Multi-camera
Two cameras wrote the same clip number. How does the editor tell them apart?
Two camera bodies of the same model, running the same naming scheme, will write identical file names on the same shoot day. It is not a bug, it is how each camera numbers its own files independently, with no idea the other one exists. The fix is not renaming footage. It is carrying each camera's unit letter, A, B, C, as the clip's reel name in the edit, so the editor can tell camera A's clip 0047 apart from camera B's clip 0047 without either file being touched.
Why this happens on ordinary gear, not just exotic rigs
This is not a rare edge case. Editors running two identical camera bodies on a multicam rig report this exact problem: both cameras reset to clip 0001 for the day, both count up from there, and the media lands in one project with no built-in way to separate them until each camera's clips are pulled apart by hand. Two units of the same model writing the same filename is expected behavior, not a malfunction to troubleshoot.
What actually disambiguates them
Not the filename. A camera's own file name field is not built to be globally unique across two bodies, and trying to force it to be, by bulk-renaming a card, breaks the link back to the camera's own metadata and checksums, which is a worse problem than the one you started with.
The field that is built for exactly this is the reel name. Every clip on an edit timeline carries a reel name independent of its filename, and giving each camera unit a distinct reel, A, B, C, D, means the editing software can group and multicam-sync by reel even when two files share an identical name. A shot log that tracks up to four camera units this way carries the unit letter through to the export as the FCP7 reel name automatically, so the disambiguation exists before the editor ever opens the project.
What not to do about it
- Do not bulk-rename either card to force uniqueness. It breaks the tie back to the camera's own file record and any checksum you took at wrap.
- Do not assume the later-ingested camera's files are the ones with the conflict. Both cameras are equally "right"; the collision is structural, not a mistake either operator made.
- Do not merge both cameras into one bin before separating them by reel or folder. Untangling it after the fact costs far more time than keeping them apart from ingest.
The related but different problem
This is a same-day collision between two different physical cameras. A different, also real problem is the same camera's own filename repeating across two different shoot days, which is a card-reuse issue rather than a multi-camera one. That case, and how an export handles it with a dated reel folder instead of a blind filename match, is covered on the camera clip naming conventions page.
One to four camera units
Each camera keeps its own counter and its own reel
Clapper numbers each camera unit independently and carries the unit letter through as the reel name on export, so two cameras with identical filenames still land in the edit correctly separated.
Open Clapper →