Nikon's Transfer

[Jason]

Don't think this is possible, but wanted to ask. My wife uses a Canon P&S as her carry around all the time camera. Its small and takes wonderful images. The software that came with that camera does a neat little thing when downloading images.

NO matter how many images are on the card, when downloading, it creates a subfolder for each date the images were taken on. I LOVE this feature. For taking images of my daughter, it sure helps keep track of the date and is an easy way to go and look for a certain event as each folder is dated.

Now...can Nikon's Transfer be set up to create a folder that has all images taken on the same date, and then for another day, another folder with those images, etc... I have looked and don't see anything other than creating 1 folder with the date you downloaded them.

 

[Mike Buckley]

I don't use Transfer any more and don't remember if it has that capability.

IDimager Systems sells a download product that is the same as the download tool that is part of the IDimager Personal edition. It costs only $29.00 and its default download configuration does exactly what you want. It has a 30-day free trial. http://www.idimager.com/downloads/products

 

[lbasden]

A free program called FastStone Image Viewer can also set up sub-folders when downloading images from a camera or card. The sub-folders can be by date (e.g., 2010-12-29) or a few other date-type formats (year\month, year\month\date, etc.). You might want to take a look at it.

 

[Mike Buckley]

No other software is able to do all these mentioned tasks within one step.

Not sure what you mean by "one step." IDimager can do it within one download among many folders using one configuration that is applied to all image files stored on the memory card. It reads the metadata stored in the file by the camera to create the various folder names while also making all of the user-provided metadata changes.

 

[Mike66]

I no longer use Nikon Transfer since the latest version of ViewNX2 has this feature included. The VNX2 import feature will allow you to create unique folders and rename images as the images are imported based on the EXIF data. The pop-up box has several tabs: one is for the folder properties, and the other is for the file properties. Once you decide on a format, subsequent sessions are easy to configure. I don't know if this works for transfers from the camera via USB, but I use a separate card reader and it works fine.

I always use this feature when importing my images, and if the card has images that span several days, VNX2 will create folders for each day. For example, the format I use for my image renaming is YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-Subject. The format I use for the folder is YYYMMDD-Subject.

In cases where I take bracketed images for HDR processing, there are usually several images with the same HHMMSS information. In these cases, VNX2 automatically appends "_XX" at the end of the file name.

 

[hornagain]

I no longer use Nikon Transfer since the latest version of ViewNX2 has this feature included. .

So the "Transfer" in View NX2 is a different app than the stand-alone Nikon Transfer"?

 

[Mike66]

So the "Transfer" in View NX2 is a different app than the stand-alone Nikon Transfer"?

I haven't used Nikon Transfer in so long that I can't remember what features it has. However, the first time I used VNX2, I was surprised with the pop-up transfer window. Based on that, it is likely safe to say that the functions are different.

 

[Omar]

Don't think this is possible, but wanted to ask. My wife uses a Canon P&S as her carry around all the time camera. Its small and takes wonderful images. The software that came with that camera does a neat little thing when downloading images.

NO matter how many images are on the card, when downloading, it creates a subfolder for each date the images were taken on. I LOVE this feature. For taking images of my daughter, it sure helps keep track of the date and is an easy way to go and look for a certain event as each folder is dated.

Now...can Nikon's Transfer be set up to create a folder that has all images taken on the same date, and then for another day, another folder with those images, etc... I have looked and don't see anything other than creating 1 folder with the date you downloaded them.

Yes, I can verify that Transfer creates a new folder for each date automatically. It did it in the old stand-alone version and also does it in the version built into ViewNX2.

Under the Primary Destination tab, choose Edit. In the middle box, choose "date shot". I have mine set for Prefix: none, Middle: date shot, suffix: new name. Each time I upload, I only have to modify the the suffix. Even though it shows today's date in the example, Transfer will create a new folder for each date on the card when set up this way.

BTW, I set the date format as yyyymmdd so that the folders will display in order of event when using normal file browsers.

 

[Omar]

It would be a piece of crap if it could not read out the camera EXIF-Data.
What I was writing about were the abilities to simultanously:
1. Copy the selected images into a dedicated folder
2. Rename the files to a dedicated structure/pattern
3. Apply predifined IPTC-data to each file
4. Manage thoses IPTC/XMP-datasets to Be used everytime a transfer is started
5. Store those renamed files including the applied metadata/IPTC/XMP within every transferred file
6. Copy each transferred file into a dedicated backup-folder, that can Residenz on a physically different location, eg. network-drive, external hd, which has to accessed independently from the destination of the renamed and transferred files i.e two seperate I/O-processes, which do run as single tasks.

All of these tasks are executed by hitting the "Transfer-Button" only one time - no further clicks are needed.

I am doing all that with Nikon's Transfer utility right now, including backup copies to a separate drive (can even be a network drive). For my 2 week vacation last summer, I didn't even need to edit the folder and file names. Normally, I just change the folder name and file name a bit to be relevant to the subject matter. I sometimes also add relevant keywords prior to starting the transfer.

 

[Omar]

Thank you Omar
You proved, what I was writing about, how Transfer works

tom

I misread your first post then. I understood you to say that Transfer isn't able to do all this and create separate folders for each day, if there are multiple days on the card. I can clarify that Transfer can indeed do that. I did it the other day with Christmas pictures from two different days. Transfer automatically put them into two separate folders.

Something else Transfer does is it gives you the choice of deleting the pictures on the card as it copies them, or just leaving them. If you leave them, and just shoot some more (don't reformat on camera), Transfer recognizes that you have already copied the earlier sessions and only copies over the fresh pictures. Very nice, and very convenient in certain circumstances.

 

[Mike Buckley]

All of these tasks are executed by hitting the "Transfer-Button" only one time - no further clicks are needed.

Yes, IDimager does all of that as you described.

 

[Mike Buckley]

I believe I understood you the first time, Tom. Perhaps and perhaps not.

 

[MX727]

Don't think this is possible, but wanted to ask. My wife uses a Canon P&S as her carry around all the time camera. Its small and takes wonderful images. The software that came with that camera does a neat little thing when downloading images.

Now...can Nikon's Transfer be set up to create a folder that has all images taken on the same date, and then for another day, another folder with those images, etc... I have looked and don't see anything other than creating 1 folder with the date you downloaded them.

As Omar said, the answer to your question is YES.

When you open Transfer, Open Options if it isn't and then select the Primary Destination Tab
Select "Create a subfolder for each transfer"
Don't type anything in the box, but click on the Edit button next to it.

That will bring up the folder naming dialog.

Select None for Prefix, None for the first separator. In the large middle drop down box, select Date Shot. None for the next separator and None for the Suffix.

In the lower part of the window you can select the date format. I don't add a trailing number.

Click OK

Back on the main options Tab, you can click the box for Rename photos during transfer and then click the Edit button next to the box. You can figure out what works for you here.

One trick if you are ever shooting more than one camera at an event is to rename the photos with a descriptive prefix and then use the Date/Time shot for the middle part. If your camera clocks are set correctly, the sequence of photos will be correct, or fairly close.

 

[Palouse]

Thanks Todd--that answered all my questions. Cant wait until tomorrow so I can try it out!

 

[Jason]

Thanks to everyone for replying. Looks like it will do what I thought it couldn't do.