Pentax Filing

As far as i know, Pentax has two formats of filing, STD and Date. I hve been using date filing for a while, but when I turn off the camera and them use it later, my pictures are stored in the one file that was created. Is there a setting, which will create a new file for new picures or can I manually create one? I am using the K10D. If not, would I have to use the STD format?

New directories on the card are controled by the number of shots taken when in Standard mode and also the date in Date mode.

In standard mode directories will be called 100PENTX then when there are 999 pictures in directory (on one card) it will change to 101PENTX (and so on up to 999PENTX)

In date mode directories will be called 100_MMDD (where MMDD are the month and day numbers) if you take more than 999 pictures in one day OR the date changes (on the same card) then directory changes to 101_MMDD, 102_MMDD... up to 999_MMDD. So the MMDD of your 101 directory may or may not be the same as the MMDD of your 100 directory.

When changing cards (to one containing no data) directory numbering will restart from 100PENTX or 100_MMDD depending on selection, otherwise the directory number will be controlled by the directories and number of files on the card and mode selected on camera

There is no camera feature to force a new directory (ie before it contains 999 pictures or date changes) on the same card. I guess that if you put the card into a computer and created a 101_MMDD directory with the same MMDD as your 100_MMDD directory then it would use the 101 directory even if there were not 999 pictures in the 100 directory.

If you want to start a new directory every time you turn the camera on then the easiest thing to do would be to have lots of (small) cards - but I think that would be, wasteful of space, expensive, and a nightmare to keep control of.

Is there any way of making every frame have a different file name whatever directories are made? Or must they repeat in each directory?

You can set the file name to include a number which increments with the shutter count which gives every picture a different name.

Thanks - I'll sus that out. I sometimes leave files on my SD card and am too lazy to sort out which ones I've already transferred.

Unique file names mean that my file handler, Directory Opus would flag files I'd already tranferred and save me having to think.

As the old saying goes, you can force me to go to school but you can't make me think.