4.6 beta comments

[Kirk Baker]

Ric,

Why can Live Ingest only work on Jpegs and not Raws? I was hoping that this feature would improve shooting tethered into PM. I guess there's also no way to set the camera as the ingest source?

Because at this time the only files that we can know are completely finished writing before we move them are JPEGs.  In development we had allowed any file type but we found that some cameras with their wireless transmitters sending to particular FTP Servers would repeatedly send small amounts of data and then instead of keeping the files open would close them.  Live Ingest was programmed to watch for the file getting closed and would then move the file.  This resulted in files being chopped up into small segments.  Definitely not what our users want!

So for the time being, JPEG is all that is supported.

I've been shooting tethered with my Canon 1DsIII; raw files only. I point DPP to a folder and then open PM to that folder. So far 4.6 seems more responsive to seeing new files. However, I have to either click in and out of PM or hit Command-/ to get the thumbnails to show. I can use DPP to set the file names, so I don't need PM to rename the files, but I wish there was a way to set PM to apply my Stationary Pad as the Raw images are ingested.

I guess what I'm hoping for is a way to have PM watch a folder and display the thumbnails and apply my Stationary Pad to images as they (Raw files) come into the watched folder. Is there any way to do this that I've missed?

No, it's just not possible at this time.

-Kirk

[muzdav]

Another issue, although this one has been around for quite a while and is not resolved in 4.6.  Every time I do "Save Photos As..." and select the destination folder on a removable drive (ie. USB stick or memory card in reader) Photo Mechanic hangs after saving the first file.  This happens consistently, but works fine saving to any other internal drive or folder.  The USB drive otherwise works fine copying files to it through windows explorer.

I don't know if this is due to some local issue on my machine (XP Pro, SP3), or if it's repeatable elsewhere.

Murray

[muzdav]

I've just tested the saving issue again and found that it does, in fact, work...  it just takes about 10-15 seconds per image (standard 10MP JPGs reduced to 800px, convert to sRGB, sharpen).  If I copy the same NEF or JPG files to the USB drive (using PM) it takes about 1 second per file, so it's not a USB 1/2 issue).  I think it was hanging after I tried to about out of the slow copy.

Hope this stirs the mud a little...

[mbbphoto]

So for the time being, JPEG is all that is supported.

Re: Folder watch ingest.

So cant you make it an option with a warning, why punish everyone?
This is really a shame, most people only shoot RAW tethered it just takes too long to shoot RAW wireless.

This was the number one new feature I have been looking for to keep PM indispensible.

Marc

[Kirk Baker]

Marc,

So for the time being, JPEG is all that is supported.

Re: Folder watch ingest.

So cant you make it an option with a warning, why punish everyone?
This is really a shame, most people only shoot RAW tethered it just takes too long to shoot RAW wireless.

This was the number one new feature I have been looking for to keep PM indispensible.

Really?  Why would we want to 'punish' our customers?  It is not our intent for Live Ingest to only work with JPEGs forever.  When we come up with an absolutely safe way to determine when a RAW file is fully saved then RAW files will be supported.

And honestly if Live Ingest was the only feature that would keep PM indispensable then you're not using much of Photo Mechanic at all right now.

-Kirk

[nharnik]

Ben,

Also, each time you FTP a picture, it opens a new upload/transfer window. Is this intentional, or can it be so new files to upload get added to the existing window (as per 4.5 I think). Assuming the same server is being used of course...

Can you post a screenshot of the multiple Upload progress dialogs?  Please arrange the windows so their entire title bars can be seen.

Thanks,

-Kirk

Kirk, Ben,
I too on occasion experience multiple ftp upload dialog boxes open on me, though it happens to me in PM version 4.5.4 !! (that is before I even installed the beta version)
There is no consistency, and it is not a predictable occurance as far as I can tell. Next time it happens I will do a screen grab.
Only thing I can think of is since both Ben and I ftp our photos to the same server, perhaps it is the remote server's doing?
thanks,
Nati
 

[pda4de]

Hello,

I just loaded the beta onto a Samsung NC10 running Mac OS 10.5.6

I could only find 4 windows that will not adjust properly to the netbook 600px display.

Ingest
Save As
Send photos via email
Adjust capture dates & times

All the other windows will adjust properly or have a slider on the right side.
The Send photos via email is very important to me.
Please put a slider on this window.

Thanks, Paul

[jdandanell]

When using the ftp-upload, there is no support for the Scandinavian Letters (åäö)
This is not a 4.6-version-only problem but since it's possible to use the letters in ITPC why not in ftp-upload?!

Regarding the use of Scandinavian letters in folders etc in ftp-upload

[FVlcek]

When using the ftp-upload, there is no support for the Scandinavian Letters (åäö)
This is not a 4.6-version-only problem but since it's possible to use the letters in ITPC why not in ftp-upload?!

Regarding the use of Scandinavian letters in folders etc in ftp-upload

First, international (non-ASCII) characters are a completely different thing in IPTC and in file (folder) names. But both depend on all sides to know what the character set  is to display them correctly.

