I received an email the other day from Murat Korkmazov, the business development director of Daminion Software, an archiving program touted as being designed as a "low-cost alternative for the needs of the small team."
I visited the website and must say I was impressed with the ease of navigating the site and the robust set of features of the product were equally attractive. They also have a server version as well. Finally, the pricing seemed too good to be true -- with deep discounts for education departments.
OK, so did I download a demo and give it a test run?
Nope.
Unfortunately, Daminion is a Windows-only program, which seems a bit odd since most professional photographers I know and certainly most design departments in this neck of the woods run on and around Macs. But Daminion is a Russian company which might partially explain the Windows-only requirement -- due to cost and ease of acquisition, many computer users outside the US and Canada have come to rely on the cheapness and accessibility of PCs driven by Windows.
In any case, according to Murat they have no plans for producing a Mac version anytime soon.
Whatever the reason, it's too bad because this program looked pretty good -- the UI that I could see from the screen shots reminded me a bit of the old Expression Media 2 -- a wonderful catalog-driven archiving program now iterating under the name of Media Pro at Phase One. Plus it was loaded with a ton of features that just cried out to be tested.
I'm providing a link to the company's site -- or you can cut 'n paste the URL if you prefer: http://daminion.net/ in hopes that someone may test it out and let us know if this is a reasonable compromise between Bridge and a full blown DAM.
And best of luck to Murat and his colleagues in Stavropol, Russia.
Oh, and one final word: they do have offices in Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC.
Showing posts with label software. Show all posts
Showing posts with label software. Show all posts
Friday, January 20, 2012
Thursday, April 21, 2011
A very brief review of cataloging software
No matter how well Bridge works right now, at some point it will no longer do what we want and expect it to do -- of course, it shouldn't be doing it now but it does. And for that we should be thankful.
For those of us in search of the holy grail of photo archiving, finding a resource that compares the wide variety of tools is scarce indeed. Fortunately, there is an excellent, albeit dated source on the Impulse Adventure website. There you can find a very helpful table comparing the various large- and small-scale programs. (You can also cut and paste this URL: http://www.impulseadventure.com/photo/flow-catalog-compare.html.)
For enterprise level collections (50k images on up) you would probably do well to consider cross-platform systems with robust cataloging features:
Of course, licensing for large numbers of users will drive the costs up no matter which catalog program you settle on.
Anyway, last year I tested Expression Media 2 and Portfolio 8.5 (single user) products. My primary criterion was discovering how many image files could one catalog handle before it slowed to a crawl or simply stopped working altogether. Our unique situation requires that users in our creative group be able to search as many images as quickly as possible. It's pointless to create 10, or 30 or 50 or more catalogs since searching requires searching across ALL images, and not just selected catalogs. And searching across catalogs is not possible.
That's the challenge.
I spent some time with Expression Media 2 (before it was sold to Phase One) and found its features robust and catalogs responsive. I liked it's easy to learn and easy to use interface. Cataloging was not a problem and searching within catalogs seemed to work fine. Please note I only catalogued a fraction of our image library, however. The process at the time was simply too tedious and time-consuming.
Portfolio 8.5 also has a nice interface but I found the cataloging of our large library incredibly slow and the catalogs it did produce were often unresponsive in searching. In earlier tests with Portfolio I was disappointed in the program's handling of xmp metadata, particularly keywords created in Adobe programs.
I have to admit that my tests were by no means systematic and I never did catalog the entire library so your experience may be different.
I am presently finishing cataloging our entire library using Adobe Lightroom 2 and my next series of posts will focus on the ongoing lessons from that experience.
If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to contact me: steve at steve soper dot com.
Have a great spring.
But someday the image library will have to migrate to a program specifically designed to manage a large collection of photos, probably a catalog-based, database software program that focuses on organizing and cataloging images and digital assets.
Adobe Lightroom, Apple's Aperture (Mac only), Expressions Media (Phase One) and Extensis Portfolio are four of the more well-known programs that also allow non-destructive image editing and offline workflow as well.
Adobe Lightroom, Apple's Aperture (Mac only), Expressions Media (Phase One) and Extensis Portfolio are four of the more well-known programs that also allow non-destructive image editing and offline workflow as well.
I should mention that hybrid programs such as Apple's iPhoto and Photoshop Elements both have cataloging and image adjustment features. However, iPhoto is Mac only and neither were really designed to handle the demands of large image libraries. iPhoto also lacks the more (much more) robust tagging, search and editing features required for anything other than the most basic of image collections.
For enterprise level collections (50k images on up) you would probably do well to consider cross-platform systems with robust cataloging features:
- ACDSee Pro 4 (WIndows only) - $240
- ACDSee Pro (Mac) - $170
- Expression Media 2 - $200
- FotoStation Pro - €489/$700
- Lightroom (Adobe) - $300
- Photo Mechanic - $150
- Portfolio 8.5 (Extensis) - $200
Of course, licensing for large numbers of users will drive the costs up no matter which catalog program you settle on.
