Do you shoot with more than one digital camera? If so, when was the last time you checked the date and time on each camera?

Oh, how I can mess up!

I recently went to the zoo with my family for a day of relaxation, and photography of course. When I’m out shooting, I typically carry two bodies with me, one body with a long zoom and one body with a short zoom. My day at the zoo was great, although tiring. I captured nearly 500 images and didn’t break anything, always a plus.

After getting home and downloading my memory cards into Adobe Lightroom, I quickly discovered that all of my images were out of order. I had gorillas mixed in with lions and dolphins mixed in with giraffes. It was one of those head-scratching moments.

I keep Lightroom set to order my photos by capture time. This will generally keep photos in sequential order regardless of how many cameras I use. Upon close examination, I discovered the problem. A quick check of each camera verified what I suspected. One camera body was 20 minutes off from the other camera.

Date and time in modern digital cameras

Nearly all modern digital cameras, regardless of cost, have calendars and clocks built into them. The time information generated when you trigger the shutter is written onto the image as metadata. Regardless of how cheap or expensive your camera may be, please remember that they are not, nor are they meant to be, precision timepieces. As your camera sets around in your camera bag, desk drawer, or wherever you store it, the time will drift some.

It’s usually no big deal if your camera’s clock is off a little or even a lot for that matter. But when you are shooting with two or more cameras, and you want the images to line up in a somewhat orderly fashion, then the clocks for all cameras have to be set to the same standard.

Go grab your cameras right now and check the date and time. Change them if needed. More than likely, you won’t be using them in a covert military operation, so they don’t have to match exactly. But in order for your images to line up correctly in your viewing software, they need to be somewhat close.

How about your experiences? Please share your timekeeping mishaps or suggestions below. And don’t forget to subscribe to my blog to get updates.