It seems fine for big collections. I'm on a Mac though so I dunno if it's going to be the same or not. Initial preview generation is a little on the slow side. I tested with a 32,000 image folder structure. Almost all images (>80%?) are 8mp RAW files of type .MRW 14bit. I zoomed WAY out so there were 15 rows of 60 images per screen and something like 35 or 40 screens high. It took about 10 seconds for each screen to create the previews. I guess this is based on Disk Speed however. If you're on RAID 0 of 4 or 5 drives it's going to fly. If it's a software RAID 0 of 3 drives like mine then ~10sec. If you're on a single drive 7200 then maybe a minute. I get about 6X speed out of my RAID for this kinda thing - about 400MB/sec.
After I had all the screens rendered up scrolling and zooming was instant. Although it seems to be using a scheme similar to mipmapping where it renders something like 5 different previews - one for each zoom ratio from X% to X%. So if you zoom too far in or out it needs to rerender the previews. At a more normal 6x4 screen these are instant however - for all but massively layered PSD files.
Keep in mind it's also categorizing and feeding the MetaData and Filing System information into the "Organizer" categories as it's doing this. So it's not just a preview render - at first anyway.
From there I selected all 32,000 files and rotated them Right. This took about 4 seconds on my machine. I rotated them back Left and again it took 4 seconds. Then I shift selected about half of the images and applied a 5 star rating to all of them. This operation took longer. My mouse was returned instantly but the 5 star Rating Category took about 20 seconds to finish adding the files 29, 112, 246, 317, etc until it stopped at 11,198. If it's in the middle of adding and you change your mind suddenly you can assign 2 stars to each in the selection (for example) and it will act like it took - but when you wait another 20 they will all be 5 stars. So if the next thing you want to do while it's tabulating them is is change them all - then you have to wait till it's done.
When i quit the app it asked me if I wanted to apply the changes i made and if I wanted to modify the original reference images, apply and copy, or apply and move the edited ones to it's own picture-base. I said no so I dunno how long that would take. I guess at the speed of the Filing System <shrug>.
Etc. It seems pretty good for a $35 tool. Not nearly as good as "GraphicConverter" which is simply awesome and a half but is limited to 8-bit files (It will open, and display, and edit deeper but it auto-converts to 8-bit on the way in)...
I guess GC is one that every mac user knows about!?! It's Mac only but blows away anything I've ever used and even knocks PhotoShop/Bridge in the dirt at some (lots?) stuff. I'll add it next in case there's a Mac user out there not in the know on that one.
GraphicConverter is another awesome tool for $35. It gets it's name because it started out life early on a monochrome Mac converting images from GIF, JPG and MacPaint. But in the 20 years it's been alive so much has been added to it that "Graphic Converter" isn't really a proper name for it any longer. Maybe it should be called "Speed Processor" instead or something. If you had a 1000 files you wanted to add a photo-boarder to, sharpen for print, and sharpen for screen, and make 3 different sizes of the screen ones, and have your watermark put on just the screen ones, save each to a different location or the same location under a different naming convention or image type - and... and... and... all in one shot and then save that script for next time too GC would be the tool you would want to use. That's not all it does of course. I think there are like 250 or 300 different processes you can apply to an image besides the usual tagging, sorting, searching, copying, and moving. It's a very mature and robust application. Easily worth 10x the asking price. The developer is very kewl too! So if there's some custom functionality you want and can convince him isn't already possible in the app as it is then you may be in luck! However since you can use most or all PhotoShop plug-ins with it - you may be a little hard pressed to find something it can't either do already on it's own or via plug-ins.
Papers for Mac. Awesome for us scientific types that have thousands of reports stored as PDF files. Also available on the iPhone now, bargain price ($25 for the computer & $5 for the iphone i think).
Allows you to organize papers into collections, tag papers, edit 'metadata', see previews, built in browser, search through various engines within app, match papers etc. etc.
Or.... Sign up at MacHeist.com and for $39.00 you get Acorn, plus 13 other Mac applications including games, video editing, 3D animation, etc. etc. And the funds they generate are donated to charity.
This specific deal ends today. So depending on your time zone, jump on it!!
Any good Windows file managers? I've been using Powerdesk for years but the latest Windows security patch seems to have broken it. Free is prefered but any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Very slick, very smooth GUI! I really enjoy using it! So far I've read 1,626,730 pages (or 4,109 E-Books and magazines) using it. Great stuff! (About 10 percent of that is on the topic of photography too.
They make an app called Leap that I guess does all the kinds of files typically in an OS X User's Home folder too. I wanna try that one out some day too. If it's anything like Yep then it ought to be very useful!
PaulS wrote:
WinRar for Windows is a great archival tool.
And a request:
Any good Windows file managers? I've been using Powerdesk for years but the latest Windows security patch seems to have broken it. Free is prefered but any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Paul
Directory Opus rocks pretty hard! The functionality is so extensive it's almost like multiplexing your whole system. And the simple everyday stuff is simple to do. It's a great tool with it's roots in Amiga where GUI file browsers met with the widest acceptance probably of any other platform - ever.
And just so Mac-folk don't feel left out there's Path Finder that's 60% or so of the functionality as D'Opus. http://cocoatech.com/ If you consider the AppleScript system entirely then Path Finder is pretty close to D'Opus tho perhaps not as convenient. Still PF is pretty awesome! I own it.
Bifurcator wrote:
Directory Opus rocks pretty hard! The functionality is so extensive it's almost like multiplexing your whole system. And the simple everyday stuff is simple to do. It's a great tool with it's roots in Amiga where GUI file browsers met with the widest acceptance probably of any other platform - ever.
