[kent m]

Hi

I've been using iViewMediaPro for ages but am looking to change to a different software for organizing and viewing images. I have thousands of images and will continue to add more so it needs to be pretty robust. I'd like a certain amount of database features as well to help organize.

Any suggestions?

[Footy]

Are you using MediaPro 3? I see Microsoft has taken it over and turned it into Expression Media 2.

[kent m]

HI,

using 3.1.2 but its still called iViewMediaPro in the version I have.

I was aware that it had been bought by MS but haven't checked it out in a while.

I'm finding that its great for viewing and I like the organization & file info tools but with the number of images i have its incredibly slow to respond... several seconds some times to open a Catalog Folder or update the Catalog Folder list. As I'm working on a reorganization this is pretty cumbersome so I'm curious what else is out there for this sort of thing...

Or does a newer version of iView/Expressions speed things up at all?

[OreoCookie]

Aperture and Lightroom manage photos very well. I've switched from iView Media Pro (version 2.5 was the last one I've actively used, I think) and Aperture is lightyears ahead. No more corrupted links to images in the iView library, no more saving the database, it just works. You can download a trial version. Aperture allows you to store backups of your photos on external drives (arbitrarily many) and manages those backups for you. It's very neat.

Ditto for Lightroom which I don't like personally, but I know it's a capable app. Adobe offers a demo version, too.

If you are searching for Aperture Lightroom, you'll find many threads on which one is better, but really both have their strong points and each app appeals to a different type of person.

But beware, these are pro apps, i. e. not iTunes. They are easy and intuitive to use if you know what they can do. But their feature set is quite big.

So one thing you can do with these apps is edit (non-destructively) and then you decide you would like to photoshop an image. Aperture creates a rendering of the file and groups it with the original in the library. Once you hit save in Photoshop, the edited version is in the library.

PS Aperture and Lightroom only manage photos, they do not manage videos and other `digital assets.'

[kent m]

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out.

I'm not intimidated by dense apps as long as they're well designed. I'm actually the type that gets annoyed by apps like iDVD.