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.

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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