Canon 20D Creating Multiple Folders On CF Card???
 

It looks like the 20D writes to the CF card and creates multiple folders every 100 pics or so? Is there a way to set up the camera so that it only creates one folder. In otherswords if I take 500 pics I'd like them all written to a single folder on the CF card, not to 5 different folders. Thanks in advance for the help.

our digital rebel does this also, but it does it every shooting sessions...so if we take five pics and turn the camera off, then turnm it back on an hour later, it does it

did you check the manual?

You can set that in the menu. Just turn the option off.

Where would that be in the menu? I've been through every menu/submenu and I can't find anything to change it. Based on what I'm reading in the manual it doesn't look like it's even an option to change that setting. :helpme

Jake I stand corrected, I thought for sure when I looked at that camera it had the option in the storage setup menu. I just called Click here and they said it was not that particular camera that had the option.

They did say there was a numerical limit of pictures per folder, it's either 99 or 100, and each time you hit the limit a new folder is created. That and each time the camera is turned on and off.

He's calling me back if he finds a hack for it.

Yeah, that's basically what I've seen from messing around in the menus and reading the manual. Please let me know if you find a work around.

Wonder what the logic is behind creating a new folder every 100 pics? Sure as hell isn't very user friendly when it comes to working with the pics.

i didnt like it at first, but now i think it's a great organizing scheme

the more you shoot with it, the more you'll realize it !

I also couldn't find a fix for that yet, and I hate having to go through multiple folders.

It's a real pain in the ass! I can't imagine why the camera would be set up like this as a default with no options to change it. Anyone here have a hack for it?

I told you to buy the book on it some people dont listen lol

yeah ours does it too.
at first it annoyed me, but now i'm used to it.

Also there are 500 camera forums where guys know their shit backwards and forwards. Do a search they are not like GFY they are nice and patient. lol

this is a prob for everyone - i turn my cam off a lot too which makes it worse

Hmmmmmm, maybe it's time to go back to my trusty Sony 828.

Jake, I have the same issue, and in some aspects it is user friendly. I am not sure what size card you are using, but we have a 6 gig. Imagine trying to dump 6 gigs at the same time. this way, you can do a few folders, and not burn up the drive.

I have a couple 4GB cards but I'd prefer to spend an extra minute or 2 waiting for the pics to dump to the computer than spend 20 minutes trying to sort through a dozen or more folders from 3 or 4 different shoots.

There has got to be a way to change that setting. I just can't see how/why anyone would prefer the multiple folder option over a single folder.

it doesnt write a new folder everytime u turn the camera on/off!! that is not true

I stand corrected I apologize man I wish I was a amazon affiliate lol Also you could call canon they will help you if there is a way :)

I agree, but I think that this was the way they were thinking when they designed it. Is there any way that you have found to set it up to use different names? instead of IMG01 put something like 0001 0002

so fuckin kik ass!

:winkwink: Yeah, thought about calling Canon but I've done quite a bit of looking and it just doesn't seem to be an option. I doubt they'd turn me on to any "unauthorized hack" on this. My best bet is probably to check out some of the camera forums like you mentioned.

Thanks for the advice on the books by the way. The Magic Lantern one has been really helpful. :thumbsup

I haven't really tried changing anything related to the file names, that really doesn't bother me. It's this fuckng multiple folder thing that just seems like a big pain in the ass. :winkwink:

I guess that for now the option is to go with the select all, and drag and drop. I know about the pain in the ass it is. I shot about 300 photos in the streets a few weeks ago on a friday night, and had to go through all of the folders.

By the way, I sent you an email about Allie being the feature in the magazine.

While I agree its sorta a pain in the ass...I just select all and dump them to disk. Its not hard, and I don't have to be around for it.

Am I missing something here?

