I've just ordered an a580

[gio67]

it will arrive next week, how will the numbering of my a700 photos be affected, are the numbers the same and do I have to convert them somehow,I have been using the date sequence on the a700

[Birma]

Hi Gio67 - not familiar with the 'date sequence' but id it alters the file name then perhaps you'll be ok. I use the basic DSCnnnnn.eee for files straight from the camera but store them in diferent folders and so it doens't get (too) confusing when I get a new Sony camera. Some upload porgrams (e.g. Lightroom) allow yoy to rename the files (e.g. add some text to the baci file name) when the files are uplaoded to your computer.

Hope you enjoy the new A580 - they seem very good value at the moment if you want an OVF Sony dSLR.

[gio67]

Hi Gio67 - not familiar with the 'date sequence' but id it alters the file name then perhaps you'll be ok. I use the basic DSCnnnnn.eee for files straight from the camera but store them in diferent folders and so it doens't get (too) confusing when I get a new Sony camera. Some upload porgrams (e.g. Lightroom) allow yoy to rename the files (e.g. add some text to the baci file name) when the files are uplaoded to your computer.

Hope you enjoy the new A580 - they seem very good value at the moment if you want an OVF Sony dSLR.

thanks Birma, I'll try and digest that later,
I could have got the a55 for £10 cheaper but decided against it mainly because of the reviews re the evf,I hope to go for the a77 a bit after it has been released, as some of the reports I've read are that it might still be in it's beta form on release,not that Sony would admit to that,
I am going to Thailand in November and wanted a camera with video for this trip,
although I have the Panasonic GF1 I usually only take that out at night on holiday therefore no video during the day,I'll keep my 700 as it's still my favourite camera

[Greg Beetham]

I had a problem when I bought my A700 also, the file names were the same as the A100. The date sequence would have probably still worked ok I think but there would be a possibility at some point of the A700 catching up to the A100 in file numbering. Then if using both cameras on the same day the same filenames would attempt to be downloaded into the same date folder, although I since found that Elements can create a different folder if there is a file number clash. (The A700 file numbers became the same anyway, jumped forward about 2000 frames, when I accidentally put an A100 memory card that I thought was unused into the camera, and there is no way of changing the camera back again, as far as I know)
It would have been handy if Sony had put the model name as a prefix on the front of the file number then there would not be an issue. Like A100xxxx.jpg, A700xxxx.arw etc. or A580xxxx.arw would be a simple solution I think, (maybe the Sony photo editing programs are designed to recognize Sony files with the DSC in front), I thought they were using FAT32 anyway, for the address range, they would have too I think, as memory cards are now larger than 4GB, Sony could have made the file name longer without any issues and still put the DSC in front surely, (i.e. DSCA100xxxx.jpg) unless the Sony program itself is only an 8 or 16bit program, and that doesn’t seem likely as it then wouldn’t be able to read the file allocation table on an 8GB card or a HD larger than 4GB.
But whatever, in the meantime what I did was just create A100 and A700 directories in windows explorer (like Birma did) on the HD and then when downloading use the ‘Browse’ button to navigate to the correct directory, that seems to work ok so far. You would have to as I did move all the files into the correct directories after you create the new ones and then ask the photo program to rebuild or add them as it will most likely loose the files it had before the change.
Greg

[gio67]

thanks Greg, this is getting more complicated by the minute to a confirmed luddite like myself