A Simple Tip To Potentially Save You A Bit Of Aggravation

A sure sign of spring! (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1; Panasonic 35-100 f/2.8 lens @ 60mm; 1/6400th sec. @ f/2.8; ISO 400

If you currently use more than one digital camera, whether sophisticated or point-and-shoot, or if you plan to purchase more than one digital camera over the years, here is something you may want to think about doing to avoid potential aggravation with your digital files.

All digital cameras of which I'm aware, as a default factory setting, start both JPEG and RAW file names with the letters DSC (Digital Still Camera).  Normally, when first buying a camera, the first exposure you make will be named DSC0001 (a JPEG will be _DSC0001).  The second DSC0002, etc.  That naming convention is fine if you only use one camera and never plan to buy another digital camera.  It is when you buy a second digital camera that the trouble can start.

The next digital camera you buy will have the same file naming protocol.  Now, when you save your images to your computer, you'll have duplicate files.  In the future, if you buy a third or a fourth digital camera, you may have triplicate or more files of the same name.  
When saving files to your computer it may tell you that you already have files with those names and do you want to ignore them, rename them, delete them or overwrite them?  Don't make the wrong choice accidentally!

There are two easy solutions to this.  Most cameras today allow you to rename files to a custom designation of your choice.  Most allow you to create a three character prefix of your choosing.  The DSC is removed and you substitute your personal preference for those three characters.  That is what I do with every camera I own.  With each camera I've owned, upon first setting it up and right after I select the language, date, time and time zone, I've changed the file names for both JPEG and RAW recorded images.  In your camera's menu system will be an option to change file names and it will display a keyboard-like screen with lower case, upper case, numbers and special characters that you can assign to your files.  You can assign three.  Make sure you change both RAW and JPEG files.

Normally I choose something that has something to do with the particular camera in hand.  For example, an Olympus camera's files may be renamed to start with the letter O.  Fuji cameras with an F and Nikon cameras with a N.  With some cameras in the past, I've used the first letter of my last name instead.  For the second letter or number I use a letter or number that corresponds to the camera's model number or designation.  The third character I choose is the number '0."  I do that so the numerical sequence with the rest of the protocol will still start with file number 1 instead of file number 10001.  For example, for a Nikon Z7, I may choose this naming protocol: NZ00001.  Whatever I've done, I do my best never to have two cameras, past and present, with the same file naming convention.

There is a second option.  If you don't want to change the file naming in your camera, there is another way to change your file names to avoid confusion.  Many photographers choose this way instead.  The other method that is easily used is, upon import, to change the file names of those files you are currently importing.  Lightroom Classic allows this and I suspect most other editing programs allow it as well if there is some sort of database feature in the program.  You may want to change the file names according to year and date made, creating a sequence.  If you were to make 255 images on March 31, 2020, your files may look like this after import:  20200331-001 through 20200331-255.  You can assign any name you want upon import.  You might want to create file names reflecting family events, geographic locations, or other such designation which will allow you to instantly recognize what the files represent.  There is no limit to three characters.  You can name files just about anything you want.  Just choose a sequence protocol so your current import is numbered.

I've avoided confusion and made my life much easier as I've been practicing changing my files names since I first got into digital photography.  I can find files, distinguish between files, find all files by a particular camera, etc. and never have duplicates.

Just something I wanted to pass along in case you find it valuable.

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Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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