Ok let's say you do 4 different shoots on a card. You get home pop the card into the pc, dump the whole thing to your hard drive. Now your have 16 different folders (assuming approx 400 pic per shoot) that you need to go through cutting and pasting the pics from each folder into the appropriate folder for that shoot so that you end up with 4 folders (one for each shoot).

I'm assuming that most people have their photos organized by shoot, right?

E-mail received! :winkwink:

Great. thanks for taking the time to check it out.

A few mouse clicks :)

Jake I searched around for a while and couldn't find anything about how to change the internal settings on any of the big Canon forums. The crazy part is a ton of people are complaining about the same thing and Canon is not responding by offering a flash update.

On the Nikons, it's a matter of going into the menu and making whatever changes you need, which we had to do around shoot 3 using this new camera. Ours was set to create a new folder everytime you turned off the camera. Then I learned you didn't have to turn it off, it would basically go to sleep mode by itself based on a time setting. Pushing the shutter button down half-way woke it up, and I could continue on in the same folder :)

Huh. Suppose I'm odd because I use a mac, but...I just select all the pics in folder, and copy them to where I want. I have 4-6 copies going on at the same time, but thats fine.

Parallel vs seria :)

Yeah, I found the same thing on several of forums. Seems to be a lot of people wanting to write to a single folder on the card but just no way to do it. Seems really strange that they wouldn't at least give you the option to change that! Thanks for taking the time to look into it!

NP Man, never know when you'd be handed a camera somewhere and need to know how to use it, or someone at a show or wherever has a question like this :)

But yeah, it's obviously an issue amongst Canon shooters, and Canon hasn't come out with an update to the OS to handle it. I would say call or e-mail them and see if it's something planned for the next firmware release. That or ask Aaron about how he deals with it since he shoots with the same camera and has for a while. He may know the secret for which you are yearning an answer.

I've not tried this, but go into the menu option and turn off continious numbering. This way, it'll name all the images 1-whatever number you have. The problem this will create is if you're trying to save to teh same folder, you'll get the same numbers if you turn the power off and back on as it will reset itself back to #1

Again, this isn't tested (I'm too lazy to pull my cams out and try hehe) but give it a try. If you need help walking through it, let me know.

Jay

IMHO...Anybody who shoots more than one set on a card is asking for trouble anyway. :2 cents:

That's a great way to have a fuck up and lose a lot of content.

Shoot one set then download it.

And who the hell shoots 400 pics per set anyway? Jebus man.

I don't know about you but I shoot with the Canon 20D and the above statement is not true.

If you have a 20D and that is happening, you may want to see if you have the most recent firmware installed.

use the software that comes with the camera to download your pics

use Canon File Viewer Utility, and you can save them all in 1 folder when transferring from the card reader to the computer (i know you use a card reader, correct?)

I'm not sure if you didn't understand the first part of my post, or if you just picked up on that part from skimming?

but what I said was,

go to the camera setup, go to "File Numbering" option. It's set to "Continious" by default. Change that from Continious to "Auto Reset" and that should take care of your problem. Being that it's set to auto reset, when you power off the camera, it should start over simply cause it's auto reset.

Again to mirror what I said above, I've not tried it, but it makes logical sense to me. Continious will make it 1099>new folder 2000 so on and so fourth, where auto reset will go until you power the camera off. Once turning it off and back on, it will reset.

I read what was said.

Maybe I'm just special but my 20D does not reset when the power is turned off. And yes, I took it off continuous a long time ago.

Like I said,

I didn't test it, it SEEMED logical to me.

I just grabbed the manual (again too lazy to try it) on page 62 it says:

"The file numbering continues in sequence even after you replace the CF card. This prevents images from having the same file number, so image management with a personal computer is eaiser

Auto reset

Each time you replace the CF card, the file numbering will be reset to the first file number (xxx-0001). Since the file number starts from 001 in each CF card, you can organize images according to CF card."

So that leads me to believe that if you have a four gig card your numbering will start at 0001 and go up to 3k or however many it will hold.

Again, it's on page 62 of the manual.