EOS Folders...

I ran into something unusual the other day, that I have never run into before. Usually when you use an SD card or Flash card to store your pictures from the camera after you have taken them, the Canon EOS system creates 2 folders on your flash card. A DCIM and a MISC folder. Your pictures are usually stored in the DCIM folder. Not sure what's in the MISC folder because when I decide to look, it's always empty .

The DCIM folder usually has a sub-folder that I think you can rename using your camera, but I usually set my camera to "Continuous numbering" and forget about it. This sub-folder actually has all your images and you have to click on it to see the thumbnails on your monitor. I don't usually pay attention to all this and just click on any folder until I can see the thumbnails on my monitor.

The other day I was in Bridge in Photoshop CS, when I noticed that there were 2 sub-folders a 101 and a 102. For some reason, the system split all the pictures I had taken that day into 2 sub folders ? The reason I bring this up, is because my Editing software package AcdSee vs 8, had a hell of a time trying to import the images into the "Picture" folder on my computer. I didn't have any problems importing with Photoshop CS though, but I did run into other issues which I will explain later.

To make things clear there were about 1700 images on the 64GB SD card. Half of them were stored in RAW with an identical copy stored in Medium JPEG. I'm not sure if the size of the images caused the system to split into 2 folders, but I'm guessing this is what happened ?

I'm still investigating, but like I said AcdSee my editing software package, screwed everything up mixing images from sub-folders 101 into 102 and vise versa. it got really confusing while trying to edit. After editing the images I needed to edit, AcdSee could not decide what to do with the images it had imported so it just discarded them ? I had to redo the entire Import function which took about 1/ 2 hour due to the number of images on the SD card ? I'm really not sure what happened, maybe I fat-fingered something, but this has never happened to me before ?

The reason I used AcdSee instead of PS to import my pictures in the first place is because it handles RAW data a lot better. I can click on image whether it's RAW or JPEG and the software opens it up and you can begin editing immediately. With Photoshop you have to go through "Camera RAW" which can get very tedious if you have a lot of images. There got to be a better way ???

I've always wondered about this too! So I looked a couple of things up.

My guess is that the clue to the problem lies in the 4-digit numbers in the file-names. I suspect that some images (in 100Canon) will have a high number - up to 9999 - and others (in 101Canon) will have a low number, starting from 0001. I'd be interested to hear if my guess is right!

IHMO, there are three parts to this.

1. Canon EOS has a 4-digit number in the name of any file. This increases by 1 for 'the next' file (= continuous numbering). Whenever the number reaches 9999, a new folder is created and the 'next file' is stored in the new folder with the 4-digit number reset to 0001 (and in some brands 0000). So on any card, all files are uniquely identified by a unique folder name + a unique filename with the folder.
   
2. On your camera, you can optionally choose 'automatic reset of continuous numbering' whereby (I think) the 4-digit numbering system used by the camera is automatically reset to 1 higher than any file in the most recent folder. I think that this only applies when the card is re-inserted but I'm not sure about this. EOS cameras also allow users to manually reset the automatic file numbering to the 'lowest available number' in the most current folder. If you don't reset the continuous file numbering - either automatically or manually - then the file numbering just continues from where it left off. Even if the card is re-inserted and even if the most recent folder has few or zero files. So whenever the continuous file numbering reaches 9999, a new folder is automatically created and - within the new folder - the continuous numbering is reset to 0001. Without any resets, over the course of time, new sub-folders are created whenever the numbering system reaches 9999. I've never reset the numbering and I currently have 5 folders on my card. Only the most recent folder has any image files in it. Occasionally, of course, image files get spread more than one folder. Some have the highest numbers permitted (up to 9999) and others will be in a new folder starting (again) from 0001. I suspect that this is happening in your case.
   
3. I may be wrong, but it sounds to me as if the software you're using (or it's settings) can't fully cope with situations in which sequential photos are spread across multiple DCIM folders and have non-sequential filenames. Changing the 'ordering sequence' in the software from 'filename' to 'capture date/time' might help. Although I've occasionally copied files directly from an SD-card folder to my Laptop, this is not ideal for the reasons you give. You first have to find them in one or more folders. If they come from different folders, you need to check the order and possibly re-order on capture date/time rather than on filename. To get software (Windows!) to automatically recognise the order it may be necessary to re-name the files.
   

