tagging photos in camera

July 3, 2009 3:20 PM

Sub DSLR cameras that allow you to change the filename prefix or tag all photos with an alphanumeric string you can set?

I've got teams of people taking photos in many different locations and then handing off their SD cards to someone who will import them. I'd like to automate the import so that human intervention of looking at each photo and putting it in a proper directory won't be required. Ideally, we'd be able to sort photos by a 4 digit code embedded in an iptc/xmp tag or in a filename prefix. Is there a camera under $300 that does this?

posted by machaus to technology (11 comments total)

You can probably do it with a canon point and shoot running CHDK...but honestly, if you have a mac you can use automator to do this for you...or if you use linux a simple perl script...
posted by iamabot at 4:03 PM on July 3

You can do this with many pieces of software. The camera doesn't have to do it. I'd look at Lightroom or iView Media Pro (now called Expression Media). There's also hardcore solutions made by Extensis, Camera Bits and others, but I don't have any experience with them.
posted by Magnakai at 4:09 PM on July 3

that's just it, we'll have several locations of photos on one card and no way to know what location they came from without looking at each photo. this has to be done in-camera. scripts and software won't help.
posted by machaus at 4:13 PM on July 3

Many Cameras including my A590 and IS3 allow you to create numbered folders (In picture mode: Menu -> Right to the second menu tab -> down to "create folder"). Only takes a few seconds. When you create a new folder new images are filed in that folder until you create another folder. I think you are limited to 999 per card. On my a590 you can also set it to automatically create new folders every day, week or month.
posted by Mitheral at 4:22 PM on July 3

I think the setting you'll want to to be able to set is the copyright EXIF tag. Each photographer could change it to their name and then you could sort using that. Here's an article on how to do it, but it doesn't specify which cameras (other than "most") let you do this.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 4:28 PM on July 3

Mitheral, so on your Powershot, can you name that folder something like "2243" ?
posted by machaus at 4:34 PM on July 3

Unfortunately no, it just names the folder sequentially starting at 100.

What you could do is have users start their session with a photo of a card with whatever information you need written on it. Either in conjunction with folders or just stand alone (because you can set camera picture names to always increment until they wrap around).

You'd still have to look at an image but it would just be one easily identifiable image per folder. And Rename Master will make quick work of putting what ever you want in the file name after.
posted by Mitheral at 5:26 PM on July 3

With how cheap flash memory is these days, can they just carry a few smaller cards and change them out when they get somewhere new? On the card itself, put a small piece of scotch tape, then use a sharpie to write a number on it.
Then they can use a piece of paper and jot down the number and a description of what they just shot on that card. When they give you the cards, they give you their notes with what is on each card.
posted by Climber at 5:50 PM on July 3

Canon's EOS software includes something about naming individual cameras and thus the pictures that they take are marked. I didn't look into it extensively but do remember seeing this exact scenario discussed in the program documentation. EOS software will work with most (all?) of canon's EOS line.
posted by odinsdream at 6:52 PM on July 3

The photos will still be numbered sequentially by the camera, and the EXIF embedded data will include the date and time of that exposure. Doesn't this give you enough to separate them by location? Is there some way that the camera goes back and forth among locations, such that sorting them by date and time wouldn't also group them by location?
posted by TruncatedTiller at 8:14 AM on July 4

Nikon DSLRs can create an active folder named however you like to take all incoming pictures. You can change this on the fly. I don't use this feature particularly and since it has no effect on image quality, it's not often mentioned in reviews. Best to look into camera manual pdfs, search for "folder" and verify this feature or some variant of it exists. Confirmed the D40 (cheapest Nikon DSLR) has this feature on page 85 in the manual. Every other Nikon DSLR refers to it specifically as "Active Folder."

It does not appear as an option in the Nikon prosumer P90. The Canon prosumer SX10 IS mimics the same feature Mitheral mentioned. Haven't looked in Panasonic, Olympus or Pentax.
posted by liquoredonlife at 11:53 AM on July 4