File Naming convention for the G7

stokey wrote:

...for those old enough to remember MSDOS.

I grew up on MSDOS, but it's so long now all that ability has faded into oblivion..... still have my MSDOS manuals somewhere.....

On your PC create a batch file "ten.bat" -

md %1%20_PANA

md %1%21_PANA

....

md %1%29_PANA

Create a second batch file "hun.bat" -

call ten %1 0

call ten %1 1

...

call ten %1 9

Type "hun 1" this will create 100 empty folders 100_PANA to 199_PANA, "hun 2" will create folders 200_PANA to 299_PANA and so on.

Copy the two hundred (or three hundred or whatever) empty folders to the DCIM folder on your SD card, put the card in the camera and take a snap, the camera will record the image in whichever folder its internal counter is pointing to. Now go into the setup menu and do a "No. Reset" then take another shot - lo and behold the image is saved in 300_PANA !

You can now re-format the SD card in the camera to get rid of all those unwanted folders, you can even swap cards, the camera will remember whatever you've forced it to.

Believe me it took me longer to type this than to do it.

Bob

Thanks, Bob, that is the most elegant way to do it and means that there's no need for an actual image file in any of the folders.

The main thing is to get the camera to realise that all the folder numbers have been used up already to the point where you need your camera at say 200_PANA or whatever, from then on it knows where it is up to so fresh cards always start at the higher numbers.

Of course if you do the No.Reset at any time then the camera goes back to 100_PANA and starts its life all over again.

For safety and comfort, if you make a huge DCIM set of XXX_PANA folders then keep that structure safe forever and then copy to a work area and delete the top numbers not needed and then copy to a card to "fix" your camera.

When getting organised in separating cameras with different folder number series then remember that Panasonic rolls over folders at 999 and not the more usual 9999 of other cameras. So to separate cameras by a safe 100,000 images then the cameras need to be at 100_PANA, 200_PANA, 300_PANA and so on. If taking lots of timelapse shots then that thinking needs to be revised to maybe separating by 200,000.

The focal plane shutters will collapse by then so that degree of separation only would make sense when using the electronic shutter for timelapse.

Regards..... Guy

Guy Parsons wrote:

tnphoto wrote:

That didn't work on my Panny GX7. I renamed 130_PANA on my Mac, then formatted the card in the camera and shot another image. The folder renamed itself to 130_PANA.

A long time since I fiddled with my LX3 but I did find then there was no easy way except the method on my page http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/panasonic/24-fileno.html

From vague memory it had to have all the intervening folders present before it would make a new folder with a higher number. It always involved taking a shot then renaming the shot on the card in the camera to xxxx0999, then take another shot to force the creation of a new folder, then rename that shot to xxxx0999 and take another shot and so on.

Of course since then there may have been additions to the file handling firmware, is there some menu item to create a new folder on the card?

Aha! Found it! On my LX3 there is a No. Reset item in the Setup menu, this makes the next shot taken be 0001 and creates a new folder for it. All Panasonic have this menu item. Ignorant me, I could have used that years ago when I wrote that page.

So here's the real way to increase folder numbers properly up to where you need them.

1. Freshly formatted card in and take one shot (that should preserve the folder number).
2. Setup Menu - No. Reset - Yes - OK
3. Take a shot, a new higher number folder is created.
4. Go back to step 2 and keep looping until the folder number is up where you need it.

So it's still not easy, but easier than my page on the LX3, that needs a re-write.

If you do step 2 on the freshly formatted card without a shot on it then the file system goes back to 100-0001, - well, it does on my LX3.

To see the folder number created then review the shot and see on the right the number during this exercise ..... 101-0001, next would be 102-0001, then 103-0001 as you keep looping the above instructions.

Now dammit, I have to take my LX3 back to 109-0001 as I reset the whole darn file numbering during this try.

Summary - thank heavens I use Olympus, they have file numbering and naming sorted nicely. Panasonic is a bit primitive in that regard, sorry folks.

Regards.... Guy

It is not that hard Guy.

I just set my cameras up very easily.  I have not done it for a while and so the exact mechnanism fails my memory.  I will have to put the card into another computer not an iPad and check.  Will post the real deal up later when I can re-check the way the cards are numbered on computer.

If I am right all you have to do is have a file number there that can be altered.  I am not sure if you have to change the folder number and the file number, maybe so.  But in any case only the first digit needs to be changed and no resetting necessary.  I generally clear all my images off the card first and use a test shot as the number I change, but I don't think it absolutley necessary.

The only time I have had to wrestle with it was when the numbering system went crazy when I had been using multiple cards with the same camera.  I think I ended up resetting the numbering first with my chosen card in computer before I could get the new numbering system "to stick".

New camera new card has been very easy.

Once set and the same card dedicated to the camera it just chunkles away happily following the new numbering.

Not as easy as the Olympus (and the Ricoh GR which allows firmware controlled sequence numbering as well). But it is not hard either once you know the handshake.

Thanks, Bob, and I copied your method to my page as an alternative to the other method discussed.

Revised page at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/panasonic/24-fileno.html and may need to page refresh browser to see the latest version.

