File numbering

<p>I naively imagined that if you selected continuous file numbering in Canon DSLRs, files would have consecutive numbers up to 5 digits. Now realise they only go to 9999 and then start again at 0001. As I am now approaching that number, is there any way of distinguishing files in the second cycle once they are downloaded? Panasonic file numbering included the folder number as a prefix, but Canon so far as I see doesn't. I assign files to named folders but don't rename them. Seems I could run into trouble once I reach 10,000 if I try to move files between folders. Is there any way to assign a folder prefix, or do I need to rename all subsequent files once I reach 9999. I've never bothered with batch renaming but I understand you can do this in DPP (not sure about Bridge/CS2). BTW, I always download files via a card reader so never use canon utility</p>

<p>You can use Canon's EOS Utility with a card reader, and you can set it to rename at time of import. You can also set it to just add a prefix.<br>

In DPP the renaming tool can add prefixes, suffixes, rename all together, just add the date.... it's very versatile.</p>

<p>There's lots of ways of doing this though and I'm sure someone will come up with a solution using the programs you already use. It would help if you stated what programs you already use on a daily basis.</p>

<p>After a near disaster of 'new' numbers overwriting 'old' numbers from a previous cycle I now prefix each image with the shooting date which is a clear distinction, and useful in a whole lot of ways.</p>

<p>Definitely sort by date! All my pictures are sorted by year, month, day. This isn't a new problem. Remember back when all you pictures were numbered 1-36? 1-36, over and over again, 1-36. Organization is achieved by cataloguing in folders, not by number. The number is useful as an index-reference only, but offers no organization.</p>

<p>You might want to also look at (<a href="00VEZN">link</a> ) from recent discussions.</p>

<p>I just use a freeware file renaming program I found years ago. Once I hit 10,000 I use it to add a "1" in front of every filename. Once I hit 20,000 I use it to add a "2" in front of every filename, etc. So IMG_0045 would become IMG_10045, or IMG_20045, etc.</p>

<p>It's just stupidity and/or laziness on the camera manufacturers part not to have the camera keep numbering the files past 9999 without rolling the counter back to 0. I can understand the shortening of dates for example in years past when computers weren't very powerful and needed to conserve every last bit of memory possible (which led us to the Y2K "crisis"), but there's no excuse for those kind of sloppy shortcuts today. Unless manufacturers want to make it purposely difficult to track shutter actuations because of premature shutter failures.</p>

<p>Most "download" programs</p>

<ul>

<li>EOS Utility</li>

<li>Downloader Pro</li>

<li>etc</li>

</ul>

<p>Have the capability of creating new file names that can include a date. So, my numbering scheme is something like this<br>

2009_10_25_WTA_5D2_3421.CR2</p>

<p>WTA is my initials. 5D2 means my 5D Mark 2 Camera. This for me makes it way more intuitive in terms of grouping photos, etc.</p>

<p>In terms of the argument about the 4 digits vs 5 digits vs 6 digits. That's only part of the issue. If you just rely on the pure number scheme, what do you do when you shoot 3 or 4 cameras at the same time? What happens when you have to take work from several photographers?</p>

<p>Creating unique numbering scheme that includes at least the date is the best way to go.</p>

 

<p>I always identify folders by location/date/subject so that I can locate easily and download by copying relevant files to target folder. It seems so long as they stay in that folder there is no risk of overwriting older files? The process I had in mind was once files are safely downloaded into relevant folder I can then apply a single batch naming amendment to all the files in that folder in either Bridge or DPP, thereby making the file numbers unique again. Will this work?</p>

<p>Workflow is a highly personal thing. Whatever works for you is sufficient.</p>

<p>I used to simply sort photos something on the order of what you do, but ran into a couple of cases where I wanted to gather photos from several photos into a new folder dedicated for a specific project. I ran into that issue where I had a duplicate name.</p>

<p>There are utilities that will allow you to rename the file based on the exif date. I've used ACDSee Pro 3 to do that in the past with great results.</p>

<p>But again, whatever works best for you.</p>

 

<p>I import via Bridge in CS4 and I let it automatically add a date-based number string to each photograph.</p>

<p>Dan</p>