by capture time.
I had only 4 days to back track so wasn't too hard and at that point came across the camera syncing idea as well so initiated that!
Reset the out of sync times in LR of course.

Thanks again, by the way do the cameras clocks shift much? I've never really paid attention to one !
Are you the guy from Palmerston Nth Philip??

 

[billg71]

Geoff,

FWIW(since you've already decided on your renaming), you can go into the Nikon menu and change the 3-letter file prefix. For example, when I got my D3'' I changed the prefix to _D3C so I could differentiate the files from the D2'' files.

It's under the Shooting Menu - File Naming.

Congrats on the new camera!
Bill

 

[leifurh]

Downloader Pro

For what it's worth I use a simple utility named Downloader Pro which identifies cameras from exif data - not just the model but the individual camera. I have it organise files using the directory pattern:

D:\Users\Public\Pictures\Digital Pictures\{Y}\{Y}-{m} ({b})

... which gives ...

D:\Users\Public\Pictures\Digital Pictures\2''9\2''9-'1 (jan)

and for the picture file names I use:

{d}_{H}{M}_{r4}{T8}

... which gives (after setting up the camera name string):

'9'1'6_14''_5316D3''.NEF

... where 14:'' is the time, 5316 the numeric portion of the DSC string and "D3''" my camera type.

The problem with Downloader Pro is that after getting used to it it's difficult to migrate to anything else ....

I like to hang on to the ability to manipulate files using other programs so I have Lightroom leave the files where Downloader puts them.

 

[Bruce J]

Thanks again, by the way do the cameras clocks shift much? I've never really paid attention to one !

Geoff,

I've been shooting w/ up to 4 cameras for a couple years now (2 DSLRs and 2 P&S) and find that the times do drift a bit. I wind up re-syncing every 6 mo. to a year, but it's not a big deal. More annoying to me is that not all of the cameras handle DST the same; some change automatically, some don't. So, I often seem to find that I have to select all of the images from one camera and add or subtract and hour to get them back in sync. Probably less of a problem if you have similar cameras. Cheers,

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Geoff,

FWIW(since you've already decided on your renaming), you can go into the Nikon menu and change the 3-letter file prefix. For example, when I got my D3'' I changed the prefix to _D3C so I could differentiate the files from the D2'' files.

It's under the Shooting Menu - File Naming.

Congrats on the new camera!
Bill

I like that Bill, will see how the way I am now using works out. I see the obvious quick visual reference to the camera from your suggestion though rather than using metadata to search.

 

[Kiwigeoff]

For what it's worth I use a simple utility named Downloader Pro which identifies cameras from exif data - not just the model but the individual camera. I have it organise files using the directory pattern:

D:\Users\Public\Pictures\Digital Pictures\{Y}\{Y}-{m} ({b})

... which gives ...

D:\Users\Public\Pictures\Digital Pictures\2''9\2''9-'1 (jan)

and for the picture file names I use:

{d}_{H}{M}_{r4}{T8}

... which gives (after setting up the camera name string):

'9'1'6_14''_5316D3''.NEF

... where 14:'' is the time, 5316 the numeric portion of the DSC string and "D3''" my camera type.

The problem with Downloader Pro is that after getting used to it it's difficult to migrate to anything else ....

I like to hang on to the ability to manipulate files using other programs so I have Lightroom leave the files where Downloader puts them.

Another good option Lief, thanks for your response. Is Downloader Pro Mac?
Are you Finnish??

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Downloader Pro's Windows Geoff, but a lovely little program that we use on the studio machines all the time. I guess Marc's Image Ingester is probably about as close as you get on a Mac, but I still haven't tried it, so I'm not sure quite what it can do.

 

[Kiwigeoff]

Thanks your highness
I guessed that may be the case, I'll see how I go for now with what I have gone with and see how that works with time synced bodies !!
Lucky I had only a few hundred images to change the times of !!:lol::lol:

 

[philip merry]

Geoff
not as far as PN - I'm out west of Carterton.
we met at the last Masterton A&P show, so I'll look out for you at the next one and hear how the renumbering is going...

 

[James_N]

If I may interject at this late stage; I use two tools; SymmTime and Downloader Pro. As was already pointed out its essential to have your cameras' clocks synchronized so I use SymmTime to connect to a Stratum 2 NTP Time Server (I live near Chicago so Argonne National Labs is the closest official time server to me).

Once my computer's clock is set correctly I simply connect each camera to the computer via USB cable and run Downloader Pro. The "Camera Settings" dialog box in DLPro allows you to automatically synchronize your cameras' clocks with your computer (unfortunately this module only works for Canon cameras).

I then proceed with my shoot then download and automatically rename my files via an external reader and Downloader Pro. My preferred file renaming format is JAN_2''9'1'8_xxxxx (my initials; ISO 86'1 international date format, and a unique 5-digit number). But its worth noting that with DLPro you can use several "tokens" in your file renaming scheme that will identify your camera make, model, or even unique serial number from the EXIF data. So you can easily rename your files JAN_1Ds_2''9'1'8_xxxxx or JAN_1D MkIII_2''9'1'8_xxxxx. I previously named my files like this but I thought the names were too long and its also easy enough now in Lightroom to search for images shot with a particular camera so I shortened my naming scheme.

The last step in the process is to use BreezeBrowser Pro to cull my images, sort them by Time Taken, and Batch Rename to ensure no gaps remain in the file numbering. My reason for using BB Pro is that its one of the few programs I know that accurately reads subsecond timing; Lightroom seems to get confused sometimes when sorting photos shot in burst mode.

Then its off to Lightroom to generate and import DNG files while the RAW files are backed up to an external drive and DVD. I sometimes use 3 or 4 bodies in a shoot and this process ensures that my files are always correctly arranged by time sequence.