cornhillfarm

Don't know about Canon but Nikon cameras allow you to disable Set File Name Sequence to zero on format. With it disabled, file names run on from card to card. Not a solution for OP'S current stack of cards but it will solve the issue in future if Canon cameras support it. In addition Nikon cameras allow changing the default file name prefix from _DSC. My D500 file names begin with D500 and my D700 with that. Avoids the unlikely occasion when cards from two different cameras have the same file number.

Renaming on import, as many PP apps support, has the disadvantage of using a useful file name for rubbish which will be culled and deleted.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Not renaming on import has the disadvantage of using a rubbish file name for good files that will be used for a long time, inhibiting their recognizability for the future.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

when using the Photos Program on your mac you can separate the files easily. At the top of the Photos window you can select, Photos/Moments/Collections/Years. Even if you downloaded file after file from separate cards, by selecting Collections it should separate all of the files back into each individual downloaded card. I guess you know by now to at least give a separate file name to your different cards

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

For now, I think that F8Lee's suggestion will work the best. When moving the files, and you get the message, just choose the option to keep both. Then they will each have a different file name.

Later, when you have less work to do, when moving images over is done, you can always change file names to accommodate whatever you decide on for a naming format. Many will use a date system, others will use a word system, I use the numbers out of the camera, with changes that reflect the camera used [I have 2]. If it is a different version of an image I usually add -1 or -2, etc., or if a special technique was used, at the end of the file name I include terms like HDR, pan [Panorama], comp [Composite], etc.]

Don't know specifics about Canon, but for Nikon, I can go into the camera's menu and set the pre-fix to the file number. This is where I change it in each camera to reflect what camera it is. After images are imported, when I edit them I can go into the metadata in LR and add my special notations at the end.

Hope this helps.

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

All of my Nikons restart the numbering after rolling over 9999 so eventually your D700 will produce another _D7000001 or D700_0001 depending on your color space.

jcboy3

Rename your files as soon as you get them off the card. Use a naming scheme that helps you know where and when the images were taken. How you do it depends on which apps you are using.

In my case, I use Lightroom. I copy the files off the card into folders that I have created that have the date and event/location for the photos (in YYMMDD-EVENT@LOCATION format). For portrait sessions, I use the client name as the event. I then import and rename the files using FOLDER-SEQUENCE preset. If it's a shoot with a lot of different people, I put the each persons name in the Caption field, and then rename using a FILENAME-CAPTION preset.

As an enhancement, if you get another camera and start shooting with multiple cameras, I assign different base names to each camera so the file names aren't duplicated. Then I can dump all of the photos from multiple cameras into the same folder, import, sort by capture time and then rename. This merges the photos into a time ordered sequence (as long as I remember to synchronize clocks on the cameras before the shoot).

cornhillfarm

I should have added that I import to Photo Mechanic, delete the rubbish and then rename only the keepers.

jcboy3

Not sure why having a useful file name is an issue even if the image is rubbish. I rename files and get them into collections so they don't go missing. I can then start processing and export files before I'm done without problems. I don't bother renaming after culling; but I do rename HDR and Pano sequences by setting the root file name of the group to the first file name with an additional sequence added. This way, I don't lose track of which files went into the final image. I assign a rating of 1 to those files, and keep them.

When I'm done processing, everything that has been marked as reject or still has zero rating gets deleted.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

If you're using Lightroom DAM, the name of the file is irrelevant. Probably with other DAM programs also. Where having a useful file name is important is with your family photos.

If you're like me, you have keyworded the heck out of your images and can find things from decades back without any problem using LR searches. But I'm not going to live forever. And when I kick off, my photopile will be completely useless to my family unless I have useful names on the files. None of my family uses LR and wouldn't have a clue how to search for something using keywords or metadata. But they all (except for a couple of pre-computer people) know how to look for files by name.

This may be less of an issue in the future, as computer searches will become more capable of including tags and metadata in searches (although that will be something that will have to be optional, because otherwise the search return volume will increase dramatically, making it harder to search through the search results).

jcboy3

I use the file name when dealing with clients; they can reference a file by name if they want other products.