FM Studio 1.4.0 is out. It's a Mac app that lets you look at every photo on your camera or card before a single file is copied, rate them, and download only the keepers. It's the tool I now use exclusively to get photos off my own cameras.
New in 1.4.0⦿
Load photos from a folder. The new Load from folder button reads photos from any folder on your Mac or from an external drive, with or without subfolders, newest first. Plugged-in drives are listed for you, and your recent folders are remembered. Downloading works the same as from a card, so renaming, folders, metadata and Lightroom all apply. Delete Mode and Format are never available for a folder, so nothing can be removed from it.
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Smarter folder loading. Large folders are read in a single pass. Lightroom preview files and Photos library bundles are skipped, and so is FM Studio’s own download folder if it sits inside the folder you chose, so your imports don’t come back as new photos.
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Selection fixes. Shift-click ranges and filter changes no longer select photos you can’t see. If you select photos and then switch to a filter such as RAW Only, the hidden ones are dropped from the selection, so Download, Edit EXIF and Delete only act on what’s on screen.
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Content Credentials are kept. Leica DNG files that carry Content Credentials (SL3-P, M11-D and M11-P) keep them when FM Studio writes metadata or a rating. Lightroom Classic no longer shows an exclamation mark on those files or refuses to edit them.
Why I built itIt started as a handful of command line scripts for my Leica cameras. I was tired of importing a whole card just to find out which frames were worth keeping. I wanted to look first, rate the keepers, and copy only those. I also wanted the real shutter count of my Leicas, and I was able to build that in too. The scripts grew into a full app that I've tested with many cameras, and I keep updating it as I use it.
What makes it different⦿
Look before you import: sharp thumbnails, large previews, full shooting info and GPS (with a map link) for everything on the camera or card, before anything is copied
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Real Leica shutter count: M8, M8.2, M9, M10 and M11 series, shown right in the header
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Your files are protected: ON DISK badges show what you've already downloaded, and nothing is deleted from a camera or card until a verified copy is on your Mac
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It names and files your photos as they land: rename, sort into folders and add your copyright in one pass, so there's nothing left to do afterward
Cull and rate⦿ Rate 1 to 5 stars like in Lightroom, and the ratings carry over to Lightroom automatically
⦿ Filter by camera, lens, file type, download status or star rating, and select with click, drag or shift-click
Send files where they belong⦿
Rename on import: build the name from the date, camera, your own t...
