design rules for camera file system (DCF)

The Design Rules for Camera File System(DCF) are standards developed by the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association( JEIDA) for a file format that specifies the naming conventions and directory structures of memory cards for digital cameras.

The DCF file structure is a vendor-independent file format in which camera settings data can be stored in a specified scheme and exchanged with other DCF-compatible devices. The naming convention provides for an eight-characterfile name, the last four characters of which represent the digits between 0001 and 9999, and with which the files are stored in numbered folders. This allows settings of the photos, the used aperture or exposure time to be traced at any time. In addition, each DCF image file includes a reduced JPEG version of the image in an image size of 160 x 120 pixels.

The DCF file structure is the successor format to the Camera Image File Format( CIFF) and is used by ISO as a reference. The file format used by the DCF file structure is usually Exchangeable Image File( EXIF).