What effects ingest speed?

[Rick Baumhauer]

I recently got a Sandisk Extreme FW800 CF reader and one of the 2GB Extreme IV CF cards.  I expected to see my ingest times drop dramatically, given all the press this reader has gotten over the last few months, but I really didn't notice a difference when ingesting via PhotoMechanic.

I finally got around to doing a test, copying about 1.9GB of images from the 2GB Extreme IV CF card, first via the Finder, then via PhotoMechanic with a lot of things turned off that I thought might be slowing down the ingest.  The results confirmed my suspicion:  about 54 seconds to copy the 1.9GB via the Finder, but about 90 seconds via PhotoMechanic.

Since I primarily use PM to rename and copy files into automatically-created folders during ingest, along with adding a little bit of IPTC info (copyright, shooting location, a couple keywords, caption), I was wondering if there are settings that I can disable to speed up the ingest.  I've already turned off showing the contact sheet during the ingest, generation of high-quality previews, etc.

The machine in question is a 2GHz quad-core Mac Pro with 5GB of RAM, running OS 10.5.3, and the RAW files are from a Canon 40D (RAW only, no JPEG beyond the built-in preview).

If this is just a case of IPTC and renaming overhead during the ingest, that's fine - I just want to make sure I'm not missing something that could speed the process up.

Thanks for your help!

[Kirk Baker]

I recently got a Sandisk Extreme FW800 CF reader and one of the 2GB Extreme IV CF cards.  I expected to see my ingest times drop dramatically, given all the press this reader has gotten over the last few months, but I really didn't notice a difference when ingesting via PhotoMechanic.

I finally got around to doing a test, copying about 1.9GB of images from the 2GB Extreme IV CF card, first via the Finder, then via PhotoMechanic with a lot of things turned off that I thought might be slowing down the ingest.  The results confirmed my suspicion:  about 54 seconds to copy the 1.9GB via the Finder, but about 90 seconds via PhotoMechanic.

Since I primarily use PM to rename and copy files into automatically-created folders during ingest, along with adding a little bit of IPTC info (copyright, shooting location, a couple keywords, caption), I was wondering if there are settings that I can disable to speed up the ingest.  I've already turned off showing the contact sheet during the ingest, generation of high-quality previews, etc.

The machine in question is a 2GHz quad-core Mac Pro with 5GB of RAM, running OS 10.5.3, and the RAW files are from a Canon 40D (RAW only, no JPEG beyond the built-in preview).

If this is just a case of IPTC and renaming overhead during the ingest, that's fine - I just want to make sure I'm not missing something that could speed the process up.

Thanks for your help!

The biggest thing you're likely missing is Photo Mechanic 4.5.3.2 which has a fix in it for an issue that came about in Mac OS X 10.5.3 that slowed down disk I/O significantly over previous OS releases.  The 4.5.3.2 version is currently in beta.  We're readying a final release soon and will have one more beta test phase before its final release.

-Kirk

[Rick Baumhauer]

Kyle - thanks, I'll keep an eye out for the update.  Would this disk IO bug effect PM, but not the Finder?

Just an FYI, I get the same results after updating to 10.5.4 today.

Rick

[Kirk Baker]

Rick,

Kyle - thanks, I'll keep an eye out for the update.  Would this disk IO bug effect PM, but not the Finder?

Just an FYI, I get the same results after updating to 10.5.4 today.

Yes, it only affects Photo Mechanic and any other apps that read data the same way Photo Mechanic does.

BTW, beta 5 is available now and I suggest you try it out:

http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=3176.0

-Kirk

[Rick Baumhauer]

Kirk - thanks!

And sorry about getting your name wrong - Kyle Baker is a totally different person!

Rick

[Mike Burley]

I am also having speed issues downloading from OSX 10.4.11 and PM 4.5.3.2 on my 1GHz PowerPC G4 Powerbook. Im using a Delkin FW800 reader and a Sandisk Extreme IV 2GB card. When its full, a drag and drop can be done in 1 minute 50 secs. When I ingest (no IPTC applied) it takes about twice as long. Anything I can do to? Are there any settings that I can change to speed up the ingest?

Thanks!   

[Kirk Baker]

I am also having speed issues downloading from OSX 10.4.11 and PM 4.5.3.2 on my 1GHz PowerPC G4 Powerbook. Im using a Delkin FW800 reader and a Sandisk Extreme IV 2GB card. When its full, a drag and drop can be done in 1 minute 50 secs. When I ingest (no IPTC applied) it takes about twice as long. Anything I can do to? Are there any settings that I can change to speed up the ingest?

Are you ingesting to a secondary destination?  That will nearly double the time spent.  Also having PM browse the photos as they come in will slow things down somewhat.

The fastest speed will always be to use the Finder.  Why?  Because the Finder doesn't parse the files for metadata (it doesn't even know they are images!).  Photo Mechanic has to scan files for their maker notes, exif data, etc. as a part of its process.

-Kirk

[Mike Burley]

No secondary. Thanks for the info!

[Kirk Baker]

No secondary. Thanks for the info!

One more thing.  When you're doing your timing tests, are you completely removing the card and reinserting it before doing your next test?  Because if you Ingest with PM and time it, and then don't unmount the card and then copy with the Finder and time it, the Finder is going to have an unfair advantage since most of the data on the card will be in the system's disk cache and the card won't even be read for much of the data.  Reading from RAM is far faster than reading off the card directly.

In order to be fair you must eject the card from the reader (unmount it first) between timing tests.

-Kirk

[Mike Burley]

I did eject. I've also done the test several times (5-6 times) just to make sure. I was opening up the browser window while ingesting though, so I'll give it another whirl without the browser open.

[Kirk Baker]

Mike,

I did eject. I've also done the test several times (5-6 times) just to make sure. I was opening up the browser window while ingesting though, so I'll give it another whirl without the browser open.

And you're certain that you're actually using version 4.5.3.2 instead of an older version of Photo Mechanic, right?  Check the About box from within Photo Mechanic to be sure.

-Kirk

[Mike Burley]

Yes, Im using the newest version through the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, my employer and their Powerbook. If you look up my name on your account, I think Im still using 4.3.8!

[Kirk Baker]

Yes, Im using the newest version through the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, my employer and their Powerbook. If you look up my name on your account, I think Im still using 4.3.8!

If you're interested, I can send you a version that will log the time spent copying files so we can see if anything obvious is going on.

-Kirk