Returning the file count of a folder--too slow

Question

I am using the following to return the file count of a folder as part of a larger script
with timeout of 5000 seconds
tell application "Finder"
set origFolder to "Somefolder" as alias
set thePivotfiles to (every file of origFolder whose name ends with ".jpg")
return the count of thePivotfiles
end tell
end timeout
This script is rather slow to return the count of thePivotfiles--there are about 15,000 image files in the folder.
Is there a faster way for the script to do this?
Thanks.
Pedro

Answer 1

try using a shell script, something like :
do shell script "cd ~/SomeFolder; ls -a | wc -l"
more info here: http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2002/tn2065.html
.... btw, this is the Final Cut Pro forum. :/