Is this speed normal?

[dscaman]

Hi,
I'm running OS 10.10.5 on an iMac w/ 16GB ram and Photomechanic v5. My files are generally being accessed from a Drobo connected via USB 3.0. PM has always been slow for me, and I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do about these speeds:

Opening a folder of 7000 Canon Raw files takes ~20 minutes.
Running "Save As" to convert those same 7000 Canon Raw files to JPG takes 2-3+ hours.

Thanks.
Diane

[Kirk Baker]

Diane,

I'm running OS 10.10.5 on an iMac w/ 16GB ram and Photomechanic v5. My files are generally being accessed from a Drobo connected via USB 3.0. PM has always been slow for me, and I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do about these speeds:

Opening a folder of 7000 Canon Raw files takes ~20 minutes.
Running "Save As" to convert those same 7000 Canon Raw files to JPG takes 2-3+ hours.

NAS drives in general are not particularly speedy when used in conjunction with Photo Mechanic.

When you say "Opening a folder of 7000 Canon Raw files takes ~20 minutes" do you mean that you see no images whatsoever until 20 minutes has elapsed?
In your Save As on the 7000 files, are you using the Embedded JPEG previews or are you having it render the RAW files?  Embedded previews should be fairly fast, but rending the RAW files will take a long time.

-Kirk

[dscaman]

Thanks for the reply, Kirk.

Yes, when opening a folder of 7000 raws, there are no images at all until ~20 minutes or so.

In the Save As process, I am using Embedded JPEG previews.

[Kirk Baker]

Yes, when opening a folder of 7000 raws, there are no images at all until ~20 minutes or so.

What sort method are you using?  Filename sorting is the fastest.  The other methods are slower to very slow.

In the Save As process, I am using Embedded JPEG previews.

I expect you to be able to save 1-2 images per second depending on your settings.  Scaling takes time, sharpening takes time, limiting the file size takes time, watermarking..., etc.  If you were only wanting full size images you can instead extract the JPEG previews out of the RAW files (you'll have no further options for changing the resulting image) and that is quite fast.

If the disk is slow then everything slows down.

If you operate on images that are stored on your computer's internal hard drive, do you still experience the same level of slowness?

-Kirk

[dscaman]

Oh that helps a lot -- filename sorting is SIGNIFICANTLY faster, and extracting Jpegs is a fair bit faster too.

I'll test out opening files from my internal hard drive, but this pretty much solves the problem. Thanks!

[mbbphoto]

Diane,

I'm running OS 10.10.5 on an iMac w/ 16GB ram and Photomechanic v5. My files are generally being accessed from a Drobo connected via USB 3.0.

NAS drives in general are not particularly speedy when used in conjunction with Photo Mechanic.

When you say "Opening a folder of 7000 Canon Raw files takes ~20 minutes" do you mean that you see no images whatsoever until 20 minutes has elapsed?
In your Save As on the 7000 files, are you using the Embedded JPEG previews or are you having it render the RAW files?  Embedded previews should be fairly fast, but rending the RAW files will take a long time.

-Kirk

Correct me if I'm wrong but a Drobo is not a NAS drive (a medium which we have found useless for RAW files).
Its USB 3 connection should be fast enough???

[schlotz]

Diane,

I'm running OS 10.10.5 on an iMac w/ 16GB ram and Photomechanic v5. My files are generally being accessed from a Drobo connected via USB 3.0.

NAS drives in general are not particularly speedy when used in conjunction with Photo Mechanic.

When you say "Opening a folder of 7000 Canon Raw files takes ~20 minutes" do you mean that you see no images whatsoever until 20 minutes has elapsed?
In your Save As on the 7000 files, are you using the Embedded JPEG previews or are you having it render the RAW files?  Embedded previews should be fairly fast, but rending the RAW files will take a long time.

-Kirk

Correct me if I'm wrong but a Drobo is not a NAS drive (a medium which we have found useless for RAW files).
Its USB 3 connection should be fast enough???

Correct regarding the Drobo.  The USB 3.0 connect version is certainly fast enough.