[DominikHoffmann]

I am wondering, whether iPhoto will be of any use for organizing my existing collection of photos. Or, would I have to import everything from a digital camera via USB?

[FXWizard]

Originally posted by DominikHoffmann:
<STRONG>I am wondering, whether iPhoto will be of any use for organizing my existing collection of photos. Or, would I have to import everything from a digital camera via USB?</STRONG>

From the

iPhoto FAQ:

Can I use a film camera with iPhoto?
To use iPhoto with your film camera, you will need to convert your negatives, prints, or slides to digital images. Many traditional film processing stores offer this service at the time you take your film in for processing. You can also convert your photos to digital images by scanning your negatives or slides with a film scanner. Or you can scan your prints with a flatbed scanner.

Does iPhoto work with flatbed scanners or film scanners?
Yes. To use iPhoto with your flatbed or film scanner, simply scan your negative, slide, or print with the scanner and save the resulting files to a folder on your Mac. You can import the images directly into iPhoto with the Import command. You can also drag the folder of images directly onto the iPhoto interface and add photos that way.

So...it appears that as long as the image is already in an electronic format, the Import command will allow you to bring it into iPhoto.

[tr]

yeah, you can import any digital picture format you have on your computer. i've successfully imported jpg (from a picture cd), gif, tiff, and even multi-layered photoshop (psd) files. works fine.

tr

[83caddy16v]

yeah, its working fine for me, a folder of jpgs...it works great.

I was hoping it would recognize my Scandisk smart media reader but it looks like I still need to hop into Classic mode to pull off camera photos. My old Olympus D450Z doesn't support usb itself.

No problem importing files, but I think iview Media Pro is still more useful because you can create catalogs or albums of photos on cd's without having to load them all on your hard disk. iphoto's main drawback for me is that you have to put everything on your hard disk to make it useful. I have too many pictures for that. The thumbnail resizer is pretty slick though.

Originally posted by DominikHoffmann:
<STRONG>I am wondering, whether iPhoto will be of any use for organizing my existing collection of photos. Or, would I have to import everything from a digital camera via USB?</STRONG>

Ok. After two days of use, here's an (cough, cough) unbiased review:

I LOVE the interface and the options.
1. Zooming preview is beyond incredible. (Yeah !STEVE!and Quartz!)
2. Easy IMPORT is beyond cool.
3. Keywords - beyond AWESOME !
4. Placement and type of functions and controls work extremely well and are mac-like and intuitive.


I HATE some of the un-controlled non-intuitive options.
1. Drag and drop a folder into an album and . . .
it goes into the LIBRARY! Hey, that's not intuitive or HIG compliant. It should appear in the current album !!!
2. Drag and drop folders or photos and . . .
they have new names! Hey, that's not intuitive or HIG compliant. If I want new names I'll RENAME the suckers. So while you are at it, fix it so when I drop a folder I get a NEW ALBUM as well named - you got it - the FOLDER NAME !
3. Export your newly imported, named, and edited albums/photos to HTML and the resultant thumbnails and html are labeled . . .
with non-relevant NUMBERS ! That's not intuitive! And while we are at it, the solo-pages created should link BACK to the index page. Sheesh.
4. Export your newly imported, named, and edited albums/photos as files and you get . . .
files labeled, again, with NON-RELEVANT numbers. Make it named albums = named folders and named photos = named photos please.

So for now, my thousands of organized and labeled digital shots won't go into iPhoto, yet. Darn it.

And new shots will most likely go into something else as well where un-cotrolled file renaming is NOT happening.

All in all a very good start. It works very well and has multiple GREAT features with more to come.

The books alone are worth exploring

Would appreciate some intelligent rebuttal . . .

[FormerLurker]

Nice post, chris!! I got no rebuttal, intelligent or otherwise

I agree very much with your Loves and Hates, but I have a HATE or two to add....

HATE the redeye correction.
Is it just me, or is it pretty random and useless?
It would be MUCH easier to use, if you could option-click (or something like that) on an eye, to bring it instantly to full zoom, centered on the click-point. The current methods for zooming in on the 5 or 10 pixels of a red eye SUCK, from a UI standpoint.


HATE HATE HATE the fact that there are no basic LEVELS correction! This is an essential function for a digital photo handler!!

I MIGHT settle for an AppleScript to call up AutoLevel corrections from Photoshop (once it finally gets dragged to OS X), or maybe Graphic Converter (iPhoto is making me apprreciate GC as a Photoshop substitute - BEWARE, Adobe!!)

What, are we too afraid of stepping on Photoshop's toes to include any useful editing functions in iPhoto besides cropping????

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: FormerLurker ]