Photo Mechanic 4.6.4 public beta 4

[Kirk Baker]

Hello Everyone,

If you're having any sort of problem with Photo Mechanic 4.6.x, please do download and try the 4.6.4 beta.  A large number of user-reported issues have been fixed in this version.  If you have a problem that isn't fixed in the 4.6.4 beta, we definitely want to know about it.  Unless a very major issue is discovered after the release of 4.6.4, version 4.6.4 will likely be the last bug fix update for the 4.6.x series.  Now is the time to test the beta and report any issues you're still having.

If you have an issue in the 4.6.4 beta, we would appreciate knowing how to reproduce the problem, starting with a series of steps to follow, and a list of any file types, camera models, etc. that are pertinent to the problem.

Thanks in advance,

-Kirk

[aknapik]

Where can I find the download at?  I have scoured the site and I do not see it anywhere. 

[Kirk Baker]

Where can I find the download at?  I have scoured the site and I do not see it anywhere. 

In the Announcements section of these forums.

-Kirk

[Kevin M. Cox]

Kirk, I just installed the beta and immediately have noticed a weird thumbnail rendering / sorting issue that I've never seen before.  I just double checked and 4.6.3 is not exhibiting the behavior. I made a short video that shows the issue, it happens right after I close the preview window. It is like a jitter or a real quick flash of thumbnails not currently on screen.

[link removed]  (3.18 MB)

The issue is also visible when deleting a photo in thumbnail view or switching the sort method in thumbnail view.  This is subjective but it almost seems like thumbnails are being rendered slower.

Right now I'm seeing this on a 2009 Mac Pro, 2.26 8 Core, 8 GB RAM running OS 10.5.8.

(If you pause the movie while playing and slowly manually drag the timeline arrow in QuickTime Player you can more easily see the flip of thumbnails right after the preview window closes, all in the 3rd second of the video.)

[Kirk Baker]

Kirk, I just installed the beta and immediately have noticed a weird thumbnail rendering / sorting issue that I've never seen before.  I just double checked and 4.6.3 is not exhibiting the behavior. I made a short video that shows the issue, it happens right after I close the preview window. It is like a jitter or a real quick flash of thumbnails not currently on screen.

http://www.kevincox.com/temp/PhotoMechanic.mov  (3.18 MB)

The issue is also visible when deleting a photo in thumbnail view or switching the sort method in thumbnail view.  This is subjective but it almost seems like thumbnails are being rendered slower.

Right now I'm seeing this on a 2009 Mac Pro, 2.26 8 Core, 8 GB RAM running OS 10.5.8.

(If you pause the movie while playing and slowly manually drag the timeline arrow in QuickTime Player you can more easily see the flip of thumbnails right after the preview window closes, all in the 3rd second of the video.)

Thanks, Kevin.  I'll look into it tomorrow and see what I can do.

-Kirk

[nharnik]

Hi Kirk,

I’m running OS X 10.5.8

Had PM 4.6.3, then overwrote with PM 4.6.4 beta4 (latest), but then downgraded back to 4.6.3 when dialog box warned me my current serial/username will not support the final 4.6.4 (downgraded by installing 4.6.3 over 4.6.4 beta)

And on the first ingest following the downgrade:

I had 3 disks following a shoot, and upon ingest of the first disk I started seeing the black thumbnails with “Unsupported Format Variant”. I shoot Canon CR2.
I quickly canceled the ingest ( because I’m set to delete files from disk following ingest and didn’t want the files deleted from disk), and (I think?)
I restarted the computer.

Then ingested the other 2 disks with no problems.
Then I tried ingesting the problematic disk again, but no files were found on the disk to ingest.

I ran the disk through a software recovery program that found 400 or so images, but from an earlier shoot, none from the current shoot. Also, looking at the whole take, (from the 2 disks that successfully ingested) It doesn’t seem that I’m missing any images.

So I’m thinking either I screwed something up with my convoluted install process ,
or
that first disk was empty, and the 217 unsupported format variant images i  have on my computer came from an earlier shoot that PM somehow picked up,
or
I don’t know.

