P: Sort by capture time should use filename when times are equal

Your last two screenshots narrowed down the issue.  (That's the great thing about full screenshots.) The pics were taken with a Sony A7R, and unfortunately, many (perhaps most) Sonys don't record capture-time fractional seconds in the industry-standard EXIF fields. For example, see this thread: http://www.dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=read&&FORUM_THREAD_ID=1305964&order=DESC

As a result, LR often doesn't properly sort photos taken in burst mode in the same second.   

LR could fix this by using the filename as a secondary sorting key when the capture times are the same, but it doesn't.  As a result, the order within a given second is pretty arbitrary.  

This has been a long-standing problem.  (I'm not sure why it worked ok for you before but now doesn't.)

Your main complaint should be directed to Sony for not recording fractional seconds in EXIF metadata.  But LR could easily improve the situation by sorting by filename when the capture times are equal.

I'm fully conversant with using the different sort options, however, following the latest update, my photos are NOT sorting how they usually do. I have my Sort set to 'Capture Time' as usual. In this screen capture, images (1), (2) and (3) have been merged to HDR (image (4)). The example on the left, is how they're sorting NOW and the example on the right is how they PREVIOUSLY sorted (which is how I still want them). And interestingly, the merged HDR is using the image name of (1) as per usual, but sorting it after image (2), which my logical brain just cannot process! I have found a band-aid measure (changing capture time by 1 or 2 seconds for the merged image, then resorting), however, really want the previous sort solution back to minimise my workflow.

Hi Mark,
We have fixed a similar bug recently. Would you mind sending me those pictures, (may be as a Dropbox link), so that I can test the fix.
Thanks in advance.

Thanks,
Sunil

I've been reviewing pictures I took at a Gaelic Football tournament last week. Since it was a sporting event I was often taking several pictures a second (set at 3 frames a second). When I ask lightroom to display by capture time it appears I get the 1st, 3rd and then 2nd picture in the sequence. I can confirm this both with file numbers and visually the sequence of play is just wrong.

Camera: OM-D 5 MkII

Lightroom version is current (updated this morning).

And still: Lightroom will not let me rename my files containing this subseconds...

Add OMD 5 Mk II to the list of camera's where capture time is problem. Where there is ambiguity a subsort by original (i.e. camera filename would help).

Unfortunately, the Sony a6000 doesn't insert the industry-standard field SubSecTimeOriginal in the pics' EXIF, which records the fractional seconds of capture time.  The recently released a6300 doesn't either.   But Nikons and Canon's generally do insert that field.  This explains why LR properly sorts bursts from your Nikon but not from your Sony.

Of course, I fully agree that, when sorting by capture time, LR should use the filename as a secondary sort criteria, which would improve this situation quite a bit.  (It's not perfect, since the camera sequence numbers will wrap around from 9999 back to 0.)

But you should also complain to Sony.

When I import images from my Sony a6000, if multiple images are taken during the same second they do not display in the proper order. This Added Order condition is the same for my Nikon cameras, but the difference is that when I change the catalog sort to Capture Time my Nikon images will now display in the proper order while the Sony images remain in the Added Order sort. If I import the images a second time the order within the second will change randomly, but the condition persists. This is true whether shooting in Continuous High, Medium or Low modes, and even when I manage to shoot a pair of single images within the same second. If Lightroom can do a proper sort for Nikon within the same second it should be able to do it for Sony.

Very much agreed.  It would also be great if all camera manufacturers inserted the fractional capture time in the EXIF -- only some do.  Hard to believe that 15 years into digital imaging, some are still not doing that.

At events I shoot fast sequences. So many photos are shot in the same second. If I set the sorting in Lightroom to "Capture Time", these photos are often sorted in the wrong order. So I have to switch to "File Name" where I took the sequence number from the original photos.

But this actually makes the sort by "Capture Time" quite useless. 

I would be great if photos with the same time-stamp automatically are sorted by file name, or there is an option to define the secondary sort order.