It’s odd how some things happen it strange orders and then an idea comes out of it. This has just happened. Yes, I had an idea – no really! And that was to write this piece and hope it saves a few the time I wasted this afternoon. And this idea came from a combination of acquaintances discussing fiml cameras, an image of a Leica and having to find a specific set of photos.

Trust me, there is a connection.

With everything going almost completely digital in the video and photo universe, there has been spawned a major problem. I’ll get to it in a moment, but first some background for those who don’t remember ‘film’ (or ‘fillum’ for the Norman Gunston devotees. Kids, ask your Grandad or Nanna).

‘Film’ from a camera used to be sent off for processing into negatives and then made into ‘postcard’ size prints – or bigger if you were rich – and this process could take a day or weeks depending on the film type. Kodak for example was easy, but some odder types of Agfa say, could be gone so long you might forget about them.

As an aside, if you want a great ‘Spy Stuff’ story, real 007 type thing – read (or Kindle) Running Blind from Desmond Bagley. It’s a cracker of a read and revolves around a simple, everyday film canister. (You’ll need to ask the grandparents again kids)

Anyway, prints were obvious as to what they were; you could see them. But negatives used to be numbered and stored in translucent envelopes. If you wanted a reprint, you look up the negative strip to find the image (remembering it’s in negative) and its number, take it back to the photo shop and ask for a reprint.

And then you’d wait again.

Digital has changed all that. 100% of what we used to pay someone else for can be done at home with a basic computer and printer. The snag is, now that everyone takes photos from all sorts of devices, whereas the average person might have gone through at best 10 rolls of film a year (with 36 shots to a roll), the average today, especially from younger people, might be equivalent to a roll a DAY.

(That noise you can hear is the cumulative wailing of Messrs Kodak, Agfa, Ilford and Hanimex by the way).

But herein lays a major problem. Yes you can view images (or videos) that are stored on your hard disk (or in camera – I know people who NEVER download images!), but when you have hundreds or thousands of them, as the camera names the files with that obscure naming convention such as “_DSC_0001”, it can be a real PITA to find a specific set of images (or scenes in video) from say an event, and even worse, almost impossible for a single image (or scene).

Want to see this in action? If you on a Windows computer, do a search for “*.jpg” (ignore the “ character when you type in the search name) and see how many files and folders come up!

I had this very problem today; I had a set of still images from a video interview I had done, but for the life of me, put my hands on them. They were either on the computer, or still on one of about 20 SD cards I had. Eventually, after about an hour of wading through obscure JPEG file names, I did manage to find them.

But I thought, there HAS to be an easier way.

And there is. I found some software called “ReNamer” that allows you to rename your photos or clips in a batch process so that, for example, images _DSC_00001 to _DSC_00200 can be renamed in one operation as “Holiday_in_Spain_xxxxx” thus changing the prefix, but the suffix (numbering) convention remaining to show the correct sequence.

It’s easy enough then to make a folder called “Photos” or “Videos” and have sub folders for each set of snaps you have. At your leisure you can later selectively go through each download group, and delete all your donkey shots and just keep the ones you want. It means you can free up your SD cards (or camera memory) so that you always have room for photos and not have to delete something in the camera to make room!

And ReNamer is free. What could be better than that?

You can get it here. Tell 'em Auscam sent you!

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com