I am looking to find out what programs people use for archiving, organizing, key wording photos for easy retrieval.

I read the DAM book but just wanted to see what people use and/or like.

What OS? It makes a difference.

For me, on XP I use IMatch. Wonderful program that does all I need & more.

It will be for Mac. I have been looking at Aperture and , but just figured there are probably better options?

I'm using Expression Media, formerly iView Media Pro (the catalog software used in the DAM Book). I tried Aperture for a while and liked it, but I need to keep up with more than just pictures.

Lightroom. Not sure if it works as well on a Mac, though, and it doesn't really do archiving. However, for organizing/key words, etc., along with some good editing tools (can't wait for LR 2.0 to come out), it's a great program for me.

I shoot youth league sports T&I and action. I move through thousands of images in a setting.

I have found Photo Mechanic to be indispensable to my workflow.

FWIW

Photo Mechanic. Hands down.

Lightroom?

I would say iView/Expression Media or Photo Mechanic then. IMHO LR's DAM capability leaves a lot to be desired.

Lightroom on the Mac is tremendous, completely on par with the Windows version.

I've heard Aperture is also very good. I have it and have tried it, but I use LR because it supports my PhaseOne back.

Lightroom is more than a DAM. Beyond that it also is a very good RAW processor/metadata editor. For many images/workflows it is more than capable of doing everything from importing and managing files to Processing and final output.

Jonathan Knight wrote:
Photo Mechanic. Hands down.

PM is a jpeg only solution, right?

No, PM supports raw files too. OTOH, it's a browser (a very deep, good one) not a cataloger. I understand Camera Bits is working on a database, though. That will likely be included in the next major release.