# file names



## Don Haines (Nov 2, 2013)

Is there a way to change the file naming structure on Canon cameras?

All images are IMG_xxxx If you shoot more than 9999 pictures you get duplicate file names.

When I shot with Olympus cameras you could change the naming sequence, for instance in 2009 I would use 09Hxxxxx as the naming structure, then in 2010 would change it to 10Hxxxxx. 

Is there a way to do the equivalent with Canon?


----------



## Khufu (Nov 2, 2013)

Don't they go into new folders or have a preceding 3 digit number? I can't think off the top of my head precisely what the system is but I'm sure with my 5D3, 60D and XTi/400D they've always been along the lines of;
101_9999
102_0001
102_0002 etc...

The 5D3 also allows you to customise those 3 digits but I assume this is considered a premium/pro feature as I'd not used it before... Hope that answers something!


----------



## Don Haines (Nov 2, 2013)

Khufu said:


> Don't they go into new folders or have a preceding 3 digit number? I can't think off the top of my head precisely what the system is but I'm sure with my 5D3, 60D and XTi/400D they've always been along the lines of;
> 101_9999
> 102_0001
> 102_0002 etc...
> ...



On my 60D it goes
IMG_9998
IMG_9999
then opens a new folder on the compact flash
IMG_0001
IMG_0002

I just shot my fourth IMG_0668 of the year


----------



## Khufu (Nov 2, 2013)

One (sort of) solution that I go with is to just dump my photos into folders with names starting YYMM, YYMMDD or YYMMDDa.
Ie. 131031b could be a folder of a Hallowe'en party's pics after dumping that afternoon's street photos into folder 131031a... and you can add words after those numbers and the folders will always be chronologically and alphabetically arranged!
File numbers, to me, are just for reference whilst working/searching, relative to other file numbers in that folder... Maybe consider a similar system?


----------



## Don Haines (Nov 2, 2013)

Khufu said:


> One (sort of) solution that I go with is to just dump my photos into folders with names starting YYMM, YYMMDD or YYMMDDa.
> Ie. 131031b could be a folder of a Hallowe'en party's pics after dumping that afternoon's street photos into folder 131031a... and you can add words after those numbers and the folders will always be chronologically and alphabetically arranged!
> File numbers, to me, are just for reference whilst working/searching, relative to other file numbers in that folder... Maybe consider a similar system?


I already do that... my directory structure is:
Photos/2013/2013-07-28 Mer Bleu would be the directory for photos of Mer Bleu taken on July 28, 2013


----------



## kphoto99 (Nov 3, 2013)

exiftool -r '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S_%%f.%%e IMG*.CR2

This will rename your files to unique names based on the time the picture was taken. It is very useful when you want to combine files from different cameras, yet have them listed in the order that the pictures were taken.
Replace the .CR2 with .JPG when needed.


----------



## Valvebounce (Nov 3, 2013)

Hi,
Please could you explain this ?script? a bit more, is it used from the run box windows, or is it mac? Run in Lightroom?
It looks really useful, but I'm a pc user not programmer!
At college my programming instructor concluded I was computer illiterate! :'( Mind you that was when screens were green! ;D

Cheers Graham.



kphoto99 said:


> exiftool -r '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S_%%f.%%e IMG*.CR2
> 
> This will rename your files to unique names based on the time the picture was taken. It is very useful when you want to combine files from different cameras, yet have them listed in the order that the pictures were taken.
> Replace the .CR2 with .JPG when needed.


----------



## kphoto99 (Nov 3, 2013)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi,
> Please could you explain this ?script? a bit more, is it used from the run box windows, or is it mac? Run in Lightroom?
> It looks really useful, but I'm a pc user not programmer!
> At college my programming instructor concluded I was computer illiterate! :'( Mind you that was when screens were green! ;D
> ...



I use neither, I use Linux, but you are in luck the exiftool is cross platform, it is a command line tool.
Start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExifTool
I think there is also a GUI frontend for it.

The renaming of files is just one small part of it, it can do a lot of things to the meta data of pictures.


----------



## neuroanatomist (Nov 3, 2013)

Don Haines said:


> Is there a way to change the file naming structure on Canon cameras?
> 
> All images are IMG_xxxx If you shoot more than 9999 pictures you get duplicate file names.



Not all Canon cameras, but on the 1-series bodies a custom naming convention can be used, although it's still limited to a four-character prefix. I changed mine to XX_#, where XX are my first and last initial, and I increment the # up when the counter hits 9999 (and the _ will be a number when I go over 100K images). So, I'm covered with sequential image numbers up to one million shots.


----------

