Viewers, DAMs and managing one's images

[Ian]

I'm trying to standardise on one application to manage my image library - which has several tens of thousands of images stored on the hard drives of several PCs, several external hard drives, CDs and DVDs.

The functionality I need goes like this: Viewer - fast and easy to use thumnail, sized to fit screen and 1:1 (100%) viewing, exif and other metadata access and editing (applicable to several selected images), Database - ability to rate images and search metadata via key words quickly and reliably, including removable media

Applications I have been looking at include ACDSee Pro 2: Great as a viewer, with good thumbnail management and the ability to batch edit names and metadata very easily. Image editing and tweaking features are not required because I have Lightroom and Photoshop. From a database point of view, I'm a bit nervous about the robustness of the system - it has proven unreliable in less stable previous versions.

Adobe Lightrooom: Not sure that it's ideal for managing so many images across so many types of storage media - comments most welcome!

Adobe Bridge (CS3): I have this but find it a bit slow and haven't used it that much. I recognise its power, though, and its RAW support is of course excellent.

What else do folks here use? For my own use, I'm only interested in Windows apps, but please do comment about Mac for interested parties and for comparison.

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: Viewers, DAMs and managing one's images

Adobe Lightrooom: Not sure that it's ideal for managing so many images across so many types of storage media - comments most welcome!

Ian

I've found no problem with the quantity of images and I've tried 2 methods of using external drives with it. One was to create a new lrcat file for each external, the second was to have a single lrcat file which includes the file data from several drives. Both work OK but on balance the single file is probably easier to manage and saves having to press Ctrl when opening and then browsing to the appropriate drive. However the library folders do appear in red unless the appropriate drive is switched on. So far as all the other criteria you mention is concerned LR seems to fulfill them all and of course its kind of integrated with CS3.

[Tinka]

Re: Viewers, DAMs and managing one's images

Ian,
I may be a bit nieve, but have you tried the built in VISTA picture gallery I have only about 1000 images and have just converted to VISTA on a new comp, I am finding it great, but on a personal level not commercial of course.

[Ian]

Re: Viewers, DAMs and managing one's images

Ian,
I may be a bit nieve, but have you tried the built in VISTA picture gallery I have only about 1000 images and have just converted to VISTA on a new comp, I am finding it great, but on a personal level not commercial of course.

Hi Tinka - I have Vista on my laptop - it's definitely an improvement over XP's image browser, but it's still limited for what I want.

Ian