I can provide a sample or two of these files if you want to take a look at them.

thanks,
Nati

[Kirk Baker]

Nati,

Had PM 4.6.3, then overwrote with PM 4.6.4 beta4 (latest), but then downgraded back to 4.6.3 when dialog box warned me my current serial/username will not support the final 4.6.4 (downgraded by installing 4.6.3 over 4.6.4 beta)

That warning is just a warning.  The AP password is going to change to a new one.  Contact your support folks for the new registration information.  It will only stop working when a new release (4.7, 5.0, etc.) comes out.

And on the first ingest following the downgrade:

I had 3 disks following a shoot, and upon ingest of the first disk I started seeing the black thumbnails with “Unsupported Format Variant”. I shoot Canon CR2.
I quickly canceled the ingest ( because I’m set to delete files from disk following ingest and didn’t want the files deleted from disk), and (I think?)
I restarted the computer.

Then ingested the other 2 disks with no problems.
Then I tried ingesting the problematic disk again, but no files were found on the disk to ingest.

I ran the disk through a software recovery program that found 400 or so images, but from an earlier shoot, none from the current shoot. Also, looking at the whole take, (from the 2 disks that successfully ingested) It doesn’t seem that I’m missing any images.

So I’m thinking either I screwed something up with my convoluted install process ,
or
that first disk was empty, and the 217 unsupported format variant images i  have on my computer came from an earlier shoot that PM somehow picked up,
or
I don’t know.

I can provide a sample or two of these files if you want to take a look at them.

It sounds like to me that your disk was unmounted improperly and the OS cached the directory contents of a previous disk.  No need to send sample files.

-Kirk

[Luiz Muzzi]

Kirk,
I have installed the 4.6.4 public beta 4 and it seems that an error occurs every time I try to rename a group of photos. The process stops and the original names are restored. I don't know what is happening. I have a MacBook running 10.6.3.
Thanks in advance for your help
Luiz Muzzi

[Kirk Baker]

Luiz,

I have installed the 4.6.4 public beta 4 and it seems that an error occurs every time I try to rename a group of photos. The process stops and the original names are restored. I don't know what is happening.

What is your renaming string?

-Kirk

[Luiz Muzzi]

Kirk,

My renaming string is:
Name {seqn} {date}

-Luiz Muzzi

[Kirk Baker]

Luiz,

My renaming string is:
Name {seqn} {date}

That's pretty straightforward.  What is the path to the photos?  Are there multiple folders in the contact sheet?  Anything unusual?

-Kirk

[Luiz Muzzi]

Kirk,
For example, the path is:
/Users/muzzi/Pictures/Work in progress
There are no multiple folders in the contact sheet.
The unusual thing is that it is happens with all photos of all folders, i.e., it seems that it is impossible to rename any file..unless I type the new name directly in the box name of each and every picture.

-Luiz Muzzi

[Kirk Baker]

Luiz,

For example, the path is:
/Users/muzzi/Pictures/Work in progress
There are no multiple folders in the contact sheet.
The unusual thing is that it is happens with all photos of all folders, i.e., it seems that it is impossible to rename any file..unless I type the new name directly in the box name of each and every picture.

I guess I'm going to need to see screen shots of the files before renaming (along with the Rename dialog's window) since I cannot reproduce this problem on my Mac.  I need to be able to reproduce the problem in order to be able to fix it.

-Kirk

[Luiz Muzzi]

Kirk,
It seems that this always happens with the first file of the folder of the selection.
Here goes the screen shot attached of the message error.
Thanks,

-Luiz Muzzi

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Kirk Baker]

Luiz,

It seems that this always happens with the first file of the folder of the selection.
Here goes the screen shot attached of the message error.

Thanks for the screen shot.  It explains everything.

Notice that your new filenames have '/' characters in them.  They're not allowed in filenames.  I'll have to add some code to translate the '/' characters to '-' characters which are OK.  In the meantime if you want, you can use {month}-{day0}-{year2} in place of {date} and it should work fine.

-Kirk