Importing using cable and renaming

[Stefan Cherrug]

I have used Adobe Bridge for many years but lately experienced extreme sluggishness and slow performance. Have downloaded the trial of Photo Mechanic Plus and need some advice. Using Bridge when importing images with cameras connected to my Mac with cable I could rename my raw files as "20230603_0001" and simultaneously convert to dng. I would like to rename exactly as this, date without scores and replacing my original raw-files. Is this, importing using camera connected with cable, renaming and coverting to dng replacing original raw-files, possible in Photo Mechanic Plus? I have tried myself and looked through several tutorials but could'nt find out how to do. Using Canon R5 and 5D Mark IV connected with cable on iMac.

[Bob Russell]

Hello Stefan,

You will need to use a card reader for the memory cards before Photo Mechanic will be able to access the files. The Ingest utility from the File menu is typically used to copy the image files from the memory cards.  You can rename the files during the copy process. For you example, use {datesort}_{seqn} in the Rename field. Click the Set Sequence variable button to preset the value to 0001. Once the images have been copied to your local drive, you can select all and then use the Convert RAW to DNG option from the Tools menu. You will need to have a copy of Adobe's DNG Converter installed before you can use this utility. The new DNG files can be saved to the same folder or you can create a new folder by unchecking the box to Output to source folder.

regards,

--Bob

[Stefan Cherrug]

Thank you for replying! Is there a way (as in Adobe Bridge) to automatically erase the original files when converted to dng in Photo Mechanic?

[Bob Russell]

Hi Stefan,

My apologies for the delay in this update. There isn't any auto delete original file option for the Convert RAW to DNG utility.  There is a nice keyboard shortcut that will delete the selected group without any confirmation dialog. Your original files should still be selected on the contact sheet after the Convert process is done. Just use the Command-Option-Delete Mac shortcut and the selected files will be moved to the Trash, if they are on a local drive. If the original files are on a networked volume, then they will be deleted without being moved to the Trash. If you have a Windows machine, then use the Control-Shift-Delete shortcut.

Best regards,

--Bob