p.1 #1 · Built a native Mac culling app (Phosview) to speed up culling heavy RAW bursts. Looking for testers!
Good afternoon everyone,
I spent the last year building a native Mac app called Phosview (https://www.phosview.app) for fast photo culling and management, and I'm looking for some beta testers.
I’m not a pro shooter, but I built this out of pure workflow frustration. I frequently shoot amateur baseball games, meaning I regularly come home with thousands of high-speed burst photos scattered across my cards. Spending hours staring at a screen trying to manually cull a massive pile of near-duplicates and blurry misses just to find the peak action shots was driving me crazy. I couldn't find a fast, local-first tool that didn't force me into a cloud subscription, so I built one.
What it does:
Phosview acts as a fast, local-first hub to cull and organize large libraries without the bloat.
Instant RAW Previews: Pulls embedded JPEGs so you can fly through massive catalogs with zero rendering lag.
Lightroom Integration: Seamlessly displays your edits and Lightroom metadata right in the app.
Tame Bursts & Duplicates: Automatically groups exact copies and burst sequences, ranking the sharpest frame on top so you can clear space quickly.
Local AI Search: Search your consolidated library using plain language (e.g., "player sliding into home at golden hour") with zero cloud uploads.
Non-Destructive: Originals are completely untouched; all decisions are kept in a separate sidecar database.
The app requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later and is completely free during this private beta. If you handle large photo collections or high-speed bursts and want to try a faster workflow, I'd love your feedback.
You can download the build and grab a beta key instantly at https://www.phosview.app. Let me know what you think! Happy to make changes or add much needed features.
p.1 #2 · Built a native Mac culling app (Phosview) to speed up culling heavy RAW bursts. Looking for testers!
I can see from an enthusiast's perspective how this might be a very useful tool. Although, becoming proficient at shooting a designated sport can greatly reduce both the capture amount and time it takes to generate finished results.
Working photog example: while shooting a typical soccer match there is usually time to tag potential keepers in the camera(s). Only tagged photos are download twice per match for processing and submittal to the league.
p.1 #3 · Built a native Mac culling app (Phosview) to speed up culling heavy RAW bursts. Looking for testers!
Thanks for the feedback! You’re spot on about soccer. in-camera tagging is a lifesaver there.
I actually designed phosview to tackle two specific headaches. First is general library bloat; cleaning up slow iCloud or old DSLR libraries, weeding out duplicates, and finding old photos using natural descriptions.
Second is handling sports where you can't easily tag on the fly, like baseball. Capturing the "money shot" of a bat hitting a ball usually means firing off massive 20 - 30fps bursts. Phosview uses smart filters to assess focus and exposure, grouping those intense action moments together so you can find the best shot instantly.
Under the hood, it uses a client-server model so you can offload all that AI processing and high-speed conversion to a separate machine (Mac, Linux, or Windows) and keep your main workspace fast.
Really appreciate you taking the time to share your perspective. Let me know if you have any other thoughts!
p.1 #4 · Built a native Mac culling app (Phosview) to speed up culling heavy RAW bursts. Looking for testers!
What a great undertaking and if you play your cards right, it's something you can leverage with the "big guys" who are incorporating similar tools. Congratulations.
p.1 #5 · Built a native Mac culling app (Phosview) to speed up culling heavy RAW bursts. Looking for testers!
Appreciate the comment!
I think the "big guys" are mainly focussed at locking in users through their subscription programs. My goal is to have something that everyone can use, but is able to scale up and be useful for large setups as well.
Thanks again!
p.1 #6 · Built a native Mac culling app (Phosview) to speed up culling heavy RAW bursts. Looking for testers!
eternia wrote:
Appreciate the comment!
I think the "big guys" are mainly focussed at locking in users through their subscription programs. My goal is to have something that everyone can use, but is able to scale up and be useful for large setups as well.
Thanks again!
Although, becoming proficient at shooting a designated sport can greatly reduce both the capture amount and time it takes to generate finished results.