Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

[Jibz]

Good point, maybe the last page or so should be spliced to this thread -- I must admit I kept posting here because it seemed to be the more active thread .

[40hz]

Original comment retracted. With apologies to all.

[tomos]

Review of ACDSee Pro 5 here on the imaging review site
http://www.imaging-r...dsee-pro-5/index.htm

It's mainly a review of the new non-destructive editing of images - they give a very positive review, apart from interface annoyances.
Management gets very little attention.

They give the impression that it could be a good replacement for Lightroom - for those that cant, or dont want to, afford Lightroom.

some concluding remarks

The interface made using ACDSee Pro a less than pleasant experience but we enjoyed seeing the results of our efforts. So we have no little respect for what ACDSee has achieved with Pro. ... it knows how to save a difficult image.

... so much power packed into such an affordable package.
...
For some of us, ACDSee Pro may be the only option. It's nice to know it can keep up with anyone.
And for everybody else, well, don't look back, somebody may be gaining on you.

My queries are-

• has anyone here tried it?
• how did you get on?
• how good is the management/cataloging side of it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's on special offer till Sept 17th -for US IP's at any rate- US$59.99 - for me the special offer is "converted" to euros and adds up to over US$96:
[I really hate that BS - you click on a 59.99 offer and get that... It looks like, but isnt at all clear that that includes 15% VAT/tax - but that should only make it $69, *not* $96.]
http://www.acdsee.com/en/special-offers

[superboyac]

acdsee is a great program.  i still think the optimum interface was the one before this last major overhaul.  i've tried probably every dam image organizer/viewer/database program out there, and keep coming back to acdsee.

[DonL]

So I seek something with these features:

1. thumbnail mode
2. some very fast way to add a tag to selected file(s) (For example, single click a tag in a list to toggle a tag on/off for all selected)
3. some simple way to rename the actual image file name based on its EXIF timestamp and the tags added in step 2

-Nod5 (August 14, 2009, 06:18 PM)

Try XYplorer.
1. yes
2. yes
3. needs a simple script that you can pass through the address bar, e.g.:
        //prefix EXIF date to current filename:
        ::rename b, "<dateexif yyyymmdd_hhnnss>-*", p;

Further XYplorer offers a one-click solution to set the modified date to the EXIF date of a file (also bulk).

But note: XYplorer's EXIF functions will only be officially released in the next version! (8.30)

http://www.xyplorer.com/

-DonL (August 15, 2009, 02:23 AM)

Note that in the next version of XYplorer (11.60) setting the Created Date to the Exif date is built in (menu command, customizable keyboard shortcut). The function works on all selected files.
The recent versions of XYplorer add a lot of good stuff for photographers. E.g. check out the Floating Preview: http://www.xyplorer.....htm#FloatingPreview

[cmpm]

Thought this may be a good thread to post this update.
For Pictomio, now includes a free pictoGEO license key.

http://www.pictomio.com/Default.aspx

[edbro]

Thought this may be a good thread to post this update.
For Pictomio, now includes a free pictoGEO license key.

http://www.pictomio.com/Default.aspx

-cmpm (October 07, 2012, 08:33 AM)

I thought I'd give it a try.
First of all you have to contend with the asinine C/Net downloader trying to install 2 addons. Then once you get to the program install itself it tries to install a 3rd addon. Then after you get it all installed it refuses to run because you need at least DirectX 9 and you only have DirectX 11. (Yes, I see the stupidity in those numbers!)

[cmpm]

Use the "Direct Download Link" under cnet's link to skip their add-ons.

[edbro]

Why? It won't run anyways because I have DX11 and it needs at least DX9.

[cmpm]

It will work-the update for DX.
It doesn't matter if you have dx11 or not.
Worked for me, and i have W7.

[40hz]

FWIW I've pretty much switched over to

Darktable for everything and just use the collection and query features in that. (To me it seems very similar to Aperature.)

Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

But there's a catch. It only runs on Linux:

Prerequisites

    *nix (tested: Ubuntu [Karmic, Lucid, Maverick, Natty, Oneiric], Arch Linux, Funtoo, Gentoo, Fedora, Macintosh OS X with Macports)

We strongly recommend using a 64bit operating system!

Required packages:

libsqlite3, libjpeg, libpng, libraw (supplied), rawspeed (supplied), gtk+-2, cairo, lcms2, exiv2, tiff, curl, gphoto2, dbus-glib, gnome-keyring, fop, openexr[/li][/list]

You might need to get lcms2 from Pascal's ppa (see Ubuntu below)[/li][/list]

Optional: gcc >= 4.4 (OpenMP, earlier versions could not handle OpenMP statements in non-main threads)

Has good editing features and RAW support too. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a quick intro video:

[J-Mac]

But there's a catch. It only runs on Linux:

-40hz (October 07, 2012, 11:17 AM)

Well, ouch!   

