How consistent are digital camera file naming conventions?

I have a quicktime movie that is labelled P105xxx.mov, and another set of still pictures that are labelled P105xxx.jpg. Does that mean they definitely come from the same camera and were recorded roughly the same time? Or could they have been taken years apart with different cameras?

How consistent are digital camera file naming conventions?
They could have been taken years apart with different cameras. Think of it this way: I buy camera A today and you buy camera B tomorrow. I take 400 pictures a day and you take 400 a year. Because they are the same model of camera, but different physical camera, I will reach the same file number of 400 in 1 day, while you will have the identical file number in 1 year.





Generally speaking, higher end cameras do follow a naming convention starting with DSC_####.xxx, where DSC stands for Digital Still Camera, a blank space for a letter (like C for Canon, N for Nikon, F for Fujifilm), the # of the photo in sequential order, ending with the file extension for the file type, like jpg.





However, I've noticed that some cameras replace DSC with IMG (apparently for image) and others use different prefixes (like my Pentax point and shoot uses P in front).





Files should have data embedded in them called EXIF data which will provide you with information on when the file was created and even camera model and settings. You can read this data by either using free software (try http://www.opanda.com ) or by seeing if your operating system can pull it up via a right-click on the file then selecting the advanced tabs/buttons to read the EXIF data on creation date, time, and camera model.
Reply:they could have been taken with the same brand camera
Reply:Good question. I just tested my compact digital camera. I shot a still and a short video. File names were as follows:





DSCN9801.JPG and DSCN9802.JPG, so it guess it depends upon the way the camera companies set up the firmware in each camera.





NOTE: Some DSLR's allow the photographer to rename the first three letters of the file name ... for instance I set mine to reflect my initials.