Camera picture count patterns?

[planetawylie]

Hi,

I'm creating a BlackBerry application for myself to help me take notes of pictures I take when out and about. I currently carry a paper notebook, but I want to move into the digital age and I pretty much always have my cellphone on me!

One of the fields I will capture is the picture/shot count number. Rather than enter it each time, I want to have it automagically increment for me each time I record an entry. I plan to have camera profiles in my app, which will then know what count pattern is used for each camera, and when I start shooting pictures, I will have chosen a profile to use.

I have a Nikon and a Canon, but I am unable to find any information on how the counter works. For example, how large will the number go before it wraps around, or changes. I had noticed on the Nikon it changes quite often when I'm taking large amounts of photos (just took 10,500 shots on a 6 month tour of Asia).

Does anyone know the patterns used or can point me in the right direction (apart from emailing Nikon/Canon support)?

Many thanks
Andrew

[Nicole]

Numbering may depend on how you have your camera set. If you have the numbering set to restart each time you put in a new card or reformat, your numbers probably won't wind up very high. If you have it set to continuous numbering, on Nikons (and probably Canons too), it resets after 9999.

One thing I'm wondering if you've considered... what happens if you don't want to take notes after every shot? How will your app address that if you're using automatic numbering?

[planetawylie]

Hi Nicole,

Thanks for the info and an excellent question!

Yes, I can see the situation where I may take a bunch of photos, of the same subject, and wish to record that as a range of shot numbers, eg. 0345-0400 [Taj Mahal, Sept 2009].

Or I may have forgotten my phone, or loaned the camera to someone else, and the application only knows the last shot counter value, so I would need to tell it to start from a different number.

I have to consider the reset/reformat scenario too.

I think I will likely make the application on startup, quiz me as to:
- Which camera am I going to use?
- Display the last known shot counter value and ask to confirm it, or change it.
- Provide a means to change the number.

Once in 'record shot mode', the interface needs to be fast enough - the least amount of clicks needed - so I will likely put a bunch of large icons on the 'record shot' screen, with options of:
- Single Shot
- Multi shot (for recording an entry against a range of numbers)

And since I am human and will make mistakes, allow myself to be able to change the values of single/multi shot entries afterwards, to break up singles into multiples and vice versa. This will be more difficult and I will need to think this one through....version 2!!

Cheers
Andrew