Regards..... Guy

Guy Parsons wrote:

Just now found out a trap that I forgot to mention.

After resetting the camera back to 100-0001 with a fresh card and fiddling it up to 103 - 0001, I then put my old card being used back in and checked its number, the last shot taken on that card was actually 110-0566, so guess what the next shot was when I took it now? It became 101-0001.

What I now have to do is repeat my instructions over and over on this card until I am at 111-0001 before I continue with real shots. The file system looks for the first non-existent folder which because of my earlier reset makes it under the existing 110 folder. It does not take the top folder and number on from there if there's vacant folders numbers available, it starts with folder numbers as low as it can go.

But once I have made all the folders from 101- to 110- then a fresh card will start again from 110- folder number as it thinks all the rest have been used up.

So to force the folder numbers up, all folder numbers must be there on the card. You can't simply rename folder 101- to folder 135- or whatever and expect it to carry on, it will just next make 102- .

Like I said, it's not easy.

Regards.... Guy

I always delete my empty lower numbered folders by routine.  Maybe that helps?  The Ricoh system is basically simpler as it only uses a single folder and not the multiple sub-folder system like Panasonic does.

I would think that this method of setting up separate numbering systems would probably be the same on all camera brands.  I only tried it on Panasonic because I had a crying need for it and I knew (thanks to your good self) that it worked for Ricoh.

But I don't think it is quite as complicated as you describe.

My revised page at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/panasonic/24-fileno.html (may need refresh) tells of the real methods.

Things to know.....

• The Panasonic cameras roll over folder numbers every 1,000 images, not the 10,000 of other cameras.
• The camera remembers which folders it has used already if using the usual auto numbering where it carries on with the numbering sequence even when a card is formatted or a fresh card inserted.
• If you do a Setup Menu - No. Reset then it wipes all its folder number memory and starts again from 100_PANA - so that is why we have to have all the folder numbers on a card to force that camera back up to where we want it.

Regards.... Guy

stokey wrote:

Guy Parsons wrote:

Of course if you do the No.Reset at any time then the camera goes back to 100_PANA and starts its life all over again.

No, "No. reset" always steps to the next folder unless the current folder is empty.

Sorry, my total brain snap, of course you are right. Too many other things happening in my head at the moment.

Out today but will play again later with my LX3 to get it all straight in my head again. Maybe I was muddling it with the Reset which may wipe.

But then, I did get the camera to reset to 100_PANA from a No. Reset, so I'll check what I did again later. Puzzling.

Aha, maybe it was because I did a No. Reset on a freshly formatted card with no shots on it, then the camera gets all confused and starts at 100_PANA again as it did not see the expected 108_PANA or whatever we were up to on the card before format.

So the camera has a conditional memory of what folders it has used, and it's very easy to upset that memory.

I have been caught out by this empty folder "feature" before - viz: I copied all the files from nnn_PANA to my PC, deleted all the images in nnn_PANA then did a "No. reset" thinking to step on the file names to nnn+1_PANA, but no the camera didn't step the folder and images were stored with nnn_PANA file names duplicating those on my PC.

Yes, you did it backwards, the No. Reset (and one shot?) needs to be done before deleting the images is my guess.

I still use MSDOS occasionally (running under Windows) for stuff like this, batch files can be very powerful and time saving, also the reason I still use Irfanview.

Bob

I need to dig out my MS-DOS 6 book and start reading. I used to be good with it but it's all terribly faded now. Maybe old-timers disease is kicking in.

Hey, I should retreat back to my Olympus world, that seems easier......

Regards...... Guy

I never clear my cards by reformating them unless it has become essential.  Maybe that has a bearing?

I cut and paste files off the cards to a PC.

I am still fooling around on the iPad but I think that, while all this effort is good and works well, in reality I have never found that it was that complicated.  The only time I got lost was when I was swapping more than one card into a camera.  At this point my numbering sytem became quite confused and I had trouble making it behave again.  But subsequently one card dedicated per camera body has worked fine.  I use 32Gb cards and doubt if this will ever become a problem.  A trip away for a little while produced 3,800 images and two cards covered this easily.  If I had ever put the camera away then a more sensible level of image production would have easily fitted on one card. I have the idea that card in camera is less likely to get lost and camera as extension of one's arm is guarded very well.

That is it - easy as "ABC"

Tom Caldwell wrote:

That is it - easy as "ABC"

OK, that might work with some later camera but with my LX3 I renamed the 111_PANA folder and the file in it to be 123_PANA & P1230005.

Took a shot and it recreated the 111_PANA folder and added P1110006 and it totally ignored the higher folder number.

To redo the test I used No.Reset to cause it to create a new 112_PANA folder and took one shot, then renamed the folder and file to be 140 (I also deleted the earlier 123 folder) then took another shot, it then re-created the 112 folder and put P1120002 into it. It ignored the 140 folder altogether.

I can't get it to work unless I create all the intervening folders to force the camera to ignore all those as being "used" and then it will go to the new top higher folder number.

So it's a case of everyone needing to do their own research to see what works for them.

Regards....... Guy