Dare I ask?

[ocris1]

hi Kirk,

I have been scanning the forums for any sign of the upcoming cataloging feature and recently there's been no news about it. You did say it's in the works and I have been patiently waiting for it to be released. I made a decision in the beginning of the year to be patient and not to commit to any other solutions out there as I am convinced that you will come up with a far superior product.

However, my library of images has grown exponentially and we are still sorting via folders hosted on a server and we are in a desperate need to get organized.

I just need to know if the cataloging feature is:

a) imminent
b) not ready for another year or two
or, c) has been abandoned

Sorry I'm asking so directly, but I need to know as we have to have a solution in place in the next few months.

Cheers

Christian

[Kirk Baker]

Christian,

I have been scanning the forums for any sign of the upcoming cataloging feature and recently there's been no news about it. You did say it's in the works and I have been patiently waiting for it to be released. I made a decision in the beginning of the year to be patient and not to commit to any other solutions out there as I am convinced that you will come up with a far superior product.

However, my library of images has grown exponentially and we are still sorting via folders hosted on a server and we are in a desperate need to get organized.

I just need to know if the cataloging feature is:

a) imminent
b) not ready for another year or two
or, c) has been abandoned

Sorry I'm asking so directly, but I need to know as we have to have a solution in place in the next few months.

If you need a solution in place in the next few months then you'll have to look elsewhere.  We are actively developing the cataloging product but it won't be ready in the next few months.  That much I know for certain.  I don't have a final release date for you at this time.

-Kirk

[louster1950]

Wow, I just came upon this topic while looking for other things in the forum. I too am looking for a catalog solution. If you guys have one in the works, I'm holding off to see yours. I feel pretty confident it'll be perfect for my needs.
Of course, sooner is always better than later.
 

L

[ocris1]

I did take a harder look at the competing products out there and still haven't found anything that I would want to use, so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed too for the PM version of a powerful catalog.

[Brendan]

me too!

I fear that this will be like IMatch, the developer promises and promises over MANY years a (really needed) new version to the users.. this is not good :-(

[MikeA]

I fear that this will be like IMatch, the developer promises and promises over MANY years a (really needed) new version to the users.. this is not good :-(

Allow me to suggest a different point of view. It's long-winded but please bear with me.

My perception is, they've been saying that they're working on it -- and haven't been providing unrealistic ship dates or making other unrealistic claims.

I work at a company where over the years I've seen internally written software tools, plus endless programs out there in The World, that have seriously bad user interfaces written by developers who never seem to grasp what trouble their UIs cause end-users.

Photo Mechanic's excellent UI jumped out at me the moment I set eyes on it. The program is fast, has great keyboard support, and despite a few glitches in the on-line help, is documented unusually well. As I understand it, PM was developed with the help of much feedback from photographers -- and it's clear the devs listened carefully to the feedback. Digital-asset management (DAM) programs tend to have such cluttered interfaces that they make a person crazy. A number of them suffer from a UI disease made popular by a certain large software company that decided users must love to look at hard-to-see small medium-grey UI elements on a black background, and must love to look at three-pixel-wide buttons that are both hard to see and that require a lot of fine motor movements to hit with the mouse. Yeah, like everyone in the world is age 18 and has perfect eyesight, and uses a $400 pen tablet or loves to play the Carpal Tunnel Lottery all day with the mouse. Brilliant.

One DAM program's company made a point of hyping its fashion-model-looking UI designer; when I saw that stuff I thought: "if they have to turn this into a kind of cult of personality, something's not right; the v.1.0 UI is probably going to stink." I was right. A lot of it was terrible and many users hated parts of the UI to the point that the company had to work hard at improving it. And IMO they still don't have it right (the UI designer's fabulous haircut notwithstanding).

