Delete last bracket set, other stuff

[engardeknave]

I was thinking about how much of a pain it is to delete the last bracket set I just made (along with accompanying HDR_txt), and it occurred to me that there should be a way to handle whole bracket sets as singular items.

I had asked for a way to rename files belonging to bracket sets, or put them in a folder, or something so I can have a way to automatically identify and process bracket sets later. Nobody seems to care about this functionality and attempts have never been stable. But one workaround I discovered was to parse the automatically generated post scripts. This really works well. Anyway, maybe it would make sense to have a module or something that identifies bracket sets using sidecar files like these. Then brackets could be listed, viewed, deleted, moved, prepared for processing, etc.

I'd really like to be able to add or delete a frame from a bracket set and have that change be reflected in a sidecar file and that will later be used for automatic processing.

(Incidentally, the generated HDR_.txt files always list files with a .jpg extension, even when shooting raw. This function is pretty antiquated and I'd guess I'm about the only one using it.)

[a1ex]

Nobody seems to care about this functionality and attempts have never been stable.

The primary goal is to make the camera useful to those who develop it. Since Dual ISO, I don't remember taking more than 10 bracketed shots (overall, in all these months). Maybe I'll have the occasion to visit some caves at some point.

I actually have a bunch of bracketing tweaks and fixes on my todo list, but that list has a few pages, so I try to be careful of what I pick from there. If I feel something is easy enough for a novice coder, I tend to pick something else.

I'd really like to be able to add or delete a frame from a bracket set and have that change be reflected in a sidecar file and that will later be used for automatic processing.

This one is quite a bit harder than cleaning up the existing patch that renames images to B00_1234.CR2 and fixing the small quirks. There is a backend library that lets you change file prefixes (implemented for this purpose, among others). 1% has it pretty much done, somebody needs to backport it and test it out (especially on 60D, where my original patch had problems with 9x1 bursts).

Deleting CR2 files is tricky because these files are not just on the file system, but also in an internal file catalog (which was not yet reverse engineered). If you are lucky, the file present in catalog but missing on card will be handled nicely (a question mark in the PLAY dialog). If not... err70.

[engardeknave]

Don't misunderstand me, when I say you don't care about that functionality, it's an entirely neutral observation of the fact that it doesn't seem to be in your interest.

Yes, I found out what happens when you delete .CR2 files with the file manager. But I was thinking of this more as a module. It wouldn't have to go against the grain so much if it relied on the user to delete files via the Canon interface and just updated a sidecar file accordingly. But that's not even really important as my current processing scripts already ignore missing files. Being able to add a frame to a post-script text would reduce the need for me to reshoot entire brackets sometimes.

I just got an idea: maybe it would be worthwhile to ask the user if the camera should shoot another frame after the last one was taken. That way you could set it to 6x2ev or whatever and after it shoots the last frame it displays the last frame and asks if you'd like to shoot another 2ev up. That would make things much easier for me.

Another neat feature (that will never happen because nobody other than me would use it) would be the ability to tag certain frames within that sidecar text. I'm working on processes that involve doing different things with certain frames other than just combining them in an HDR stack. Right now I do this just by identifying photos that aren't listed in any of the HDR_.txt files.