PaulS wrote:
Any good Windows file managers? I've been using Powerdesk for years but the latest Windows security patch seems to have broken it. Free is prefered but any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Image Processing
...16 bit per channel, support of CMYK and Lab
...Color management with ICC profiles
...Lossless imaging
...Process digital photos
...Retouch, correct, ...
Browse
...IPTC and EXIF data handling
...Rotate images lossless
...Rename images and create catalogues
...Create HTML galleries
...Add and edit keywords
...Powerful search capabilities
Layout/Text
..."Real" PDF Import and Export (not just a big image)
...Multipage documents
...Calendar and barcode creation
...Rich text functions
Internet/Animations
...Create Flash and GIF animations
...Web Export
...Tile images, create buttons and image maps
Many more
...Batch conversion
...Create slideshows
...Record actions
...Print multipage documents, flyers and labels
...USB-Stick support
...Multiprocessor support
New in Version 15.0
64 Bit Version
Better user interface
...Docking helper dialogs
...Editing of color blends
...The Attributes dialog
...Formula support
Oh man, this thing rocks! I have Noise Ninja, NoiseWare Professional, and the pay version of NeatImage and none of them even come close to Topaz Denoise.
So all you folks that wanted to shoot in low light with ISO 6400 but hated the noise - this will take it ALL out. WOW! I'm seriously impressed.
It's multi-threaded too so if you're on an 8-core machine like me it'll be a little faster for ya.
Until I just went to the site I didn't realize how old the software is, but it is free and fast and bulletproof, at least on XP. Use it to batch rename files that are already on your hard drive... I use its find-and-replace option to replace _MG with a custom string so I can always keep the original 4-digit file number for reference to cutline information.
I'm liking what I like about Download Pro too... I'll have to check it out. It would be nice to rename during the download process, and converting to DNG is a bonus (one more tool to delay payment of the perennial Adobe tax).
7-Zip for various archive formats (rar, zip, tar etc.) -- open source and free. SyncToy for backups (although I recently switched to a different sync method). And various add-ons for Firefox -- FireFTP (my only FTP client) plus Firebug and WebDeveloper for web-related stuff.
1. Exif Pilot Pro - for adding to editing via batch multiple files. Good for adding copyright info, altho importing via Lightroom solves this. http://www.colorpilot.com/exif.html
This program will sync directories, make contact sheets, resize, watermark, and add text (such as Proof & Image numbers)all in a batch mode. It wil create/add to/remove from ZIP files. It will burn CD/DVDs from multiple subdirectories without recopying into one (Image Basket & Burn Basket), will do minor heal & clone and other adjustments without using Photoshop, and has an excellent sorting system.... I use this one every day, along with CS4 & Lightroom/Capture One
Will also take images and insert into your email program in a predetermined size.
While I don't use it in place of CS4 / Lightroom or Capture One Pro for adjusting / conversion, it is quicker for resizing down or adding watermarks. I do use it for almost everything administrative.
4. One other program for quick viewing that reads almost everything, and most of the time with new RAW formats, before anyone else - the www.faststone.org Image Viewer. Works well with www.Breezesys.com DSLRemote when shooting tethered.
Youy mentioned Breeze Systems. PC only, but some nice tools.
They are a little dated, but around 2001, 2002 you could't find tools to do teh same things. Now Lightroom lets you sort and tag, DPP or Zoombrowser or whatever lets you shoot tethered (or C1 Pro) etc
I still like BreezeBrowser for renaming files. I also like the slideshow for reviewing and ranking images.
I run the slideshow 3 times. First time, I just tag images that ate worth looking at again. Maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of images. Second pass, I rank the images, 1-5. On the 3rd pass, I revew only the top images, 1 or 2 (I use the ranking system backwards, 5 is suposed to be best.) Bump some up, some down. About 3 seconds per image on teh first pass, pretty fast.
Still much faster and easier for me than Lightroom or Bridge. Breezebrowser is also great for quickly reviewing the images in any diorectory when you afre tryiong to figure out WTF is on teh hard drive.
DSLRemote is a nicer program. Used it a few years ago for terthered shooting. Since moved on, but I'll give it another shot when I set up a new studio next mon th to compare apps.
How about iPhone apps? Nothing really interesting, except a camera program that makes the whole screen a "big button." Also lets you "zoom", which is really bs because it is just a software zoom, but in this case it is useful for snaps of teh dog, etc
I have BreezeSys DSLRRemote and Capture One Pro 4 for tethered so the iPhone app was just an experiment. I can see in specialized situations, might be usefull. I will have to look at BreezeBrowser again. Thanks
If you're on a single drive 7200 then maybe a minute. I get about 6X speed out of my RAID for this kinda thing - about 400MB/sec.
If you had a 1000 files you wanted to add a photo-boarder to, sharpen for print, and sharpen for screen, and make 3 different sizes of the screen ones, and have your watermark put on just the screen ones, save each to a different location or the same location under a different naming convention or image type - and... and... and... all in one shot and then save that script for next time too GC would be the tool you would want to use. That's not all it does of course. I think there are like 250 or 300 different processes you can apply to an image besides the usual tagging, sorting, searching, copying, and moving. It's a very mature and robust application. Easily worth 10x the asking price. The developer is very kewl too! So if there's some custom functionality you want and can convince him isn't already possible in the app as it is then you may be in luck! However since you can use most or all PhotoShop plug-ins with it - you may be a little hard pressed to find something it can't either do already on it's own or via plug-ins.