An interim report for those cataloging their digital images or
considering it.
I've been in need of cataloging software for some time. I've got a
pretty good memory, but its capability has been outstripped.
When MS bought iView, they repackaged it as Expression Media and
packages of the old version were available at half price with free
upgrade to the new version when it came out. My research had convinced
me there was no killer app for this purpose, but that iView looked like
the best choice for my needs. So I bought it.
When I got the upgrade, I installed it, fired it up, and told it to
catalog my image HD. It went into some sort of mostly comatose appearing
state for many, many hours, and looked like it would never recover. It
would occasionally respond to a mouse click or keystroke, after a
lengthy delay. Eventually, I gave up and killed it. Even clicking the
'X' wouldn't do that, I had to use the OS to kill it.
It also affected the response of other apps running - not a very well
behaved background app. I suppose I did this a couple more times, giving
up in between.
This week, I tried it again, feeding it a couple of very small image
directories. The problem became clear - it was stone slow! Every file it
cataloged took 3-10 seconds, depending on size and type. So I did some
looking on the web. Quite a few folks moaning about how MS had killed
off a good product. so I backtracked, installing iView MediaPro 3. I did
a quick comparison. The MS version was maybe a bit slower and balkier,
but not much.
I suppose I shouldn't have worried. I could just feed it a piece at a
time and let it run overnight. Once the catalog(s) were created, it
would probably be all right. Still, I wanted to move forward. And I
simply hate things that run slow when it obviously isn't necessary. I've
written my share of software, and won't stand for something
unresponsive. Opening a JPEG that would appear instantly in FastStone
Viewer took several seconds in iView. That didn't bode well for using it
to go through my files doing cataloging.
So, being the eternal optimist, I checked out the trial version of
Expression Media 2. In the features list, they talk about improved
speed, up to 10x on some operations. MS is like everybody else, averse
to mentioning that they sold you a dog, so I guess they knew it was so
awful before that they figured they'd not sell upgrades without 'fessing
up and really fixing it.
They didn't lie! Not only is cataloging much faster, but the interface
isn't crippled while it's doing cataloging. The usage difference is
night and day.
The bad news is that they want another $100 to upgrade, bringing my
total cost up to the full retail price. I guess I should be happy at the
prospect of buying something that actually works?
Now one disk is cataloged, and it's on to another. Then on to the
really serious work of setting up the index keywords for all those
files. Ugh. First, I'll see if the paid for version is usable for that
and searching, once the heavy cataloging lifting is over.
Moose
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