Select the 'File->Preferences...' menu item or press Ctrl+P to display the 'Preferences' dialog.
The download directory is the base directory for where images are downloaded to the computer. Press on the "..." button to browse for a new directory. The actual directory where the files are downloaded can be modified using the various tokens listed on the dialog. The default setting is "C:\Photos\%d" which will download the images to separate folders according to the date when the photo was taken.
Here are some alternatives you might find useful:
| Download directory | Description | Example |
| C:\Photos\%T\%d | use the camera model and date the photo was taken | C:\Photos\10D\20030416 |
| C:\Photos\%1-%2-%3 | use today's date i.e. the download date not the date the picture was taken | C:\Photos\10D\20030417 |
| %u\%d | the date the picture
was taken + "My Pictures" folder Note: %u gives "My Documents" not "My Pictures" with some versions of Windows |
C:\Documents and Settings\chris.TYPHOON\My Documents\My Pictures |
| C:\Photos\%Y\%Y-%m-%D | use the year, month and day the photo was taken (this is the one I use) | C:\Photos\2003\2003-04-16 |
| C:\Photos\%d %J | use the job code and the date the image was taken | C:\Photos\20030416 Katy's birthday |
| C:\Photos\%O\%d | use the camera owner string (Canon cameras only) and date | C:\Photos\Chris Breeze\20030416 |
| C:\Photos\%c\%d | use the camera serial number (Canon digital SLRs only) and date | C:\Photos\0230104671\20030416 |
The filename can also be specified using these tokens. The default setting is %o which keeps the original filename. Here are some alternatives you might find useful:
| Filename | Description | Example |
| %d_%o | prefix the original filename with the date the photo was taken | 030214_IMG_0123.JPG |
| %q_%o | prefix the original filename with the folder number on the memory card | 678_IMG_0123.JPG |
| %q-%r_%f | use Canon ZoomBrowser style naming where the image name is prefixed with the folder number | 678-0123_IMG.JPG |
| %J%d_%o | prefix the original filename with the job code and the date the photo was taken | Katy's birthday 20030416_IMG_0123.JPG |
| %d_%t_%r1 | date and time the image was taken plus the last digit of the image number to avoid duplicate file names when shooting at more than 1 frame per sec | 031029_223015_7.JPG |
| %d_%H%M_%r2 | date and time (hours and minutes) the image was taken plus the last two digits of the image number to avoid duplicate file names when shooting several pictures each minute | 031029_2230_18.JPG |
| %i_%o | prefix the filename with the ISO setting. Useful when post processing images based on the ISO setting e.g. NeatImage | 400_IMG_0123.JPG |
The example image name display at the bottom of the dialog shows how the download directory, filename and job code settings are combined.
The job code provides a useful way for organising your photos as you download them. The job code can be included in the download directory or filename using %J. When "Prompt for job code every time Downloader is run" is selected you get the opportunity to edit the job code before downloading your images.
For example you might set the download
directory to be "C:\Photos\%d %J" then enter a
description of the event in the job code. Then when you take
photos of your daughter's birthday party you could enter "Katy's
birthday" for the job code and the files will automatically
be stored in a directory with the date and description e.g.
"C:\030220 Katy's birthday\IMG_0001.JPG". The next set
of photos you take might be on holiday and so you could enter
"Skiing 2003" when you download them.
Professional photographers can use the job code to enter a unique
code for each job and add it to download directory and the name
of each photo to make identification easier.
The shooting data can be used with the following image formats: JPEGs and TIFFs from all digital cameras, Canon raw files (CRW and TIF), Nikon NEF raw files, Fuji RAF raw files, Olympus ORF raw files, Pentax PEF raw files, Minolta MRW raw files, Canon AVI movie files
The "Image Source" section lets you specify whether Downloader should download from a camera or from a card reader.
To use a card reader you must also specify
the drive letter associated with the card reader. If you are
unsure of the drive letter to use, simply insert a memory card in
your card reader and press the "Locate card reader"
button and Downloader will fill this in automatically.
You can specify one drive letter, several drive letters or a
range of drive letters. Use a hyphen to specify a range of drive
letters e.g. G-I to specify drives G, H and I. Downloader will
scan the drive letters in the order defined until it finds a
drive containing images.
Downloader can download directly from Canon cameras via the USB or FireWire cable. In order to do this you must install the appropriate Canon drivers. The latest drivers can be downloaded from www.powershot.com. If more than one camera is connected to your computer when Downloader starts up it will display a dialog to allow you to choose which camera to connect to. You can run more than one copy of Downloader at the same time and simultaneously download from several cameras.
If you select the auto-detect option Downloader will attempt to connect to a camera first, and it this fails it will then try to access a card reader using the drive letters defined in the dialog.
The "Save files as read-only" checkbox controls whether the read-only flag is set when files are downloaded. Setting files to read-only is a useful precaution against accidentally deleting files or overwriting them when editing.
The "Ignore file size check" checkbox is useful if you download some files, rotate them in an editor and then download some more files. Lossless rotation of JPEG images in applications such as BreezeBrowser changes the file size slightly and this causes Downloader to display these images as "Size different". The "auto-rotate" JPEG option will also cause the file size to change.
The "Auto-rotate JPEG" option will automatically rotate JPEGs which rotated in the camera. An increasing number of cameras have a built-in sensor which detects whether the image was taken in landscape or portrait format and writes this information in the EXIF shooting data. Downloader reads this information and can automatically rotate the JPEG so that it is displayed with the correct orientation in other apps. The "Ignore file size check" option is automatically selected when "Auto-rotate JPEG" is selected to prevent images being displayed as "Size Different" after downloading and rotating.
