Question about file naming

[So was Red]

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So I just got my brand new sealed m11p Safari, took some shots and realised that the file name of the first photo was L1002913, the second one was L1002914 and so on.

Am I missing something or does this mean that 2913 photos had been taken on the said camera before I received it? I thought that maybe these were taken for testing purposes (at the factory), but why so many?

Also, is there a reasoning behind the default L100xxxx naming?
Why not use L000xxxx instead?

Edited June 30 by So was Red

[Robert Ardinger]

Did you by chance put a formatted card you had used on a different M11 in your new camera before taking any pictures?  If so and the last picture on the card was #L1002912 then the first picture on your new camera would likely be the number you obtained.  At least this is how it would work on my Q3.  The M11 could be different.  On my Q, If you saw the Leica animation on initial startup and had a newly formatted card with no previous pictures you would have gotten L1000001 for the first image.

 

[Sandokan]

I think on the M it starts of with M100xx, and the SL line starts with L100xxx

So did the card come from a SL, but even then I am surprised. 

Edited June 30 by Sandokan

[pedaes]

4 minutes ago, Sandokan said:

the M it starts of with M100xx

The M files are also L100xxxx

[Sandokan]

Just now, pedaes said:

The M files are also L100xxxx

Oh, maybe I always name them that way to differentiate by filename the shots from the M, SL, TL and Q. 

[adan]

3 hours ago, So was Red said:

So I just got my brand new sealed m11p Safari, took some shots and realised that the file name of the first photo was L1002913, the second one was L1002914 and so on.

Am I missing something or does this mean that 2913 photos had been taken on the said camera before I received it? I thought that maybe these were taken for testing purposes (at the factory), but why so many?

Also, is there a reasoning behind the default L100xxxx naming?
Why not use L000xxxx instead?

Leica's firmware has an "overwrite avoidance" feature.

If using cards reused from any other Leica, it will definitely auto-advance the picture file names to START with the last file number detected on the card, +1.

I.E. if an SD card already holds (is "contaminated" with) a picture named L1007454, and is put into a brand-new Leica, the first picture you take with the new camera will immediately be L1007455. Tha way the camera cannot try to put two files "L1007454" on the SAME card at once, erasing the first one.

Only way around that is "safe computing" - any time you want to transfer a card to a new body, you must "sterilize" it with formatting in a computer (not a camera). And for extra safety, then use the new camera to advance the first three numbers yourself with each changeover - e.g. L1110000, then eventually L1190000, and so on. 

My cards for my well-used, 8-and-a-bit-years-old M10s are now - at my command - numbering pictures as L116xxxxx (silver body) and L117xxxxxx (black body) - and when they reach picture ---9999 again, I will roll them over again. The silver camera cards I will advance to L1180000. (Yeah, I've shot over 60000 pictures with each body)

The inital numbers 100 are so that pictures can be filed by the camera in subfolders, numbered up to 999 themselves. There is no "zero" folder, so no images numbered L/000/0000

L (means Leica-camera) - 100 (means first folder-name placeholder) - 0000 (means pictures 1 to 9999 in that folder). I don't use that particular feature myself, but the last 4 numbers still roll over to 0000 when they reach 9999).

 

[So was Red]

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Indeed I had used my card on two different M11s before, during a photo-walk in two different occasions, although I always formatted the card in-camera before use. It wasn't aware I had to format in a computer; I do now. 🙂 
Thank you all for chiming in.

[Robert Ardinger]

At least on the Q3, the image file number "reset" only occurs when the camera is starting up from a firmware update or a full reset of the camera (or I suspect when it is turned on for the first time).  Basically it will reset the file number whenever the Leica animation plays and you have to reset language, date, profiles, etc.  

If I just format a card in camera without a firmware update, etc. the image file number stays in sequence.

For firmware updates I format a card in camera and take a picture (which will have the proper, sequential file number) then add the update file from my computer, etc.

Nothing wrong with formatting the card in a computer but at least for me the only time I have to watch out for a file number reset is when the camera goes through firmware reset.

[Tseg]

My M11-D and Q3 43 starts with L10

Edited July 1 by Tseg

[Paul Timlett]

On 6/30/2025 at 11:29 PM, adan said:

Leica's firmware has an "overwrite avoidance" feature.

If using cards reused from any other Leica, it will definitely auto-advance the picture file names to START with the last file number detected on the card, +1.

I.E. if an SD card already holds (is "contaminated" with) a picture named L1007454, and is put into a brand-new Leica, the first picture you take with the new camera will immediately be L1007455. Tha way the camera cannot try to put two files "L1007454" on the SAME card at once, erasing the first one.

Only way around that is "safe computing" - any time you want to transfer a card to a new body, you must "sterilize" it with formatting in a computer (not a camera). And for extra safety, then use the new camera to advance the first three numbers yourself with each changeover - e.g. L1110000, then eventually L1190000, and so on. 

My cards for my well-used, 8-and-a-bit-years-old M10s are now - at my command - numbering pictures as L116xxxxx (silver body) and L117xxxxxx (black body) - and when they reach picture ---9999 again, I will roll them over again. The silver camera cards I will advance to L1180000. (Yeah, I've shot over 60000 pictures with each body)

The inital numbers 100 are so that pictures can be filed by the camera in subfolders, numbered up to 999 themselves. There is no "zero" folder, so no images numbered L/000/0000

L (means Leica-camera) - 100 (means first folder-name placeholder) - 0000 (means pictures 1 to 9999 in that folder). I don't use that particular feature myself, but the last 4 numbers still roll over to 0000 when they reach 9999).

 

Is there any particular application you would recommend for re-formatting cards on a computer?

[Robert Ardinger]

2 hours ago, Paul Timlett said:

Is there any particular application you would recommend for re-formatting cards on a computer?

This one works well.  (SD Card Formatter).

[Paul Timlett]

31 minutes ago, Robert Ardinger said:

This one works well.  (SD Card Formatter).

Thanks Robert. Think I used to have that on my old Mac. Worked well. 

[misteracng]

One issue I have noticed, On the M11 I have the standard L10 file name. When I reset the file numbering it resets the last 4 digits to 0001, and on the SD card, it starts a new folder and moves up the folder number by one and then puts images in it. However the file names just start over at with the same header L1000001. So you get the same file names but in different folders. On my SL2s the behavior is different and what I would expect. When you reset file numbering, it makes a new folder but also changes the file name to correspond. For example, on the SL2s the new folder will go from 100LEICA to 101LEICA and then the file name will change to L1000001 to L1010001. This is what I expected but the M11 does not do this. Is there something I am doing wrong?

[Robert Blanko]

Am 1.7.2025 um 08:30 schrieb So was Red:

Indeed I had used my card on two different M11s before, during a photo-walk in two different occasions, although I always formatted the card in-camera before use. It wasn't aware I had to format in a computer; I do now. 🙂 
Thank you all for chiming in.

Thus, it looks like one would have to format the SD card before using it the first time in a new Leica camera...

 

Funnily, the continued numbering also happened to me when using the SD card from my M10-R in my new M11 Safari. I simply forgot to format the card.

[fenykepesz]

vor einer Stunde schrieb Robert Blanko:

Funnily, the continued numbering also happened to me when using the SD card from my M10-R in my new M11 Safari. I simply forgot to format the card.

that's happened to me too, when moving my stone-age SD card from the m10d to the m11d.  the card was actually lnx formated just once before, many years ago, and still works...