| Welcome to the DAM Roundup | March 29th, 2008 |
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Thanks for stopping by.. My name is Andy and I am a photographer and book publisher who is obsessed with DAM or Digital Asset Management applications.
Since moving to digital photography about 5 years ago, I have switched between all the major catalog programs on the market.. at least twice! I’m still on the look for that all-in-one application that has a logicial, easy to use GUI, runs quickly and efficiently and is feature rich!
Recently, while running a few hundred Google searches for DAM products, I realized that there weren’t many sites on the internet dedicated to providing in-depth reviews of these products and the few that are there are woefully out of date. So, I welcome you all to The DAM Roundup!
Every couple weeks, I will provide an in-depth review of a particular DAM application. I will be using the latest Demo or Retail Version of the product available and will post detailed reviews with screenshots and possibly video walk-throughs. I am familiar with the general feel of most of the DAM products on the market, but will retest them all since new versions are constantly released with new features and bug fixes.
I will tend to focus on the same areas in each review and will award points for each of the sections:
- GUI
- Standard Features
- Advanced Features
- Performance
- Cost vs Features
I will also be looking for your comments and feedback for each review… if you find a mistake or disagree with a review.. please let me know!
Well - I hope this site will fill a hole out on the internet and help others find the right DAM product for their needs.
Note: If any developer would like me to review their product and they could send me either a retail version or demo of their product, I’d be happy to provide a unbiased detailed evaluation and would be most appreciative!
April 7th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I just downloaded the trial of Iview Media Pro 3.1 and was very impressed with its ability to collect 100 gigs of photos and its keywords from bridge and Imatch with out my intervention in a matter of minutes. I am also impressed with its simplicity so far, Its a quicker cataloger than Imatch which is great but to heavy of a program meaning it is to complicated for its full potential to be realized, I also been very disapointed in the offerings so far. Keep you posted CC
April 9th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Hi CC,
Thanks for stopping by and thank you for your comment. I agree with you about IView (and subsequently Media Expressions). The only restriction I’m not crazy about with Iview is the number of images/catalog restriction that is in place with both products. I also have some issues with how scrolling works in Media Expressions (its not smooth but almost appears to “jump” around.. very disconcerting as you use the product). And since Iview is not supported any longer, you might be better off with Media Expressions if you use a new camera not support by Iview.
In any event, I’ll be review Iview, Media Expressions and Imatch in great detail very soon.
Thx for your insight and please let me know how what you think including the pros and cons… I’d love to have the feedback!
May 6th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Dear,
One suggestion for DAM tools:
1) to build a standard list of criteria and features and to match each software against these
2) to list all DAM application on a single spreadsheet with these criteria, so that you can compare them in one screen
3) keep the present detailed reviews
Have yo considered http://www.ktools.net PHOTOSTORE?
For me, in addition to traditional DAM tools on PC, their ability to publish advanced web sites is crucial :
1) a search facility based on IPTC description/keywords/author
2) a lighbox with ordering/pricing facility (e.g. paypal)
I am using presently Extensis version 7.0 (see my website), but am considering to move to PHOTOSTORE because is is very flexible at building a commercial DAM site in a professional way for a limited cost (299 USD)
Regards, Philippe
May 11th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Hi Philippe,
Thank you so much for your comments… I do appreciate feedback!
For your suggestions - I agree 100% and will be implementing these in the next few days. I will be creating a ranking system - 0-3 “cameras” perhaps that will allow you to quickly compare strengths and weaknesses of each program.
I do want to stress that each user will have a different view for each DAM application. So, a program that doesn’t offer saved searches and receives a “1″ in that category may still appeal to usrs that do not need this capability…..
I have looked at Photostore in the past and it does look intriguing.. but I do not think I’ll be reviewing it in the near future as my main focus is on software that can be run locally by users (although, i’m sure you can setup Photostore locally via apache, it is not the main focus of the application).
I will be reviewing Extensis Portfolio 8.5 in the near future so stay tuned!
May 17th, 2008 at 7:07 am
When you’re reviewing Portfolio swing by the PortfolioFAQ if you get stuck with anything.
May 17th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Thx Mark - that’s a great site you have there and I’m suer will be very helpful with questions I have during my review.
