Fun Google hack with Sony Digital Cameras

Here's a fun thing to play around with, if you're bored at 3am. Most Sony digital cameras start saving photos with the following name "DSC00001.JPG" and a lot of people take these photos and upload them to the web, where the all-knowing, all-seeing Google later catalogs all of them. So by clicking this link you can see the first photo taken by someone with their new camera or newly formatted card for some cameras, this is what it looks like when thousands of Sony cameras lose their photo-virginity.

Update: Bonus fun, IMG_0001.JPG is the equivalent for Canon cameras. So, that will work too. Here's CASIO, Pentax, Kodak, Konica, Fuji and Nikon. And one of our readers points out "Using DSC as a search string in P2P programs also works great for turning up things on peoples hard drives they they didnt know they were sharing".

[ShinyPlastic @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

IMG_0001.JPG is the equivalent for Canon cameras.

[Paulo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

You could also try the Random Personal Picture Finder, which plugs random values for various camera image filename formats into a Google image search.

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mirrors.org/historical/2001-09-11-World-Trade_Center/wtc/tower-down3/DSC00001.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.mirrors.org/historical/2001-09-11-World-Trade_Center/wtc/tower-down3/&h=960&w=1280&sz=140&tbnid=Ls0jJBZURzYJ:&tbnh=112&tbnw=149&start=461&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522DSC00001.jpg%2522%26start%3D460%26svnum%3D50%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26newwindow%3D1%26c2coff%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN

shows someone taking their first picture on Sept 11 in New York!

[Tim @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

http://images.google.com/images?svnum=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22DSC00001.jpg%22+nude

[Gabe @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Here's the link for the Random Personal Picture Finder (RPPF) described above: http://diddly.com/random/

Yum,
Gabe

[Scott Canoni @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

CIMG0001.jpg is the equivalent for Casio Cameras.

[Nick @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

You can reset the counter. And I'm pretty sure it starts over if you reformat the card.

[Frank @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

It actually started when I was at someone's homepage and I wanted to see more of the pics, but there wasn't any links to the rest of the pictures even though they were in the directory. That got me to thinking that other people probably do the same thing and then I started doing some google searches.

Another fun thing to do is when you go to someone's blog/etc, find their images directory. Then just go to the root folder. If they don't have directory browsing turned off, you can view all their files, which sometimes include some interesting things...

I see engadget is pretty buttoned up: http://www.engadget.com/common/media/

[Prophet @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Using DSC as a search string in P2P programs also works great for turning up things on peoples hard drives they they didnt know they were sharing.

[funkbone @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

This dude thinks he's such a peemp!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www3.telus.net/sam16/DSC00001.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www3.telus.net/sam16/&h=480&w=640&sz=46&tbnid=ScN6VkG1y3QJ:&tbnh=101&tbnw=134&start=226&prev=/images%3Fq%3DDSC00001.JPG%26start%3D220%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN

[David M. Cooke @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

imgp0001.jpg is the first for Pentax.

[Ryan Waddell @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Nikons do DSCN####, so DSCN0001.jpg will work for Nikons. :)

[pt @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

nick, usually only "restore to factory resets" will reset the counter, i have 4-5 cameras and that is the way it works. otherwise each format / full card would force people to rename a lot of images.

[George @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Look up, above this comment, where Gabe linked to http://www.diddly.com/random/

Right, http://www.diddly.com/random/

http://www.diddly.com/random/ does this for you, except you don't need to remember which camera has what format. You just go to http://www.diddly.com/random/ and it shows pictures. Pretty simple.

The URL for the site I'm talking about is http://www.diddly.com/random/

[sauceruney @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

because DSC22633.jpg is the highest number I can get a result for without spending too much time trying different combinations.

[Nigel Pond @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

You can also search on P2P apps for digital photos that folks have shared, knowingly or unknowingly:

http://www.10eastern.com/foundphotos.html

[Nigel Pond @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Could you not also use wildcards to find images other than the first from a camera?

[kerry @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

i showed this to a friend who said that his minolta and canon cameras reset the counter every time he took the pictures off the card. maybe there's a setting on some cameras to reset the counter each time?

[pt @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

kerry, some cameras have a setting to change the auto-numbering. some may change when you format the card on the camera, some will always keep a count if you format / erase the card on the pc/mac.