I'm not sure whether this is applicable or helpful but (for some forgotten reason) I always separate the 2 steps of 'copying image files from my camera (or SD-card)' to my Laptop' and 'importing files on my Laptop into post-processing software'. When copying, EOS Utility 2 lets me select the files I want to copy (wherever they might be on the SD card) and the (container) folder name on my Laptop where I want to copy them to. It also allows me to automatically create sub-folders when copying. I usually choose 'shooting date' for creating sub-folders. My 'container' folders in Windows are Years and Months. So I select a 'month' and the Utilty creates 'shooting date' subfolders within that. I then import the photos into Adobe Lightroom. When importing, the sub-folder names and filenames are seldom important. I just click on a 'container' folder and Lightroom shows me previews of any photos - from multiple shooting dates - that haven't yet been imported. I think the 'import order' is also the default 'viewing order'. But I can 'filter' and 'order' the images in any view I want. By capture date/time is usually the most useful. I would guess this is possible in Bridge too. .

"My guess is that the clue to the problem lies in the 4-digit numbers in the file-names. I suspect that some images (in 100Canon) will have a high number - up to 9999 - and others (in 101Canon) will have a low number, starting from 0001. I'd be interested to hear if my guess is right!"

You are definitely right Mike and this has been happening all along, but I just did not realize it. This is not just for Canon cameras, my Pentax camera also creates numerous folders then renumbers each folder starting with 0001. Only when I had to create an album that had to be in sequential order did I run into this problem. Sorry I took so long to get back to you, I'm have been under a heavy schedule lately .

I will try using a "shooting date" as the qualifier from now to see how that works out, on unless I'm only shooting a few pictures. On my Pentax camera a new folder is created before you even hit the magic number 9999, the Pentax system creates a new folder and starts renumbering after about 250 images ? but I'm pretty sure it has to do with the way I have my parameters set.

My editing software (AcdSee) lets you import pictures by date. It gives you a list of what pictures were taken on which "date" that are on the SD card, then all you have to do is check which dates you want to import. Unlike PhotoShop it does not check for duplicates !

This is an industry standard.

Design rule for Camera File system - Wikipedia

I ran into something unusual the other day, that I have never run into before. Usually when you use an SD card or Flash card to store your pictures from the camera after you have taken them, the Canon EOS system creates 2 folders on your flash card. A DCIM and a MISC folder. Your pictures are usually stored in the DCIM folder. Not sure what's in the MISC folder because when I decide to look, it's always empty .

 

The DCIM folder usually has a sub-folder that I think you can rename using your camera, but I usually set my camera to "Continuous numbering" and forget about it. This sub-folder actually has all your images and you have to click on it to see the thumbnails on your monitor. I don't usually pay attention to all this and just click on any folder until I can see the thumbnails on my monitor.

 

The other day I was in Bridge in Photoshop CS, when I noticed that there were 2 sub-folders a 101 and a 102. For some reason, the system split all the pictures I had taken that day into 2 sub folders ? The reason I bring this up, is because my Editing software package AcdSee vs 8, had a hell of a time trying to import the images into the "Picture" folder on my computer. I didn't have any problems importing with Photoshop CS though, but I did run into other issues which I will explain later.

 

To make things clear there were about 1700 images on the 64GB SD card. Half of them were stored in RAW with an identical copy stored in Medium JPEG. I'm not sure if the size of the images caused the system to split into 2 folders, but I'm guessing this is what happened ?

 

I'm still investigating, but like I said AcdSee my editing software package, screwed everything up mixing images from sub-folders 101 into 102 and vise versa. it got really confusing while trying to edit. After editing the images I needed to edit, AcdSee could not decide what to do with the images it had imported so it just discarded them ? I had to redo the entire Import function which took about 1/ 2 hour due to the number of images on the SD card ? I'm really not sure what happened, maybe I fat-fingered something, but this has never happened to me before ?

 

The reason I used AcdSee instead of PS to import my pictures in the first place is because it handles RAW data a lot better. I can click on image whether it's RAW or JPEG and the software opens it up and you can begin editing immediately. With Photoshop you have to go through "Camera RAW" which can get very tedious if you have a lot of images. There got to be a better way ???

 

 

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Avoid editing as much as possible... make your image settings in the camera. It''l make tedious less and with Bridge you can open in PS after edits, if required.