Digital Asset Management

We're thinking of buying some software, my manager has asked me to look at Microsofts iview mediapro.



I'd really rather not put any Microsoft software on my mac unless necessary, there's a downloadable 21 day version available.



So, I thought i'd ask you lovely people if you knew/were using any recommended alternatives?



Hope to hear from you, kind regards

Alex
Digital Asset Management
Well, there's a new program called Lightroom.....



Or if you were just thinking outside the box, I guess I'd recommend Final Cut Pro, or Doom 12....:)



Could you say a bit more about the parameters you're to work in?
Digital Asset Management
Try iView Media Pro - you give a pretty silly reason not to do so. Apart from anything else, the current version of the program was developed before Microsoft bought the company.



But you don't describe your needs. What types of files? Photographs only or more? What sort of volume? Single or multiuser access?



John

Hi, thanks.

I know it's a silly reason, without the knowledge I just wondered though what alternatives people might know of...



We're wanting to manage a large photo library (10s of thousands), inc: logos/photos/pdfs etc multi user access, we want to add metadata and backup - the usual asset management requirements.

Alex

Alex, check out the specifications for LR and you will find that some of the things you require aren't yet available in LR. It will do some if not most of your wishes but would probably be unworkable in version !.

Lightroom is OK for processing and managing photographs, TIF, PSD, but it's not intended as a DAM program for all types of files. I'd put iView and Extensis Portfolio firmly on your list - if it matters at all, both were developed for the Mac and then ported to Windows.



iView has the best all round solution but is single user. You can get round this to some extent. It also has a 2Gb limit on an individual catalogue's file size, but you can work around this with big collections. It can write metadata back into many file types including raw files - not everyone will want to do this, but others like it and it makes the metadata very portable. No DAM program is for life.



Portfolio has proper multiuser access (which means extra cost) and is more scalable. So you can put far more pictures into a single catalogue and even hook up a database like Oracle. It may look clunkier but has some advanced options.



Maybe check out the discussions at http://thedambook.com/smf/ ?



John

Super!

Many thanks for your posts.

Just trawling the DAM forums now.

kind regards

Alex

I used iView before Lightroom. Once Microsoft bought it I began looking for an alternative since I'm a Mac user and suspect Microsoft will incorporate more and more of their proprietary junk into it shortly.



On the other hand iView is cheap and will allow you to do much of what you describe. The image manipulation tools aren't great but I like the file utilities much more than the ones currently available in Lightroom. I think the overall database operations are faster in iView at the moment - especially for large file sizes.



I would say the decision comes down to timing. If you need something RIGHT NOW buy iView and use it until Adobe gets Lightroom up to speed. If you do get iView try to get v3.1.2. I believe this is the last version that had little more than a Microsoft logo on it. (I'm not sure what version they are shipping now.)



On the other hand if you have some time before you need to load all 25k images into the db think about Lightroom. This is true especially if you are working with a Mac platform.



Or just buy both. I mean, we are talking about less than $400 for the two if you move today.

Correcting some facts, Microsoft have not had any input on iView 3.1.3, the current version, and the same guys - all Mac nuts - are still developing it.



Remember the OP spoke of multiuser access....



John

John,



I realize the guys who wrote iView are Mac guys and I think it's been a great program so far. I chose it over Aperture and I'm a deep Mac guy. But Microsoft owns them now and it is only a matter of time before the program is loaded down with the proprietary elements of Microsoft. It has to happen I think. I say that because MS is looking for products it can use to challenge Adobe so I don't expect there to be anything more than tacit support for links to Adobe products. Looking deeper, MS has tended to buy great products (recall Foxpro, Excel, etc.) and bend them around to require Windows architecture and infrastructure. I think iView will move out of the control of the current developers as soon as MS wants to incorporate whatever approach to digital image manipulation it wants to propagate. And I don't see anything beneficial in that course for a Mac user.



Just my opinion, of course. And I don't know I would turn down such a pay day (being bought my MS) should I ever be confronted with one.



At which point words such as these may come back to cost me...



I still have iView on my machines (laptop %26amp; tower). I almost turned back to it for a large project I had to handle this weekend. Looking back I could have accomplished my tasks faster in iView. This time. I'm devoting time and effort to learning LR now for all the reasons I noted above. I just don't believe iView will remain a viable product for me for much longer.