folder creation on the S3 IS

I have tried to use the "new folder creation" function on my S3 IS camera. From what I understood, you can create a new folder whenever you want in order to make it easier to organize the images after downloading to the computer. I did it several times and it seemed to work. A typical image number in the camera viewing mode showed 101-XXXX, where XXXX is the sequential image number. When I created a new folder, the format became 102-XXXX, as I expected. Everything seemed right until I downloaded the images to my computer. Then all the image numbers became IMG_XXXX.

What don't I understand?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

IIRC, only Zoom Browser will merge the folder and file numbers automatically as part of the download process. And I wouldn't even swear to that; it may only apply to downloads done direct from the camera. The file numbers themselves will run continuously unless you choose to auto-reset every time you change cards. But you can use other applications (I use Breeze Systems' Downloader Pro) which will let you specify what information you want to use in renaming your files as you download them. My current format is FFF-####_CAM.* where FFF is the folder number, #### is the image number and CAM is the camera model identifier, so a typical file would be 112-1234_A620.JPG or 100-0516_1D3.CR2.

Thanks Jon.

I actually used the Canon utility for downloading the pictures, (although not the "zoom browser". I would think that canon should do something about this because it makes this particular camera function useless!!

Also IIRC, the download process will re-sort your photos by date, separating them into folders on that basis. Also, if you use a card reader and your operating system's file-handling routines you can preserve the directory structure you elected to set up in the camera.

Does that mean that I should let the downloader create subfolders? When I downloaded, I specified the folder and didn't check the option for creating subfolders. Do you think it would have made any difference had I checked create subfolders?