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Sony Importation's workflow - Driving me MAD !


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Hi everybody,
I've recently done a switch from Nikon to Sony and even if I'm happy for the most part, it seems like the most simple things to do ever are getting crazy complicated with Sony oO
Such as importing files on your laptop for example...

For instance, I'm a hybrid shooter. I've done photography for 10 years and brought the A7III to get more into video.
After testing different file management settings, I decided to save my pictures on the Card 2 and the footages on Card 1.

This allow me to get the best performance of the SD XC II and bigger storage for videos, and not damage my expensive SD XC II with simple pictures.

Another reason why I separate videos and pictures is because I noticed that everytime I'm formating the card, the footages naming system restart from number 1...
I'm filming mostly documentaries and working on different projects in the same time, and I can never plan how many footages I'll get in a day so I'm trying to empty my cards every night to get it ready for next day.
So my editing software (and myself) get crazy with 200 files named C0001.MP4... 
Also the Memory settings "M1, M2, M3, M4" are actually stored on the SD card and I'd like to keep them ?

I've found a walkaround to this problem by NOT formating the cards and just manually deleting the files after the copy. But this created another problem...

When deleting the files from the laptop and putting back the SD card in the camera, the Playback window still count the deleted files but consider them as "Unable to Display", which is normal because they are deleted... 

Off course I could delete it from the camera directly, but the deleting menu is so counter intuitive and take so much time, especially if I'm not able to export for few days, then the only way is deleting date by date, on both cards... And half of the time I got an error message... ?

"Writing to the memory card was not completed correctly. Recover data ?" (if they've been deleted already from laptop)

Soooo after all this extensive message, I would like to know how, you guys, manage to do something as SIMPLE as Importing your files, from a Sony camera ?

Thank you ??

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Transfer files. Batch rename.

I use number, subject, date. Any tags I apply to the file remain with the file. When retaining the camera file name, not only do you have identically named bunches of C0023.mp4 across your system EVERY C0023.mp4 file picks up the tag 'sculpture' even if it's a penguin.

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Edited by VTC
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I save my M1 - M4 files to my laptop. After I save my images to my hard drive, I then re-format my memory card, and copy my saved memory data files back to the re-formatted memory card. I have an a7rii. My memory (M1-M4) data files are located in the SETTING>7RM2N subfolder. The memory file names are CAMPRO01.DAT, CAMPRO02.DAT, CAMPRO03.DAT, and CAMPRO04.DAT. To be clear, that's a letter "O", then a zero "0", before the memory number (letters "CAMPRO"+zero "0"+"1.DAT"). Of course re-formatting is quicker, but you can also select all images at once, then delete all in-camera, which does not delete your saved memory data.

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21 hours ago, VTC said:

Transfer files. Batch rename.

I use number, subject, date. Any tags I apply to the file remain with the file. When retaining the camera file name, not only do you have identically named bunches of C0023.mp4 across your system EVERY C0023.mp4 file picks up the tag 'sculpture' even if it's a penguin.

It's quite a big extra step to do, but I guess it's one way of solving it...
Are you renaming in camera or on the computer ?

I guess you then have to manually enter the number to follow the previous sequence.
But this is probably the shortest way.

Edited by NoSpHieL
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11 hours ago, SnappyMilt said:

I save my M1 - M4 files to my laptop. After I save my images to my hard drive, I then re-format my memory card, and copy my saved memory data files back to the re-formatted memory card. I have an a7rii. My memory (M1-M4) data files are located in the SETTING>7RM2N subfolder. The memory file names are CAMPRO01.DAT, CAMPRO02.DAT, CAMPRO03.DAT, and CAMPRO04.DAT. To be clear, that's a letter "O", then a zero "0", before the memory number (letters "CAMPRO"+zero "0"+"1.DAT"). Of course re-formatting is quicker, but you can also select all images at once, then delete all in-camera, which does not delete your saved memory data.

I didn't find a way to delete all files at once on camera. I'll look for that ;)
Thanks

[EDIT] As I thought, apprently there is no way to delete all, only day by day... But it's already a step...
Source: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/61096618

Edited by NoSpHieL
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Renaming in the computer. A rename program will number /name them to any convention you choose. Set the parameters. Drag the files into the renamer. Bang. That's it. Takes 15 seconds at most.

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3 minutes ago, VTC said:

Renaming in the computer. A rename program will number /name them to any convention you choose. Set the parameters. Drag the files into the renamer. Bang. That's it. Takes 15 seconds at most.

 

Nice I will definitely try this out ;)
So you are for formating the card anyway, on camera or laptop but just let it restart the counter and rename it when you import ?

Maybe I can script something with Hazel or Automator, to copy the M1,2,3,4 → Format →Put back the settings files in ?

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Yeah. Formatting destroys custom settings but there's a solution for this.

PRIVATE>SONY>SETTING>7SM2N (My camera)> CAMPR001.DAT.

That's the file that holding custom settings. Save it to your computer so you can copy it to the card after formatting and you can avoid the reconfiguration tango.

 

 

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Personally, I've always avoided making changes to a memory card from the computer. The "unable to display" error is minor. I always worry something worse might happen. I always format the card in camera after copying files onto my computers.

The name sequence restart is inconvenient, but there are ways to minimize it.

After import to your files to the computer, batch rename them. Another post mentioned app for this. If you are using a Mac, that feature is built in to the OS. Just select all the files, right click and choose "rename" for the contextual menu.  There are few options, including "format." This will let you set a custom name with index numbers. The whole process takes seconds. I'm sure Windows has something similar.

Another option is to simply use folders. Place today's images in a folder with today's date. Download tomorrow's images into a new folder with that date, etc.  That still gives you multiple C001, C002, etc. However, they are separated into dated folder. They can also be batch renamed easily prior to starting your edit.

 

 

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