The problem most probably lies with the FTP server. In my experience, most FTP servers out there do not understand Unicode but just plain old 7-bit ASCII. Even FTP specification itself calls for ASCII only. While there are supplemental specifications for Unicode encoding of file names for FTP, not a lot of servers seem to accept them. From my very limited user-only testing, Photomechanic sends any accented characters in file and folder names as UTF8. At least on Mac OS X. But my website server I tried it on certainly didn't understand UTF8, expecting ASCII only. This of course created problems, as I could not even remove the test file - if I didn't know how to use \Escape codes I would be pretty stuck ;-)

The safest practice is to simply only ever use 7-bit ASCII filenames. Because you never know completely what the other side might be reading the files with. For captions, only use IPTC-XMP for international characters, again, because plain IPTC doesn't tell what character set is used, unlike XMP which has this support. Unfortunately, a lot of international newspapers are still stuck with old systems hand-coded for their specific character but supporting only old IPTC. But with file and folder names, still the safest is only ASCII. It will be a long time before internet becomes internnational in this regard...

[ScottR]

I just started test Photo Mechanic Yesterday. I like immediately decided to test ver 4.6 because I am trying to decide between Lightroom and Photo Mechanic for my needs. However, I can't run ver 4.6. I get the following error on startup:

Error: Photo Mechanic Scripting Engine failed to initialize. (Reason: test 1: timeout awaiting result.) If problem persists, try reinstalling Photo Mechanic. Application will now exit.

I have reinstalled PM. No change. I can still run the trial copy of 4.5.4, but not the 4.6. Have the system requirements changed between 4.5.4 and 4.6? I have a G4 PowerMac 1.25GHz w/ 2GB RAM running OSX 10.5.6. Or will the 4.6 not run because I haven't purchased 4.5 yet?

[Kirk Baker]

Scott,

I just started test Photo Mechanic Yesterday. I like immediately decided to test ver 4.6 because I am trying to decide between Lightroom and Photo Mechanic for my needs. However, I can't run ver 4.6. I get the following error on startup:

Error: Photo Mechanic Scripting Engine failed to initialize. (Reason: test 1: timeout awaiting result.) If problem persists, try reinstalling Photo Mechanic. Application will now exit.

I have reinstalled PM. No change. I can still run the trial copy of 4.5.4, but not the 4.6. Have the system requirements changed between 4.5.4 and 4.6? I have a G4 PowerMac 1.25GHz w/ 2GB RAM running OSX 10.5.6. Or will the 4.6 not run because I haven't purchased 4.5 yet?

The trial code you used for 4.5.4 will run 4.6, but I wouldn't expect to see the timeout message since the registration check occurs after the scripting engine initializes.  The system requirements have changed slightly (10.4.11 or higher) but your system certainly meets the requirements.

Is this startup problem for version 4.6 occurring each and every time you try and start up version 4.6?  We give the scripting engine a few seconds to initialize and if it doesn't finish in time we stop the initialization.  If your system were somehow overtaxed then I could see this being an intermittent issue.

If you look in the console log do you see any error messages?  To view the console log, open up the Console application (Applications/Utilities/Console).  If there are any error messages in there, please copy and paste them in your message back here.

-Kirk

[ScottR]

Kirk,

It errors out every time I run it. I just quit out of all other apps and it still errors out. Here are entries from the console log:

2/20/09 1:58:34 PM [0x0-0x52c52c].com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic[16535] [Fri Feb-20-2009 13:58:34.542][2691483696] Error: Photo Mechanic Scripting Engine failed to initialize. (Reason: test 1: timeout awaiting result.)
2/20/09 1:58:34 PM [0x0-0x52c52c].com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic[16535] If problem persists, try reinstalling Photo Mechanic.
2/20/09 1:58:34 PM [0x0-0x52c52c].com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic[16535] Application will now exit.
2/20/09 1:58:34 PM [0x0-0x52c52c].com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic[16535] Application will now exit.

Not much more info.
Scott

[Kirk Baker]

Scott,

It errors out every time I run it. I just quit out of all other apps and it still errors out. Here are entries from the console log:

2/20/09 1:58:34 PM [0x0-0x52c52c].com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic[16535] [Fri Feb-20-2009 13:58:34.542][2691483696] Error: Photo Mechanic Scripting Engine failed to initialize. (Reason: test 1: timeout awaiting result.)
2/20/09 1:58:34 PM [0x0-0x52c52c].com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic[16535] If problem persists, try reinstalling Photo Mechanic.
2/20/09 1:58:34 PM [0x0-0x52c52c].com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic[16535] Application will now exit.
2/20/09 1:58:34 PM [0x0-0x52c52c].com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic[16535] Application will now exit.

Not much more info.

What are the half-dozen or so messages before the above messages?  They may be related as well.

-Kirk

[ScottR]

Kirk,

Before in the log I found lots of these (over 100):

2/20/09 2:09:21 PM [0x0-0x16016].N067U_ButtonManager[173] Looking for devices matching vendor ID=1193 and product ID=8717

I did a google search and it said this was for the buttons on the front of my canon scanner. So I disabled the apps and tried again. Then I was able to run 4.6. So, it is looking good right now for me to test.

Thanks,
Scott

[Kirk Baker]

Scott,

Before in the log I found lots of these (over 100):

2/20/09 2:09:21 PM [0x0-0x16016].N067U_ButtonManager[173] Looking for devices matching vendor ID=1193 and product ID=8717

I did a google search and it said this was for the buttons on the front of my canon scanner. So I disabled the apps and tried again. Then I was able to run 4.6. So, it is looking good right now for me to test.

Wow.  Great!  I would never in a million years guessed that your scanner software would be a problem.

-Kirk