How to choose 1 out of 14 or so images for 4000 burst shots? Answered

will try :) got 50 files of 1000 images each to unzip into one file first though

You're on a Mac, then? It's easy! You could write a simple shell script (what I would do), or you could hone your code guru skills and write it in Perl.

Here's a really crappy script (Sean, do not give me grief about using CSH!) that would get the job done. Copy the script below to a file called "oneIn14". At the Terminal prompt, type chmod +x oneIn14 to make it executable. Run it from the prompt, specifying the input and output directories you want to use.

#!/bin/csh -f
#
# Usage:  oneIn14  
#
# Selects one out of 14 JPG files from the first directory, and copies
# them to the second.  If the second directory doesn't exist, creates
# it.
#
# 20111025  Michael Kelsey -- written without testing or debugging.

# Get command line arguments
if ($#argv < 2) then
   echo "Usage:  oneIn14  "
   exit 1
endif

# Get directories and validate
set indir = "$1"
if (! -d $indir) then
   echo "Input directory $indir not found."
   exit 2
endif

set outdir = "$2"
if (! -d $outdir) mkdir -p $outdir

# Get list of image files (assume .jpg or .JPG suffix) to filter
set imglist = /tmp/`basename $0`.$$
ls -1 $indir/*.jpg $indir/*.JPG >! $imglist

# Loop over files, and copy every 14th one to output
@ skip =14
@ n = `cat $imglist|wc -l`
@ i = 1
while ($i <= $n)
   set img = `head -$i $imglist | tail -1`
   /bin/cp -f $img $outdir/
@  i = $i + $skip
end

# Clean up
/bin/rm -rf $imglist

thanks so much for your help, but I am going to have to go with The Skinnerz... its a really simple solution but it works mostly :) its a bit choppy when I tried it, but not bad enough to not work... thanks so much for your help though!!

:-D If you only need to do this once, then The Skinnerz's method is definitely the easiest!