How to name video clips in camera?

[kdengs]

Hi,

 

This might be a total n00b question, but we can't figure it out and it's hurting my brain. Hoping someone can help.

 

We shoot multi-cam video on 2 separate a7s cameras. A lot of interviews and double coverage etc. What we are noticing is that when you format the SDXC card before the shoot it starts the record naming convention as: C0001.mp4, C0002.mp4, C0003.mp4 etc

 

The problem is that both of our cameras are doing this so we have identically named clips within our edit projects and it can become confusing. Is there a way to reset the naming convention of recorded media on the cameras? We can't figure out a way other than creating a new subfolder each time we use the camera.

 

On the Canon 5DMIII for example you can name the camera in the menu with unique ID and it's clip naming convention, so on a multi-cam shoot each camera would have it's own unique name.

 

Would love some insight. Thanks!

[LeButler]

Nothing in-camera that I know of, though:

 

Switching from Standard form to Date form (Menu - 5 - Folder name) will save you having to make a new folder manually. And if the importer you use includes the option to autoprefix the filename with the folder name, changing the form on just one of the two cameras will provide a fully automatic solution.

 

Otherwise, if you have a Mac with Yosemite, simply highlight all files and choose Rename to do them all at once (e.g., you'd replace the "C" with "CAM2"), or on a PC download any of the many “auto rename all files in a folder” utilities; CC Prelude can do this for you too.

[pmrphoto]

I use Lightroom to rename my files in that exact stuation.  I do multicams all the time in APP.  Works like a charm...

 

there is also a way to rename video clips (XAVC) files in Photo Mechanic but I haven't figured that out yet.

 

Now that the A6000 has the ability to capture in XAVC with the latest update and since the A5100 had it from the start, these make excellent 3rd & 4th cameras for similar edits... fyi...  pm-r