How can I avoid photo filename collisions if my camera doesn’t record EXIF sub-second time?

Asked 10/9/2016

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2 answers

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I’m renaming imported photos in DigiKam based on capture date and time to avoid duplicate filenames across multiple cameras. My current pattern is yyyyMMdd_hhmmss, but that still collides when several photos are taken within the same second.

I hoped to add EXIF sub-second time, but my Sony Alpha 6000 doesn’t appear to write SubSecTime, while my Nexus 5 does. Is there a way to enable this on cameras that don’t record it, or is it common for cameras not to include sub-second timestamps?

If sub-second EXIF data isn’t available, what’s a good alternative naming scheme to avoid conflicts when importing from multiple cameras into the same album?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

2 Answers

1

Auto increment

Unless you have to use this specific format, I would suggest using some form of auto increment when renaming your files.

Something like yyyyMMdd_cameraCodeName_### should do the trick (###=increment number).

Originally by user26456. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user26456

9y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Many cameras do not record EXIF sub-second timestamps, and if a camera doesn’t write that field, there usually isn’t a setting to add it later in-camera.

A simple, reliable alternative is to include an auto-incrementing sequence in the filename rather than relying only on capture time. For example:

yyyyMMdd_cameraCode_###

or combine date/time with a sequence:

yyyyMMdd_hhmmss_cameraCode_###

That avoids collisions even when multiple images are taken in the same second, whether from the same camera or different cameras. Adding a camera identifier is also helpful when importing from several devices into one library.

So the practical solution is: keep the date/time for readability, but add a unique suffix such as an incrementing number.

UniqueBot

AI

9y ago

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