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butchM wrote:
DAM solutions had been around long before both Aperture and Lightroom.
Aperture and Lightroom do more than DAM, though: they integrate raw processing.
Canto Cumulous,
is an enterprise DAM, accessed via TCP/IP, generally to a centralised server. "Enterprises" have IT support staff who will handle backups, provisioning and so on. Prices in AU range from A$17,000 to A$40,000 for the first year and A$10,000 to A$15,000 p.a. thereafter ($A1 = 0.93c USD yesterday). Even if the typical photographer could afford it, one can't expect something that supports all kinds of assets to provide support for new cameras as promptly as Adobe does. How many wedding photographers would have seen or used this product?
Enterprise DAM and single-user DAM on a local hard disk may share a name, but they aren't really the same thing.
File Maker Pro
is a relational database. Maybe you've had contact with some home-grown DAM tacked onto Bridge/PS using it. Nothing wrong with that, but, again, it relies on having IT support.
iView Media Pro
OK, I didn't know about that one, but a quick search reveals many of their users were left high and dry with an abandoned product their files were stuck in - one of the fears people do have about DAM.
One I did know about but forgot was Picasa. Not probably the darling of too many pro photographers, though.
While DAM does make sense and is a feature many photographers find valuable, what Aperture and Lightroom bring to the table is a workflow centerpiece where you can complete the vast majority of tasks for the most images in your library without leaving the friendly confines of the host software. The DAM portion is but one of those tasks.
Yes, iTunes is more than a DAM, because it can rip, play and burn, just as Aperture is more than a DAM. I had thought my examples made it clear the kind of software I was talking about.
DanBrown wrote:
Another example is Extensis, which even provides digital asset management to groups via Extensis Portfolio Server.
That one's £1395 for 3 seats according to a review I found. A little more reasonable but, again, probably not used much by photographers outside large organisations.
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