Ingest feature

[Matt]

I would like to have the ingest dialog box turn a different color when the process is done.  I know the status bar works it's way across and the words "ingest complete" come up, but I ingest on multiple laptops at the same time (for multiple photographers) in a loud environment.  If there was a super obvious notification that I could see from 8 feet away.....it would keep me pacing around like an expecting father.
Just a thought.
Thanks in advance.

[Kirk Baker]

I would like to have the ingest dialog box turn a different color when the process is done.  I know the status bar works it's way across and the words "ingest complete" come up, but I ingest on multiple laptops at the same time (for multiple photographers) in a loud environment.  If there was a super obvious notification that I could see from 8 feet away.....it would keep me pacing around like an expecting father.

How about an indicator that changes color, like red for in progress, yellow for completed with errors, and green for completed, no errors?  I suppose it could be a preference to have it flash wildly if that would help

We could also have it play a sound of your choice.

-Kirk

[Matt]

I would like to have the ingest dialog box turn a different color when the process is done.  I know the status bar works it's way across and the words "ingest complete" come up, but I ingest on multiple laptops at the same time (for multiple photographers) in a loud environment.  If there was a super obvious notification that I could see from 8 feet away.....it would keep me pacing around like an expecting father.

How about an indicator that changes color, like red for in progress, yellow for completed with errors, and green for completed, no errors?  I suppose it could be a preference to have it flash wildly if that would help

We could also have it play a sound of your choice.

-Kirk
Exactly!

[Hydester]

Hi

I am totally new to PM but love it for its speed and functionality (esp. on my new Intel MacBook Pro ...awesome!).

I must have tried (and paid for) a thousand and one programs but this one beats them all !

On the subject of Ingest I really agree with the comments above but would add some more:

1. Please can we not have to hit an 'OK' button telling us that the ingest is complete. This is unnecessary & wastes time. Also my modus operandi is to open the images straight away in a contact sheet & then immediately (before the ingest is complete) open an image to the Preview page and tab along with my arrow buttons as the new images come in. This is great for showing clients their shots at the speed of light. However if I do this I cannot hit the aforementioned 'OK' button unless I close the preview page. (Try it if you don't believe me !) The ideal would be as described above with the contact sheet page turning green together with a small number indicating the number of images successfully ingested. In a *really* ideal world there might be a tiny icon which would lead to a pop-up page with a log of ingests for that day (or user-defined period of time).

2. One of the functions I love about PM is the 'Unmount Source Discs After Ingest' feature. I would love an option to enable this the whole time rather than have to check the box for every ingest

3. The re-naming function on ingest (and this applies even more to renaming AFTER ingest) requires me to manually reset the sequence number to 001 or whatever every time. This can be very fiddly and annoying. I often re-name an ingest (or group of images AFTER ingest) by my subject's names (I do a lot of corporate shots with large numbers of individuals who need to be named). Thus John Smith would be re-named 'Smith_J_001.NEF' or whatever. Using your current settings it is quite a palaver to re-set to 001 every time so I quite often end up with John Smith's images STARTING there number at 064 or something if I forget to re-set to 001. Accordingly I would simply like to be able to specify (in preferences)  a default re-set to 001 in the sequence to avoid this. Incidentally three digit numbering should be default as if there is no leading '0' most programs which sort by file-name will put 'Frame_11' next to  'Frame_110'. I know that you could accordingly argue for four or even five digits with leading zeros (ie 'Smith_J_0001.NEF' or 'Smith_J_00001.NEF' ) but mostly this would be excessive and you could allow an option (as at the moment) for the user to redefine the number of zeros.
Hope these comments are useful.

You have developed a great program whose emphasis is on speed & functionality & I hope & trust my suggestions would improve on both these fronts.

Best wishes

Stephen

[Kirk Baker]

On the subject of Ingest I really agree with the comments above but would add some more:

1. Please can we not have to hit an 'OK' button telling us that the ingest is complete. This is unnecessary & wastes time. Also my modus operandi is to open the images straight away in a contact sheet & then immediately (before the ingest is complete) open an image to the Preview page and tab along with my arrow buttons as the new images come in. This is great for showing clients their shots at the speed of light. However if I do this I cannot hit the aforementioned 'OK' button unless I close the preview page. (Try it if you don't believe me !) The ideal would be as described above with the contact sheet page turning green together with a small number indicating the number of images successfully ingested. In a *really* ideal world there might be a tiny icon which would lead to a pop-up page with a log of ingests for that day (or user-defined period of time).

The ingest progress has a dismiss button, because it needs to tell you when it is safe to pull the card from your computer.  Without it, people were pulling their cards early and Mac OS X has a problem where if a card isn't properly unmounted and is removed and replaced with a different card, then Mac OS X still thinks that the original card is mounted and gets all sorts of errors.

2. One of the functions I love about PM is the 'Unmount Source Discs After Ingest' feature. I would love an option to enable this the whole time rather than have to check the box for every ingest

This is fixed in the 4.4.3 version.

3. The re-naming function on ingest (and this applies even more to renaming AFTER ingest) requires me to manually reset the sequence number to 001 or whatever every time. This can be very fiddly and annoying. I often re-name an ingest (or group of images AFTER ingest) by my subject's names (I do a lot of corporate shots with large numbers of individuals who need to be named). Thus John Smith would be re-named 'Smith_J_001.NEF' or whatever. Using your current settings it is quite a palaver to re-set to 001 every time so I quite often end up with John Smith's images STARTING there number at 064 or something if I forget to re-set to 001. Accordingly I would simply like to be able to specify (in preferences)  a default re-set to 001 in the sequence to avoid this. Incidentally three digit numbering should be default as if there is no leading '0' most programs which sort by file-name will put 'Frame_11' next to  'Frame_110'. I know that you could accordingly argue for four or even five digits with leading zeros (ie 'Smith_J_0001.NEF' or 'Smith_J_00001.NEF' ) but mostly this would be excessive and you could allow an option (as at the moment) for the user to redefine the number of zeros.

You can set the format of your sequence number by setting the sequence variable.  Also, whenever you see a button to set the sequence variable, you can hold down the option key (shift key on Windows) and the button will change its title to "Reset {seqn}".  Clicking on the button at that time will reset your number back to 001 or 0001 (whatever you set the pattern to.)

Having it automatically reset on each ingest/copy/rename could be a preference.

Thanks for the feedback,

-Kirk

[Hydester]

The ingest progress has a dismiss button, because it needs to tell you when it is safe to pull the card from your computer.  Without it, people were pulling their cards early and Mac OS X has a problem where if a card isn't properly unmounted and is removed and replaced with a different card, then Mac OS X still thinks that the original card is mounted and gets all sorts of errors.

Wow ...lightening response !

I understand your logic but if the card were to be automatically ejected then the seasoned user of PM would know that the card had been ejected & the Ingest finished. I don't know if it is hard to do but the green light sytem first mentioned in this post would be much preferable *but as a feature within the contact sheet window*[not a separate window as at the moment]. I personally would like to be able to de-activate the 'dismiss' window in Preferences ...maybe with a big warning dialogue box first as you do for 'move photos to trash' funtion in preferences on delete or the 'Erase Source Disk after Ingest' dialogue box. That way we would only have ourselves to blame if it went wrong

Having it automatically reset on each ingest/copy/rename could be a preference.

This would be great

Thanks again !

Stephen