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Rename Images Based on Camera Serial Number During Ingest

If you’re ingesting multiple cards with images from various cameras, here’s how you can get Photo Mechanic to identify each camera in the image name.

First, we need to know what each of your camera’s serial numbers are.  You can customize your Info Text (Edit->Settings->Set Info Text…) and add this to your current Info Text:

Serial #: {snum}

Then open up a contact sheet with an image from each of your cameras.  Preview each image, make note of the serial numbers (you can copy and paste from the Info Text pane).  Copy each serial number and paste them each on a new line of text in a plain text file (use Notepad on Windows or BBEdit on macOS, they’re both free) like so:

000112543
545784
93E7J54

Now that you have each camera serial number on its own line, you need to add your desired names.  Put your cursor on each serial number and move your cursor to the end of the line.  Press the Tab key once to insert a tab.  Type in the name.  Repeat this for each serial number.  You should have something that looks like this:

000112543   pro2a
545784   5d3a
93E7J54   5d3b
000112754   pro2b

Save that file somewhere convenient.  Next, back in PM, open up the Code Replacement settings (Edit->Settings->Set Code Replacements…) and click the Add… button.  Find your file and choose it.  Then at the bottom of the Code Replacement dialog set your “Delimiter character:” to the equals sign: = and click the OK button.

Then in Ingest, set the “Rename Ingested photos as:” checkbox to checked.  In the text field below enter:

={snum}=_0{frame4}

That’s it!

Now when you Ingest, your camera’s serial number will be looked up from the photo being processed, and the name you gave that serial number will be substituted via Code Replacement (that’s the ={snum}= part), then you’ll have an underscore, a zero, and finally the frame number of the photo will be substituted.

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