Jim   

[40hz]

^i only said that in hopes of keeping the peace. 

(I'm 99% Linux most days.)

[CWuestefeld]

Just catching the conversation up...

ACDSee just released a new version, for Pro it's now at v6. It doesn't seem like a very major upgrade, but then the upgrade price is pretty reasonable. The one big feature I've been looking for, Face Recognition, is still not even whispered about there.

[tomos]

Could any users of Daminion comment on the programme?
I guess I'm especially interested in how it compares to other organisers - I know that's asking a lot (but no harm in trying).

I have an older version of Daminion installed. I will probably update it - but because I have no experience of other organisers I dont really have a concept of where it fits in with regard to others.

Also ACDSee has a fairly attractive offer at the moment which only runs for another 1.5 days or so, but me being 'unexperienced', it doesnt give me enough time to test it and get a feel for it ...

[CWuestefeld]

Also ACDSee has a fairly attractive offer at the moment which only runs for another 1.5 days or so, but me being 'unexperienced', it doesnt give me enough time to test it and get a feel for it ...

-tomos (February 02, 2013, 01:11 PM)

What ACDSee does, it does pretty well. Its biggest strength is that its database is really only an optimization: the primary datastore is the images themselves. All of the data is written into EXIF and IPTC data in the image files. This ensures portability and longevity of the data.

On the other hand, it has some significant holes that it doesn't do. The two biggies in my book are:

• Face recognition - Many modern tools (Picasa, Lightroom, and heck, even the free bundleware that came with my new printer) will automatically recognize faces and tag them with names. I've developed a workflow that uses Picasa to do the job and import its data, but it's rather cumbersome.
• Photoshop plugins - ACDSee Pro claims to be a full-featured image editor, and it is to a certain degree (e.g., non-destructive edit). But Photoshop plugins do a lot of the gruntwork for me (noise reduction, contrast adjustment, sharpening), and ACDSee isn't compatible.

All things considered, I find that ACDSee is still the best option. But like so many other programs, it makes me feel like it's just the least bad one out there.

[tomos]

^ thanks CW, that's very helpful info!

I've skimmed through the review again -the one I linked above- (imaging resource) which mainly looks at acdsee's editor - but they also have an earlier review which covers management etc (link). Combined with your comments, it sounds very good (even if it is unfortunately "just the least bad one out there").

Re Editing:
I dont work on many photos, but when I do it's usually a batch of them. I guess if I'm not happy with it's quality here, I'd have to use an external editor - then I gotta find an editor that does *everything* I want, but that's another story ;-)

[40hz]

But like so many other programs, it makes me feel like it's just the least bad one out there.

-CWuestefeld (February 02, 2013, 03:43 PM)

That is one of the most succinct observations I've read in a long time. Well said!

[Darwin]

I've given up on this category of software, for the reason that CWuestefeld notes above

it makes me feel like it's just the least bad one out there.

I get by now using Dopus 10 to organize my photos into folders and have a menagerie of different photo editors for which I have licenses and installers and can call up on if I need to edit anything. I have only Helicon Filter 5 installed at the moment but find that I use PaperPort 14 SET tools for just about everything. Helicon Filter will likely be uninstalled soon as I can't think of a compelling reason to keep it on my system... With that thought fixed in my head, I'm off to uninstall it now! I realize that this is highly individual, so take the foregoing with a grain of salt!

[cmpm]

I like Windows Live Photo Gallery, after using a few dozen others.
It can do most all of my viewing and editing needs with video support too.
I don't have thousands, just hundreds.
The thumbnail rendering and scrolling and navigation is fast enough for me.

[tomos]

I still havent bought anything to organise images

Just got an email offer** for Photo Supreme (which still gets called idimager on it's webpage - why change the name if you are not going to change the name ).
Anyways, the offer works out @ 20% off of 80 US$

Buy Photo Supreme now and receive a free upgrade to V3 as soon as it hits the release date.

intro video - from end of 2012:

I did see some good comments about it a while back, in a forum I can no longer find...
Did anyone here move on from IDImager to Photo Supreme ??

**

NEWSSUMMER2014

valid till end of August

[tomos]

When I think about it, what I would want from an image organiser would be:

• reasonable speed
• ease of organising, adding categories etc.
• good search
• ease of opening in my choice of external editor - maybe photoshop for this one, Sagelight for the next

• ease of use