[grhazelton]

I use Lightroom 4 and Elements 9 for managing and massaging images from my K10-D and scanned-in images from several film cameras. I can distinguish the 645n files from other film files with a prefix of mf and if I remember I use similar prefixes for my various 35mm files, and of course the K10 files are obvious.

My question: My K-5 should arrive by Friday! Hooha! Do I have to worry about file or image number conflict between the two digital Pentaxes? I've looked in Martin Evening's fine books and looked through the help files in the program; while I can find stuff about custom profiles for various cameras using the serial number as a "tag" I've found nothing specific telling how to use two or more cameras. Is the serial number part of the EXIF data in the RAW file (I use DNG) and would this itself prevent any disasters? I surely don't want to get off on the wrong digit, er, foot when I begin using both these cameras.

Many thanks!

[Anvh]

You can filter the files on camera model and serrie number and yes that information is in the metadata.

does it actually matter to know which camera took what?

[Douglas_of_Sweden]

There is also a custom setting for the file name. I've set my K5 to use file names beginning with "K5_..." and the K7 to use files beginning with "K7_...".

[jatrax]

Do I have to worry about file or image number conflict between the two digital Pentaxes?

There is a custom setting on the k-5 to set how the file name will be saved.
There is a custom naming section in the import tab of Lightroom.
Either of those will allow you to create unique file names.
The camera model, serial number (and lens info if available) will be recorded in the EXIF metadata. I assume you are concerned about possibly overwriting one file with another? If so then either of the custom naming systems will work. If you are worrying about applying develop presets only to certain files, the file name really does not matter as Lightroom can sort by camera.

[grhazelton]

You can filter the files on camera model and serrie number and yes that information is in the metadata.

does it actually matter to know which camera took what?

Not too much, although I'll be interested in tangible differences in the two cameras' "output," since the K-5 has 60% more data.

Douglas and Jatrax, that sounds like a good solution. I believe I'll do that, and I'll try something similar with my 35mm stuff - V for Vitessa, R for Retina, MX, MES, LX - pretty self-evident for Pentaxians!

Thanks to all for the quick and reassuring responses! Pentaxforums is great!