[ron espina]

Hello everyone,

I have 3 different cameras, 20D,5D,5DII, and Since the 32 Compact flash cards arrived, I am running into a lot of trouble downloading all files into 1 "(specific folder for each wedding , event, portrait session)". I use 2 or 3 cameras at any (event Wide angle 24, Fix lens 85, Zoom70-200). The problem is the three cameras have the same folder numbers and file numbers and now my DownloaderPro is having problems beacuse of that situation. DLPro tells me the files already exit in that one specific folder. or tells me the size is different??? its just so confusing I dont even know what to do? :(

can someone please tell me what can i do?? What are you guys doing on your end to solve this matter? I did try mapping and now it wont even download the photos??

I am wondering If Downloader can change the name of the batch every time I have a new card inserted in my PC? so it will rename as it goes example ( John&Mary Wedding 000001)???
I know its confusing but its difficult to explain and more frustrating in my end =( Please help me =)

thanks everyone
ron

[Chris Breeze]

The best way to handle multiple cameras is to use the camera name mapping function to identify each camera by model and/or serial number and use this to add a different prefix to the filenames from each camera. This will ensure that filenames from one camera will be different from the other cameras.

[DavidB]

Ron

Standard Canon file numbers are not a good means of ensuring uniqueness in file naming, because, even with the default continuous file numbering, they roll over after 9999. Switching off continuous file numbering in the camera immediately makes the problem much worse.

Chris is undoubtedly right when he says that camera mapping with {T8} and {T9} is the best way to deal with multiple cameras, but this is slightly complex, and you will need to read the help page on camera name mapping rather carefully. However, once you have successfully mapped your cameras to use {T8} and {T9}, you will have the basis of a very robust naming scheme.

An easier, but less robust, alternative is to use {T} or {T1} to identify the camera model. As your cameras are all different models, this would work for you now, but would break down if ever you used two cameras of the same model.

You can also have DL Pro ask for a Job Code on startup; with the {J} token, this would provide the 'John and Mary wedding' part of your file name. However, to be safe, I'd add more than a sequence number to a Job Code to get the complete file name.

For what it's worth, my standard file naming scheme has been

{d}_{T}_{q}-{r}

for some years now, even though {q} is problematic with my 5D, because it does not save the folder number in metadata. I normally save files in dated folders, and often name the folder (after the date, which provides convenient ordering) to indicate its contents. That allows me to use {J} for standard captions, and I normally add keywords and some IPTC data on download as well; all of these help with subsequent identification of images.

I hope that, with Chris's post, this gives you some useful initial thoughts.


David


P.S. After some unfortunate experiences, I tend to use separate sets of cards for each camera; this can make downloading and organising images from different cameras easier to control. At the very least I would ensure that images from only one camera are on a card at any one time, which usually means that you have to delete files as soon as they have been downloaded.