Hi all - welcome back to another detailed DAM review.  This time around, I’m pleased to provide you with a review of the brand new shiny version of Idimager… version 5!  I have been using this new release for many months now having been honored with an invite to the beta group and am very excited to share the new features of the product with you.

Since many of the program concepts have remained, those not familiar with Idimager might wish to get a quick overview of v4 by reading my review here: http://www.damroundup.com/2008/05/12/review-idimager-v40.

I thought I’d mix things up a bit this time around and tackle the review in a different format… a video review!  Let me start off by saying this was the first time I’ve ever attempted to do a video so please bear with me as we start rolling these out.

The review takes you through a pretty standard workflow session to help demonstrate the updated and new features that exist in v5.   There are a few things in the video that I show or discuss that I would like to clarify here…

a) You’ll notice in the video that I try to drag a catalog label in the Label Assignment Panel (LAP) in an attempt to create a new label set.  You’ll notice that it doesn’t work  :)  This is because I forgot that you must drag the label to the caption of the label set and not to the content area.   This has already been enhanced for the next maintenance update and now works as I tried to demonstrate in the video…

b) You’ll also notice that I create a recipe using the Glamour effect to demonstrate how recipes can be applied to an image.  Although I also mention that I’m using a slower machine… the Glamour effect is a heavy duty effect that claims its fair share of processor power… so perhaps that was a bad choice to demonstrate.  I just wanted to point this out because even on a slower machine, the other recipe functions will be applied much quicker than the Glamour effect. 

Ok.. so, with both of those items out of way.. I do hope you enjoy this review.

I wholeheartedly recommend Idimager v5 as your main DAM application.  Hert (and Brian) have taken an already outstanding product and pushed it forward into a better place.  As you will see in the review, auto-sync “just works” now, enhancements such as the Label Assignment Panel make tagging images much much quicker and items like Recipe’s extend the applications functionality requiring less need to jump to an image editor.  Overall, it is excellent!  The support remains top in the industry and the community is fantastic with knowledgable users always willing to help each other out and answer questions on an hourly basis.

Finally, please, please provide me with feedback (both good and bad) so I can continue to improve the site and how I present this material.  I also continue to look for folks that share the same interest I have and might be willing to do in depth reviews for me to post.  If you are interseted in helping… just let me know and we can discuss!

Enjoy the video review!! - Andy.

** UPDATE **  Unfortunately, it appears that this product is no longer available.  A real shame because the idea was a really good one.  In the meantime, I recommend you go check out this product instead that seems to do the same thing.. only better: http://mmk.f4.fhtw-berlin.de/Projekte/ImageSorter/.  Stay tuned!

My definition of DAM software is perhaps defined slightly more loosely than others. For me, DAM software is a product that allows you to maintain and find your images, music, fonts, and other digital assets. As a photographer, I tend to focus on managing my digital photo collection and doing things like applying metadata and creating client web galleries. For these actions, I tend to focus on using dedicated photograph management software (such as Idimager or Pro 2) but there are times when you just want to search for (and find) photos that are on your computer… and perhaps you don’t have keywords, tags or ratings already applied to them.

Recently, I needed to find a pink flower photo for a client whose poetry book I was working on. I knew I had attended a flower show a few years back but also knew that these images had not yet been keyworded (I know.. I know!) - I thought this was going to be a slow process for me, browsing for them manually or having to pull them all into my DAM application and exploring for it.

Luckily, I had recently received a message from a software developer who told me about a unique product his team had developed and was wondering if I would like to review it. He mentioned that it used a visual approach to finding images based on things like color and shapes… it sounded like a great idea and would be perfect for helping me to find the image I was looking for. Thus, here is my review of Photology - a unique DAM search tool that lets you find images visually wherever they reside on your system.

General Overview

From their website:

photology helps you navigate the flood of digital photos on your computer by finding photos using simple and intuitive filters like faces, sky, color, location, and time of day. no tags, no folders. it just knows.

The basic premise behind Photology is that users might not want to spend the time tagging, keywording and organizing photos but simply wish to find their photos based on items like color, date and whether the photo was taken during day or outside. In theory, this is a good idea as, in my example above, I was simply looking for a Yellow Flower… Let’s see how the software works.

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Reviewing DAM products takes a lot of patience… as soon as you finish one review, you are eager to get started on the competition and see how they compare. Having just reviewed Idimager, I immediately began work reviewing our next product: IMatch! I have spoken with many photographers that use either program and they are always comparing Idimager and IMatch to each other. So, here is my take on Imatch!

General Overview

IMatch is a technical photographer’s dream program. As with Idimager, IMatch has been developed and is supported by a single developer, Mario Westphal. The product contains a full suite of management features that let you organize and find your images fast.

Before getting into the detailed review, I do want to fully disclose that Mario did provide me with a press license for the software so I could test the features beyond the 30 day trial. As with my review of Idimager, I assure everyone that it did not affect my review of the product in any way. Ok, on with the review!

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As I speak to more and more photographers about DAM applications, I tend to hear the same thing - they want simple applications that run fast. Well, this next product seem to fit the bill and may be why it is a major player in many photographer’s workflow. What is the product you ask? Well, I’m proud to present you with a detailed review of Photo Mechanic.