Some digital cameras use .jpe as the file extension for JPEG images. This can be very inconvenient as most applications expect JPEGs to have a .jpg file extension. Use the "Rename files with .jpe extension" option to automatically rename these files to give them a .jpg file extension when they are downloaded.
The filenames of images on memory cards are always in upper case. Select "Convert filenames to lower case" if you prefer the downloaded files to use lower case letters. Select "Lower case file extensions" if you want just the file extension to be converted to lower case e.g. IMG_0123.JPG would be downloaded as IMG_0123.jpg.
By default Downloader Pro uses the file timestamp for date and time information but this can be different from the image capture time when taking long continuous sequences of images because some cameras set the file's timestamp to the time the image was written to the memory card not the time the image was taken. Select the "Use image capture time for file timestamp" to avoid this problem when downloading from a card reader or directly from a camera. When this option is selected Downloader Pro will read the image capture time from the image's shooting data and use it for the timestamp. This option can be slower than using the file's timestamp.
Select "Generate text file containing EXIF shooting data" to create a text file file containing a summary of the image's shooting data. The text file is given the same name as the source image but with a .txt extension e.g. IMG_0001.JPG will give IMG_0001.txt.
Some versions of Windows (Windows 2000 and Windows XP) can cause problems when using a card reader if the card isn't "ejected" before it is removed. This is because Windows doesn't write data back to the card reader immediately so it is possible to remove one memory card and insert another before the data from the first card has been saved. This can result in the directory from the first card overwriting that of the second card making the images on the second card inaccessible. To avoid this it is always a good idea to "eject" the card first before removing it. This doesn't actually physically eject the memory card from the card reader but it does prepare it for removal. You can get Downloader to automatically "eject" the memory card from the card reader when it disconnects from it by checking this checkbox.
By default Downloader only looks for images stored according to the DCF standard where the root directory is \DCIM and the images are stored in subdirectories with 8 character names starting with 3 digits (e.g. 123CANON). Some cameras don't follow this standard but you can still use Downloader with them by setting "Scan whole disk for known image types".
Downloader can automatically add NAA/IPTC
data to images as they are downloaded. To do this select the
"Add NAA/IPTC data to downloaded images" checkbox.
Please see the NAA/IPTC
data page for more details. Select
the "Prompt for NAA/IPTC data every time Downloader is run"
checbox if you would like the NAA/IPTC data dialog to be
displayed whenever Downloader is run.
Important note adding IPTC data to Nikon NEF raw files:
Some raw converters are unable to convert raw files after IPTC
data has been added by Downloader Pro. Please check very
carefully that your raw converter is able to convert Nikon NEF
raw files after adding IPTC data before deleting
the images from the memory card. IPTC data will not be added to
Nikon NEF files unless "Enable writing of IPTC data to Nikon
NEF raw files is set".
You can setup Downloader to automatically download files, delete the downloaded files, launch the custom application and exit when it is started up. To enable automation click on the File menu, select Preferences and click on the Automation tab. Then select the actions you wish to be automated.
When automation is enabled a dialog is displayed when Downloader starts up asking you whether you want to continue. If you press the "Yes" button Downloader will start the automatic sequence. The sequence will stop if you cancel it or an error occurs. You can suppress the prompt by unchecking the "Prompt before starting auto sequence" checkbox.
Note: Automatically deleting files from you CF card might sound risky, but remember that Downloader will never delete files from the card unless they have been downloaded successfully.
Select "Enable custom button" to define a custom button to launch an application of your choice. If you would like to run BreezeBrowser when the custom button is pressed simply select "Link button to Breezebrowser". Note: this requires BreezeBrowser v2.5 or later to be installed on your system. BreezeBrowser can be downloaded from www.breezesys.com.
To launch a different application enter the button's caption and the command line to be executed when the button is pressed.
The camera name mapping preferences allow you to define a value to be used for the %T8 token for different camera models. This is useful when using different cameras or when the camera name stored in the shooting data is awkward (e.g. Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL).
The list area at the top of the window shows the currently defined mappings e.g. the value of %T8 for images from the Fuji FinePix S2 Pro is mapped to "Fuji S2". %T8 can then be used to specify the filename or download directory of downloaded images. To add a camera to the list either drag and drop an image on the dialog window using Windows Explorer or click on the "Add camera..." button and select an image. To remove a camera from the list first select it by clicking on its entry in the list then click on the "Delete" button.
Select the "Identify camera using serial number, owner string or user comment" checkbox if you have more than one camera of the same type and wish to identify them separately. When this option is selected the camera serial number (Canon EOS digital SLRs), owner string (other Canon cameras) or user comment (settable in some other cameras e.g. Nikon D100) is appended to the camera model name to identify individual cameras. For example, in the screenshot above mappings have been defined for two Canon EOS 10D cameras: one with serial number 0130100302 which sets %T8 to "10D1" and the other with serial number 0230104671 which sets %T8 to "10D2".
To edit the value of the %T8 token for a given camera model, first select it in the list and then pres the "Edit..." button. The value can be set to any valid Windows filename character. It may also contain another token e.g. %d for the date.
Please see the section on Making the most of Downloader Pro for more details of how to use camera name mappings.
Plug-ins are extensions to Downloader which are run on images after they are downloaded. Please see the Plug-ins page for details of the plug-ins that come with Downloader. Click on a plug-in in the list to select it and display a short description of its function at the bottom of the dialog.
Plug-ins can be enabled or disabled by checking and unchecking the "Enable plug-in" checkbox. Press the "Setup..." button to configure the plug-in.
You can change the order in which plug-ins
are run by selecting a plug-in from the list and pressing the Up
or Down buttons.
Note: The order in which the JPEG auto profile
and JPEG resolution plug-ins are run doesn't matter.
Copyright 2003, 2004, Breeze Systems
Limited
www.breezesys.com