Photo Mechanic does not suffer from these flaws. It's clear to me that the reason is: the devs put a lot more thought into "usability" than into impressing themselves with how hip and space-agey the app looks. (But for all I know, they might still have fabulous haircuts. Yes, even in Oregon.) (Sorry :-)

I have no personal knowledge of Camera Bits, Inc. But I'll speculate: the authors have to know that their program is admired widely for its speed, ease of use, and uncluttered UI. If they were to introduce a new product that suffers from the unpleasant flaws of so many other DAM programs, they would have some frustrated users on their hands right away. And then they wouldn't have done themselves any good. Software development is expensive enough. Having to RE-design software due to bad design at the outset (and poor usability testing) is especially hard on the company wallet.

So: we all want THE killer DAM program to evolve from Photo Mechanic. If anyone can do it, it seems to me these guys can. I propose we hang in there and let them take their time -- do as good a job as they've done with PM. It will take time. I'd love to have a good catalogue program (in the meantime I might slop something together for myself with Perl and Exiftool), but unless some spectacular new app hits the market, I'll just wait. (I have the luxury of waiting because I'm not a pro who needs a DB-based program right now. Dunno what I'd do if I had to decide on a DAM program tomorrow and had to choose between "bad" and "worse". Whimper a lot, I suppose.)

[pmagi]

Let me know if you need an experinced beta-tester. I believe I am quite good at it.....;-)
Rgds
PM

[George Sass]

After trying out the two leading catalog programs and attempting to integrate them into my PM and NX2 workflow, I've given up and will wait for Photo Mechanic's program.  I'd much rather struggle without a program knowing that PM is working on a DAM solution.

Keep up the good work Kirk!

[munchmeister]

Here, here !! User Interface... what a concept!! Application software in any realm just seems to get more bloated with every iteration, with gee whiz crap that destroys the simplicity and usability of earlier designs (Microsoft Word 2007 anyone?!?!??!). I, for one, hope also that focus is kept on an easier user interface, which PM is well known for. I keep coming back here, though not a PM user yet, for this very reason.

[MikeA]

Here, here !! User Interface... what a concept!! Application software in any realm just seems to get more bloated with every iteration, with gee whiz crap that destroys the simplicity and usability of earlier designs (Microsoft Word 2007 anyone?!?!??!). I, for one, hope also that focus is kept on an easier user interface, which PM is well known for. I keep coming back here, though not a PM user yet, for this very reason.

An interesting problem for someone designing a user interface: when the program has a ton of features, where DO you put 'em all? How do you make them visible without making a horribly cluttered main window? Some applications have so many little panels and menu bars that they make you feel as if for doing the main work, you're squeezed into a tiny little space. Then again, if you keep the screen as uncluttered as possible, how do you make necessary features "discoverable" or provide quick access to them? Both of those UI-related problems are frustrating for users. So, it's a tough call...my money's on PM's authors' doing a good job with this.

I hope they can avoid one of the most frustrating of the UI pitfalls that have plagued several of the D.A.M. programs: what do all these concepts mean, anyway? For instance: programs that enable you to devise virtual categories for yourself: a "shoot," a a "collection," a "folder."

Fine, nice to have choices. But what are the choices, exactly? One program left the meanings of the concepts unclear. How did a "shoot" differ from a "collection"? Nobody could explain it very well -- including the (non-existent) documentation. Eventually the "shoot" concept disappeared from the program, whose "collections" are still a bit murky. How do they differ from "folders"? Why would I want to use the one versus the other? Sometimes you can't remove an image from a "collection" no matter how hard you try. Why is it that you might delete a shot from a "collection" and try to re-import it -- only to be told that it's in the database already? You can't find it to save your life and you can't figure out how to remove it so that you can re-import it...

Could be bugs, but it's as likely bad planning when they came up with the concepts in the first place. It's amusing to me that some users of the app say: "Just don't bother with 'collections' at all. Use 'folders' instead."

Sometimes software that's supposed to save us all time ends up forcing its users to waste a lot of it just trying to figure out what the damn' (or D.A.M.) program wants from us...