General Overview

I try to keep on top of about 20 forums on a daily basis. Some are certainly more active than others and they run the gamut from scrapbookers all the way to professional photographers. No matter where I am, I see the same question asked over and over… “which product should I use to manage my digital assets?”. When reading responses from other users, it is amazing to see the number of different products that people recommend and it reminds me that what doesn’t appeal or work for one user, it perfect for another. One product I see mentioned over and over is Photo Mechanic (called PM from here on out… that’ll save some time!). PM is more of a photo browser than a true DAM application since no catalog is used to track XMP information. But, it has a lot going for it.. thus, here is my detailed review of Camerabits Photo Mechanic (ok.. one more time and then I’ll use PM).

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Having taken a week off after my lengthy Idimager review, I decided to jump back on the wagon and get right back to reviewing products. I randomly chose a product that I’ve been looking at for awhile now… so, please join me in welcoming my newest review… for Extensis Portfolio 8.51.

General Overview

Extensis provides the following description on their website:

Surprisingly affordable, Portfolio quickly handles the tasks of locating, organizing, archiving and publishing your digital work.

After reading this, I was on a mission to see how well the software held up to this statement when it comes to managing photographs. Now, I must admit, having just reviewed both Pro 2 and Idimager, any future DAM review will most likely be compared directly to these products. They both scored very well in my opinion with Idimager 4.0 being the best DAM product I have used to date. So, I was hopeful Portfolio would continue the streak of excellent DAM applications….

As you will see below, however, Portfolio falls a bit short of these applications in most categories and even though it shows promise, just doesn’t rise to the same level as Pro 2 or Idimager. Read on for all the details!

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Ok everyone.. are you ready? I’ve been asked the same question over and over by lots of folks since I started DAMRoundup: “when are you going to be doing a review of Idimager?”. My response is always… “Soon”. Well, I finally have pulled together the review and do hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. So without further ado…. I present my review and thoughts on Idimager 4.0.

General Overview

Idimager is a fully fledged DAM application in every sense of the word. Written and supported by a single developer, Hertwig van Zwietering, the product contains just about every asset management feature that both amateurs and professionals need to organize and utilize their photo collection. Before getting into the detailed review, I do want to fully disclose that Hert did provide me with a full version of the software so I could test the features beyond the 30 day trial. While I am most appreciative of this generous gesture, I assure everyone that it did not affect my review of the product in any way. Ok, with that bit of info out of the way…. let’s get on with the review!

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I thought it would be nice to take a look at a tool that while not technically a DAM application, is very helpful in managing a specific subset of IPTC/XMP photo data: GPS Coordinates. Not only is this application quite useful and well put together.. but this gem is actually freeware! So, without further ado, here is my review of Geosetter.

General Overview

I ran across a mention of Geosetter while reading some posts on one of the various Photography forums I frequent on a daily basis. It was hidden in a post that mentioned how some very nice software is coming from German developers lately. I decided to hit the link and see for myself… and I am very glad I did!

Geosetter is (as described on the company website):

“a freeware tool for Windows for showing and changing geo data of image files (e.g. images taken by digital cameras).”

And, this is exactly what the software is used for - adding GPS data into the Exif/IPTC and XMP areas of your digital images. Now, I can clearly see the usefulness of this and think this will be the next big thing that most camera vendors start (some already do) incorporating into all their cameras (SLR and compact combined). Armed with this info in the exif of every photo, DAM applications will be able to extract the data and show you exactly where that American Avocet photo was taken. Imagine looking through your database at a Lady Slipper flower and being able to find it in the same spot years later by using the GPS data. Good Stuff.

Well, until the day this is a standard feature, you can either:

• buy a GPS receiver, manually track the GPS coords for each photo and then enter the data manually into the XMP of the photo
• use a tool that syncs the GPS receiver data with the date/time of each photo to enter the data
• or buy a dedicated hotshoe GPS receiver that will add the data to each photo as it is taken.

All 3 options are fine for future photos.. but how do you get all that data into your current photo collection quickly and easily? Well.. I’ll be using Geosetter to do this job… let me tell you why.

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Hi there… as promised, here is my first detailed DAM review. In this episode, we take a look at Pro 2 which is a DAM application by ACDSee geared towards the professional photographer. So… here we go!

General Overview

ACDSee Pro 2 Photo Manager (herein called Pro 2), is touted on their website as:

“…the most powerful software platform for viewing, processing, editing, organizing and publishing your photos.”

This certainly caught my attention and therefore, I downloaded and installed the 30 day demo and started exploring and playing. Now, I should mention that I’ve been a fan of ACDsee for a long time having used their photo “manager” back when it was nothing more than a Windows photo viewer for Windows 95 (ie: ACDsee 1.0). Over the years, I continued to use the product but eventually moved away from it as it gained too many functions that weighed it down as a simple image viewer (I had discovered Irfanview…). So, as I waited for the demo to download, I was hopeful that this newest product would still contain the quickness of that simple viewer along with the advanced functionality needed by digital photographers to manage their growing collections… I am happy to say that (for the most part) Pro 2 delivers on both of these wishes.

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