File timestamps on my pictures make zero sense, how do I fix this?

[Red Squirrel]

This is something that has always infuriated me. When I take pictures I like to be able to sort by date in the folder so the newest are on top. But for whatever reason pictures taken with my Nikon D7000 just put some random date. They won't even be in any kind of logical order. For example I took a bunch of pictures today and they show up as being taken on July 21st. But if I look at older pictures I took which are in the same folder, they are showing as being taken in August, some even showing up as September. Why is it doing this? The actual Exif data seems to be right but the file time stamp is totally wrong.

Edit: So looks like my phone does the same thing! I never really paid attention before but I was trying to get pictures at a specific date and started to notice all the dates are wrong. For my phone, the date is ok but the time is way off. A picture I took just now, at say, 8pm, shows up with a file time stamp of 6pm instead.

 

[Syborg1211]

Did you set the date/time in the camera's settings? Does this setting persist through replacing the battery? There is a tiny battery inside the camera usually to keep the time, but this battery could be dead in yours. I think the main battery is supposed to charge that up when it can though.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah double checked date on camera, forgot to mention that. On phone I assume it goes by the tower or GPS time as I've never had to set the clock. I've had it where I get an hour off because I forgot to set DST but this is months or days off.

 

[Red Squirrel]

This is still an issue, any ideas?

For example I took pictures yesterday after midnight (so technically today) and in exif shows the right date, but the files show some random date in September. It makes zero sense. It makes it very hard to know which files are from a certain date when the time stamps are all over the place.

 

[mxnerd]

Also suspect that internal battery is dying.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Is the exif time stamp and file time stamp treated differently? The exif one is ok, it's only the file one that is not. Might have to lookup on how to change that battery either way and see I guess.

 

[Steltek]

Yes, exif and file stamps are done differently.

Try installing a fully charged battery and leave it sit for 2 days. Then, reset the camera date and timezone settings to see if the problem goes away.

In the older Nikons, the internal battery was a button cell that you had to replace every 3-4 years. In newer models (including yours), Nikon moved from replaceable button cells to an internal capacitor that holds about 90 days of charge. The capacitor is charged by the battery, so you need to store the camera with a fully charged battery installed to maintain the internal clock battery.

Leaving it sit with a fully charged battery for 2 days should fully recharge the internal capacitor if it is still functional.

If the capacitor is bad, I think you are out of luck as I don't think that it is a serviceable part. The fact that you still have a file time and date stamp (even if incorrect) may mean that it is discharged but still functional as a totally discharged capacitor or failed capacitor will result in the files being written with no date and time stamp at all on the files.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Hmmm interesting, is it a super capacitor or something more involved? Should be able to get that on digikey. I typically store it with the battery inside but it was not fully charged so I will charge it fully and let it sit to see what happens. Maybe the battery voltage needs to be above a certain threshold before it starts to charge the capacitor. How does that time end up updating will it update from the camera's internal time? (the one I can set in settings)

 

[Steltek]

You might want to check your fully charged camera battery with a multimeter to ensure it is outputting the correct voltage.

Going to backtrack here as I was able to determine that the D7000 does have a battery and not a capacitor. The battery appears to be a Seiko rechargable MS621FE-FL11E that is permanently affixed to the motherboard via a spot welded tab:



If it doesn't recharge from the main battery within 2 days, there is an iFixit page here showing how to remove the motherboard if you want to try to fix it.

 

[fralexandr]

might be worth checking if you have the latest firmware version also, maybe updating it will fix the date issue. Not seeing any release notes for any of the versions that mention file dates, but could be worth a try anyway.

Nikon | Download center | D7000

the newest firmware 1.04/1.05 is dated august 2014 though.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm getting 8.3v which I think seems ok for a 2 cell lithium ion. But now I do wonder, could it be using only 1 of the cells to charge the internal battery? I also get 2.7 and 2.9 depending on which pins I check, which seems like an oddball voltage to me, I would expect to get closer to 4. Quick google search seems to show the other pins are not actually cell taps but one is for temperature and other is for battery identification. Which leads me to believe there is some active circuitry in the battery which I imagine may drain it over time... so guess it's good to charge it up fully more often. I will let this sit in camera fully charged for a few days to see if maybe that's what my issue was, I don't remember the last time I gave it a full charge. I will often take out the camera, use it for a bit, and then put it away. I don't let it go flat but I might throw it on the charger for a bit then take it off before it's done. So maybe that's a bad thing to do.

 

[Steltek]

Is it a Nikon battery or aftermarket? I thought the Nikon battery was rated at only 7v. At least, the one on the D7000 I gave my sister several years ago was (if I'm remembering correctly, anyway).

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's a Nikon, it does say 7v on it, but I think it's normal to read above nominal with most batteries right?

 

[eikelbijter]

You know there's a "date modified" and a "date created" right? If you move a file off your camera, the former will change, the latter will not.

 

[Steltek]

It's a Nikon, it does say 7v on it, but I think it's normal to read above nominal with most batteries right?

Probably. I'm sure that it is within the specs of what the camera can handle. Now that I think about it, my mother's Olympus OMD EM1 Mark II camera batteries also produce output over rated specs.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You know there's a "date modified" and a "date created" right? If you move a file off your camera, the former will change, the latter will not.

I'm going by the timestamps on the SD card before the files are moved. Basically if I go out and take a bunch of pictures, when I put it in the computer it's how I determine which ones are new as it tends to take a while for all the thumbnails to load so I just go by date then copy them locally to work on them. Right now if I take a picture it shows that it was taken in September instead of August. The time shown on the camera itself when viewing, or when looking at exif is ok.