40D File Name question

[churchi]

Hi all,

Well i have had a read through the forums and on the net, and just wanted to get a straight answer to the following:

When i take a pic the file name is IMG_XXXX

Now i quite often take around 2-3k of files on a weekends shooting, so it quickly goes around through the 10000 picture mark which resets the file name to IMG_XXXX

IT does however increase the folder name by one, but i wanted to know if there was a way to make the file name longer to go higher than 9999?
EG: IMG_78343 or IMG_192837

This would be really handy for me to have the longer file name as i do not reset the file name for each shoot.

Does anyone know if this is possible?

Cheers.

 

[QuantumRealityBytes]

Not possible in camera. I find it ridiculous that Canon would have this restriction.

--
Arno Krautter

Galleries: http://quark.zenfolio.com

 

[Alan from Sunny Isles Beach FL]

Not possible in the cameras because the memory cards are being written to in FAT16 I believe.

Dunno why. But it is an 8.3 file naming scheme.

Why would you care? don't you rename them on import anyways?

I rename and sort into folders by yyyy/yyyy_mm_dd... and rename to yyyymmdd_XXXXXXXX.XXX the IMG or MG file names that the camera stores aren't very informative or helpful.

-Alan

 

[churchi]

bugger, it would be really handy for it to just keep counting.

yeah its so ridiculous that they restrict it to just 8 characters.

hmm, is it possible in the 1D series? or not at all?

thanks.

 

[churchi]

thanks for that info.

Well i put all my photos in named sub folders, so naming the file is not always a priority. just wondered if it was possible to count higher than 8 characters, but you have answered that for me

Thanks.

 

[rdspear]

My advice is to solve the problem, not the symptom.

You should get in the habit, and find the tool if you don't already, of renaming files when you import them from the card. Having files names IMG_23891.CR2, even if you can make it more digits, will make it impossible to find what you have a few years (or months) from now.

I copy from my card to my drive using Lightroom, and name them "Location"+"DDMMYY"+Sequential Number.CR2.

It's easier to tell what AntelopeCanyon_Utah_083108.CR2 is than IMG_2883.CR2

 

[churchi]

Totally a much better way in deed.

I will be renaming all my files now along with the directory they are in.

Thanks.

 

[QuantumRealityBytes]

My advice is to solve the problem, not the symptom.

You should get in the habit, and find the tool if you don't already,
of renaming files when you import them from the card. Having files
names IMG_23891.CR2, even if you can make it more digits, will make
it impossible to find what you have a few years (or months) from now.

I copy from my card to my drive using Lightroom, and name them
"Location"+"DDMMYY"+Sequential Number.CR2.

It's easier to tell what AntelopeCanyon_Utah_083108.CR2 is than
IMG_2883.CR2

Perhaps it wuoild be better to use:

YYMMDD_Location_Sequential_number.CR2.

That way you can easily sort them by date in Windows explorer.

--
Arno Krautter

Galleries: http://quark.zenfolio.com

 

[Lemming51]

Not possible in camera. I find it ridiculous that Canon would have
this restriction.

The D300 is little different. It allows changing the 1st 3 characters from "DSC", but the rest of the file name is restricted to a 4 digit number preceded by the underline.

 

[TimR32225]

Maybe I'm the exception here, but I hate the long file names people use when renaming files.

I take advantage of the 1-seriies' ability to custom set the first 4 characters of the file name, and I use 1D-x (with the x filled in with a number), for the first 4 characters of the file name. I started out with '0' and now I'm up to '5' after about 2.5 years. What this does is put a 5th digit in the file number so I can effectively go up to 99,999 before the appearance of a reset of file numbers. Each time I approach the 9,999 rollover, I change the custom prefix by inserting a different number in place of the 'x' in my example.

With my other cameras (40d and 10d) I rename the files but only to add the 5th digit in the file number. But since these files are renamed, the file number does not accurately represent the number of shutter actuations like it does with my 1-series file names.

I categorize my photos in folders by date and subject, rather than renaming the individual file names. This also gives the added advantage of knowing exactly how many shutter actuations you have on your camera, with the filename revealing the actual total.

I have my file folders on the hard drive set up by year, month, and shot date, with the folder being named with the Topic and the number of the first photo in that folder. This enables me to also locate a photo by photo number when I am looking at the menu tree on the hard drive.
Example folder name: 08-0201 Amelia Island Tennis (1D-52124)

An example of the menu tree would look like this:

2008
01-2008 January
02-2008 February
08-0201 Amelia Island Tennis (1D-52124)
08-0206 Jacksonville Skyline (1D-52894)
08-0215 Tom's Birthday (1D-53045)
08-0215 Tom's Birthday (40d-2389)

There is a folder for each month, and then the subject folders as the example above, would be within the "02-2008 February" monthly folder. A monthly folder would have only as many subfolders within it, as the number of days I have been out shooting. But it is possible to have several subfolders with the same date and a different subject.

I additionally keep a log in an excel spreadsheet, and add a line for every day I shoot anything. It has columns for month and date and subject, and also for category and subcategory. This spreadsheet can be sorted by any of these columns to quickly find a particular photo folder if I have trouble looking on the hard drive itself, although this rarely happens. The spreadsheet also has columns to log in the number of the DVD which contains the backups of the photos.

In addition to the folders on my hard drives, I have separate backups of everything, both on external hard drives, and on DVD, just in case something gets lost.

This system has worked well for me since I switched to from film to digital, almost 6 years ago.
--

Gallery at: http://www.pbase.com/tim32225

 

[rdspear]

Perhaps it wuoild be better to use:

YYMMDD_Location_Sequential_number.CR2.

That way you can easily sort them by date in Windows explorer.

I think everyone needs to do what fits them best. I can see why a pro would need date first - looking for files from a June 2004 client shoot, for example - I personally don't.

Here's a thread I found discussing the topic. Amusingly, I attended a workshop with Nat a couple of years back and am using the convention he uses/suggests - I guess that's where mine came from.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t20378.html