I actually plan on putting that one together next and will then most likely tackle Imatch. Today, I am working on the comparison chart which will go a long way to show differences and similarities between products.
Thx again… Andy.
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Just an update I did end up buying Iview Media Expressions, after owning Imatch for three years and trying Portfolio 2 times “almost bought it”. I also like Idimage from Hertz but found it to offer to much. Iview is very simple and imports existing key words from the Adobe Bridge automatically, Also it build catalogs very fast and can be on an external hardrive so a person can work on cataloging with multiple computers, Just keep your master drive in sync with your active work drives, so far very easy to use and fast, We’ll I did buy it for 99 dollar upgrade which includes almost any product but a class in dog training, very easy to get a upgrade price making this product very affordable, Thats it and my final choice for now, CC
July 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 am
Hi Clint - Thanks for stopping back and posting your decision. Sounds like you got a great deal for Expressions and that it fits your needs and workflow which is the most important thing.
If you haven’t already, you might also want to head over to the DAMBook forums to read about how others use (primarily) Iview or Expressions to handle their organizing needs - there are some good discussions and helpful hints/ideas there.
Thx again for your comments… as an aside, I just re=installed Media Expressions and am currently working on the review. This will be the for the latest 2.0 post beta release version… stay tuned!
July 29th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Hello Andy!
Would be happy to publish information about your Photology tool for our photographers under “Photo club” section ( http://www.featurepics.com/News/News.aspx ).
Let me know if you want to. I believe it is an excellent tool for photographers who have tons of images to manage.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Hi Elena - yes - I’d appreciate a link back to the photology review using this link:
http://www.damroundup.com/category/reviews/photology/
Appreciate the mention! - Andy.
September 19th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Hi,
cPicture from http://cpicture.net is a popular tool used mainly in Germany. There are several language versions (including English) available if you want to to add it to your table.
Thanks!
September 20th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Thx Jurgen - I had not heard about cpicture but it does look quite good as a photo browser type program. I will add it to the list and may just go ahead and review it soon as a quick in between… Thx!
January 19th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Hi Andy, you probably mention it somewhere but are you doing your reviews from a PC or Mac?
January 19th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Hi Christine.. and welcome! I am using a PC as I still do not have access to a MAC. I would love to get one so I can review Aperture, iPhoto and some shareware programs I keep reading about.. but alas, I must stick with the PC world for now.
I need to post some more product updates but just have not had the time… I plan to add a few more to the site in the coming weeks.
Thx for stopping by… appreciate your comment!
February 5th, 2010 at 8:12 am
ACDSee Pro 2 and 2.5, which were buggy, have been replaced by the far better ACDSee Pro 3.
iView is long gone, now it is Microsoft Expression Media - but does it have a future?
If you are going to list EXIF tools, I suggest you have them in a separate category. Also you have missed the best one, called PhotoME. (And did you have Opanda?)
And the genuine DAMs, which you should define as those with a database, should be separated from file browsers like Bridge, FastStone and Photo Mechanic. (Had you noticed FastStone? Both fast and free!)
Thansk for thie interesting site, hope these comments help.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Hi Richard - thanks for your comments. It is just a matter of time (which I don’t have much of) to update many of these reviews with new revisions like I just did for Idimager.
I was hoping that I would have others helping out by now… but alas, no one else seems to have the same level of interest to create these reviews.
Stay tuned for more reviews and updates to the site as time permits!
March 14th, 2010 at 1:55 am
Hi Andy
Greetings from New Zealand.
Just watched your Idimager review video… Thank you ! Im new to DAM and spent some time working out which program to chose before buying IDI.. Ive had IDI about 3 weeks and have been trying to learn how to drive it with my 17,000 images.. scared to make mistakes .. Your video was very informative… if others made them it would be good to know where to look.
cheers
Des
March 17th, 2010 at 12:27 am
I adore your site greatly. Will bookmark. Keep up to briliant work on it. ty
March 17th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Thank you very much Des and Zelma… I appreciate you stopping by to view the videos and reviews.
Des: there are actually some other videos on youtube that Hert the developer has put together… you can find the link here: http://www.youtube.com/user/IDimagerTV
Enjoy and thx again for your comments! - Andy.