[B.K. DeLong @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

There's a way to also hack google so you can have it look for both the file name and keywords. I believe http://images.google.com/images?q=inurl:DSC00001.jpg&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&c2coff=1&safe=off&start=20&sa=N or something like that.

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Kodak uses 000_0001.jpg

[Mike Sierra @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

If it weren't for your entry, I would have never seen the following image:

http://www.judgecal.com/squeezebox2/DSCN0001.jpg

[Nigel Pond @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I have two Canon digital SLRs and on both of them there is an option not to reset the counter...

[Chris @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Most people, upon receiving a new camera, will take a couple of test shots after opening up the box. It appears that a large majority of these are not first shots.

[JP @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

It ever ceases to amaze me how Google has produced an endless string of games and 'hacks' like this.

[Mart? @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

PICT0001.JPG for Konica.

[Clark Baker @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

DSCF0001.JPG

I think it's obvious that Fuji owners take the best pics :)

[OlympusOwner @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Olympus uses a partial time-stamp to name it's files (at least mine does); unfortunately, it doesn't include the year, but you can do a pseudo-day-in-the-life... expose. The format is "Pmddnnnn.jpg", where "m" is the month number in hex, "dd" is the day, and "nnnn" is a sequential picture number. So, the first picture someone took on December 23rd (of a given year) would look like "PC230001.jpg"

[Ryan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

It is also fun to search for *.eml on p2p systems, or the words "me" and "my".

[victoria @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

This is great, I love snooping. Who the hell has a 4 X 8' LEGO mosaic of San Francisco?

Well, I now know Eric Harshbarger does...Very good Eric.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ericharshbarger.org/images/000_0001.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ericharshbarger.org/snap.html&h=720&w=1080&sz=86&tbnid=FcFTBM-b89sJ:&tbnh=100&tbnw=150&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522000_0001.jpg%2522%26svnum%3D50%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26newwindow%3D1%26c2coff%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN

[C @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

...I wouldn't have found these great Ibiza nude beach pics!
http://photogallery.rave.at/ibizastrand/

...or these rave pics - (see if you can find the chick with the double nip slip)
http://photogallery.rave.at/031023/

[Server @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

TRUTH HURTS DOESN'T IT??

9/11 SHOTS
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.niftythings.org/usattack/wtc_smoking/DSC00005.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.niftythings.org/usattack/wtc_smoking/&h=960&w=1280&sz=96&tbnid=qePy7-gDLIsJ:&tbnh=112&tbnw=149&start=19&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522DSC00005.jpg%2522%26svnum%3D50%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26newwindow%3D1%26c2coff%3D1%26safe%3Doff

[DasFresk @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Add "amateur" after the name

[rogue @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I spent almost an hour doing this... and posted some of the most amusing ones up on my blog.

http://roguecode.net/blog/2004/09/fun-pics.html

[daniel @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

u have to try "hpim0001.jpg"

[eliot h @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

as long as you're hacking around, might as well look for other things. I did some random skipping about, found interesting things (not as much porn as you'd expect), but the best thing for me was trying to find the biggest number. And the winner is:

http://images.google.com/images?q=%22DSC400201.jpg%22&svnum=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&safe=off&start=20&sa=N

DSC400201.jpg - I assume this means this person (or this camera) took 400,201 pictures!

[ben @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I did it months ago
http://junknstuff.net/stuff/google/

but still a fun hack. and love this site.

[M @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

how do you know if you are sharing files or not, and how will someone get access to my hard drive? what if i have disabled sharing. well please let me know how i know if someone is looking at mine or how i look at others

[M @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

how do i know if someone actually is looking at my drive or if i am sharing.,..i thouhgt i disabled sharing so how would i know if google is showing my pics or if there on kazaa or somin

[ashish @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

If I see that the links are of high enough quality, from relevant pages, not from pages with too many other outbound links, or hidden too deep within other websites, I may have other projects and may keep bristolcameras running for the longer term, rather than just 3-4 months.

[pauljs75 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

PDRM####.JPG works for Toshiba cameras. :)

[rappo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

HP cameras: IM000001.jpg

http://images.google.com/images?q=%22IM000001.jpg%22&btnG=Search&svnum=50&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&c2coff=1

[John Wilkerson @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

A suggestion on the image searches:

It might be a good idea to change the type of search to a "Safe Search" in the event you come across any images that are not safe for work (NSFW).

Those hacks can be modified by looking for 'safe=Off' in the URL and changing it to 'safe=On' (without the quotes, of course).