Workflor Change - 300D to 20D

Recently I upgraded from a 300D to a 20D. Love the 20D.

 

However, there is some different software with the 20D, and I have

made one other change that affects my workflow sometimes as well.

 

With the 300D, I used ZoomBrowserEX to transfer my files. There were

things I didn't like about the software, but what I LOVED about it was

it's ability to sort the files from the card by either transfer date,

or exposure date. It would take all the files stored in the ever

multiplying subdirectories on your CD cards and dump them somewhere

organized.

 

ZoomBrowser does not seem to recognize CR2 files. It does a lovely

job moving the JPG's associated with them, but seems to ignore the RAW

files now. There does not seem to be a 20D compatible function

anywhere that does this - sorts and moves the pictures from card

subdirectories in a logical and automatic batch fashion.

 

Complicating this, I have added a CompactDrive PDX7 digital storage

device into the mix. ZoomBrowser seems to have no clue how to deal

with this at all.

 

What are people using to handle the automated moving, organizing and

sorting these files with the 20D?

 

I just got back from ten days in San Diego, I loaded about 10GB of

pictures from CF cards onto the PDX in that time, and now I am rooting

around in the subdirectory structure I copied to my PC from the PDX7

with File Manager, and it is driving me insane.

 

There has to be a way to push a button and make all these things pop

into a folder with exposure date, so the SeaWorld pictures end up one

place and the Wildlife Park day another, etc. etc.

I am using iMatch to organize my pictures. IMatch is a catalog package that that stores information about your photos (categories, keywords, properties, etc.) in a database. I does not move any photos (unless you want it to). Any similar program will do just fine for many purposes, and I nearly went with Picasso (free from Google) and Elements 3 (<$100 US).

 

IMatch is not exactly one button pushing, as it takes time to setup, but it is two clicks to have iMatch scan my folders for changes (this can be automated I think), and then all of my new images are put into an 'incoming' category. I can then sort and file away my images in the catalog. Later I can use this to search for 'seaworld', specify a date range, focal length, combine search terms, etc.

 

My directory structure on disk is a very simple not_on_cd/001, not_on_cd/002, etc. After burning the folders to DVD every so often, I move the folders to on_cd/001, on_cd/002, etc., and take the DVDs to work. Every night I copy the iMatch database and new photo files to another computer in my house. With iMatch, I don't much fuss with the files on the file system any more, and do not really care where they are on my hard drive.

 

I am shooting raw. Any external program can be called within IMatch.

 

Hope that helps.

I am using Picasa to organize and keep track of my images because it recognizes all my formats (CR2, DCR, JPEG, TIFF, PSD, etc) and it has the lovely price of free.

I use DIM. A great little java program.It will copy the files, create folders with month/day/time etc. Lots of option.

 

here is the link http://www.alanlight.com/