Anyway, last year I tested Expression Media 2 and Portfolio 8.5 (single user) products. My primary criterion was discovering how many image files could one catalog handle before it slowed to a crawl or simply stopped working altogether. Our unique situation requires that users in our creative group be able to search as many images as quickly as possible. It's pointless to create 10, or 30 or 50 or more catalogs since searching requires searching across ALL images, and not just selected catalogs. And searching across catalogs is not possible.
That's the challenge.
I spent some time with Expression Media 2 (before it was sold to Phase One) and found its features robust and catalogs responsive. I liked it's easy to learn and easy to use interface. Cataloging was not a problem and searching within catalogs seemed to work fine. Please note I only catalogued a fraction of our image library, however. The process at the time was simply too tedious and time-consuming.
Portfolio 8.5 also has a nice interface but I found the cataloging of our large library incredibly slow and the catalogs it did produce were often unresponsive in searching. In earlier tests with Portfolio I was disappointed in the program's handling of xmp metadata, particularly keywords created in Adobe programs.
I have to admit that my tests were by no means systematic and I never did catalog the entire library so your experience may be different.
I am presently finishing cataloging our entire library using Adobe Lightroom 2 and my next series of posts will focus on the ongoing lessons from that experience.
If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to contact me: steve at steve soper dot com.
Have a great spring.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Image cataloging software: the browser approach
There are few low-cost database digital asset management systems available today, and with the growing trend toward cloud computing and storage that number is likely to decrease in the years to come. Extensis Portfolio 8.5 (standalone), Adobe Lightroom 3, Apple Aperture 3 and Phase One EM2 are the only serious reasonably-priced DAM options available. But even those programs can become costly when you starting adding up the licensing fees for multiple users.
If you need to organize your organizations image collection and can't afford an enterprise-level digital asset management system or a catalog-based (i.e., database) program your best bet is a browser-driven program.
Perhaps the best known browser program is Adobe Bridge CS4 that ships with nearly all Adobe image editing and suite programs. Easy to set up and easy to use, Bridge is in some ways a more sophisticated "Finder" (for the Mac).
A stand-alone program, Bridge also possesses a very robust set of organizational tools. In fact, my browser of choice for the Johnson & Wales University image library is Bridge CS4. But Bridge is not, as we discussed in a previous entry, a cataloging program, and as a result has several important drawbacks, particularly non-accessibility offline and the need to continually update the local cache.
Bridge is ideal primarily for its ease of use, ubiquitous nature and of course cost (free). But it is, really, only a stopgap method for any large image collection. If you're using Bridge (like we are) you must start planning for the next phase in managing your image library. Given the nature of software Bridge will eventually reach its breaking point -- you need to be prepared for that eventuality.
Next: catalog or database software for image archiving.
If you need to organize your organizations image collection and can't afford an enterprise-level digital asset management system or a catalog-based (i.e., database) program your best bet is a browser-driven program.
Perhaps the best known browser program is Adobe Bridge CS4 that ships with nearly all Adobe image editing and suite programs. Easy to set up and easy to use, Bridge is in some ways a more sophisticated "Finder" (for the Mac).
A stand-alone program, Bridge also possesses a very robust set of organizational tools. In fact, my browser of choice for the Johnson & Wales University image library is Bridge CS4. But Bridge is not, as we discussed in a previous entry, a cataloging program, and as a result has several important drawbacks, particularly non-accessibility offline and the need to continually update the local cache.
Bridge is ideal primarily for its ease of use, ubiquitous nature and of course cost (free). But it is, really, only a stopgap method for any large image collection. If you're using Bridge (like we are) you must start planning for the next phase in managing your image library. Given the nature of software Bridge will eventually reach its breaking point -- you need to be prepared for that eventuality.
Next: catalog or database software for image archiving.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Microsoft drops Expression Media 2 and Phase One picks it up
Just in case you didn't get the word last year:
On May 25, 2010, Microsoft announced that Phase One had acquired Expression Media 2 (EM2); as of August 25 Phase One took full control of customer support for the product.
Phase One is widely known for their high-end digital camera systems, digital backs and digital photo software and their acquisition of EM2 provides them with a robust and competent digital asset management program.
As of this writing, Expression Media 2 upgrade is selling on Amazon for a little over 80 bucks and the full product is available on the Phase One website for $199 (Windows and Mac versions available).
Next: I'll talk a bit about the handful of low-cost DAM programs available today.
On May 25, 2010, Microsoft announced that Phase One had acquired Expression Media 2 (EM2); as of August 25 Phase One took full control of customer support for the product.
Phase One is widely known for their high-end digital camera systems, digital backs and digital photo software and their acquisition of EM2 provides them with a robust and competent digital asset management program.
As of this writing, Expression Media 2 upgrade is selling on Amazon for a little over 80 bucks and the full product is available on the Phase One website for $199 (Windows and Mac versions available).
Next: I'll talk a bit about the handful of low-cost DAM programs available today.
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