Photo Mechanic v5 First Impressions

[Kirk Baker]

Nati,

Hi All,
I too am not too crazy about the new dark interface, especially the captioning/IPTC dialogs. The red underlining is difficult to distinguish from the dark background. I would like to have the option to go white.
As to the preview window, there is a nice option to see shadow OR highlight clipping, but why can't I set the radio buttons to see both highlight and shadow clipping together?

Because of limitations in the graphics capabilities of one of the platforms we support.

-Kirk

[Graham Morgan]

I have to agree, I'm not a fan of the new look and feel. (It may well be that I'm turning into an old fart and starting to resist change!)

While I'm sure I'll get used to the white text on dark background look, the inconsistency of drop down menus being black text on a light background really irritates. It also bugs me that you can see the old PM peeking through in odd areas eg. the 'Variables' pop out, the clicky bits (whatever they're called) in the 'Time and Date' section of the IPTC input etc.

I have no doubt CameraBits has put huge amounts of work into the programming of PM5, but users constantly interact with the GUI and it's also extremely important. The whole look and feel of this beta gives the impression of it being inconsistent, rushed and cheap. If this was an early beta I wouldn't worry, but it looks like we'll only have a week or so before it finally ships.

My GUI observations of only looking at PM5 (Mac) for 10 minutes, not got around to actually playing yet, but this is posted under 'First Impressions'. So far...

• Black text/light background drop down menus - jarring & inconsistent with UI.
• Variables slide out drawer - inconsistent with new UI and look varies as to where it's being called from (different look in IPTC pad and Upload section).
• 'Name' button in Favourites & Navigator - gradient on button renders text difficult to read.
• Show All/Selected Thumbnails buttons in Preview pane - graphic on buttons illegible.
• Keywords panels - transparent background - why?
• Toolbar icons - cheap & tacky and not all of them will display a smaller version when you customise the toolbar.

Sorry to be so negative, but the fit and finish of PM5 leaves a lot to be desired.

PM5 offers me no incentive to upgrade…yet! A few nice evolutionary improvements, but no killer new features. I'm hoping the cataloging add-on will be an absolute 'must buy' (I've been patiently waiting for it for years now), only time will tell.

Cheers,
Tony

Please ad me to the list of those who are unhappy with the new UI (colours in particular). The old UI was much easier on the eyes, more professional looking and feeling, by some considerable way.

PM has always been great, along with reliability and functionality, the superbly well balance UI features and colours have been critical to this.
So much time is spent looking at the UI these days, why mess with something that just worked, I don't recall people coming to the forum with complaints about the UI; at most people seemed to want a few extra features and also the cataloguing.

Sorry but the new UI colour scheme is not at all friendly for extended/repeated use; certainly not for me.

[Emre Oktay]

Hi,

I'm one of those who do not like the new look. Dark background is OK but I'd prefer lighter background on IPTC fields because same color on both Stationary Pad background and user-filled fields make the look dull. One more thing: I think new icons on tool bar do not suit software's professional image. Maybe you can use more simple, colorless, pictographic icons...

Best

Emre

[mfryd]

Adobe CS6 allows the user to choose the user interface.  The default is the sexy light text on a dark background.  The old (dark text on a light background) is but a click away for those that need the functionality.

it is a shame that Photo Mechanic has sacrificed the old User Interface functionality.  For me, the new Interface makes the program much harder to use.  Although I desperately want the non-modal preview window (and other new features), I am better off with a UI that I can read and use.

There is an easy solution.   If you don't like the new Interface, don't buy it.  Wait until the Photo Mechanic offers the option of the older, and more usable interface.

By waiting until the User Interface is working again, we are setting up a financial incentive to restore this feature.

Personally, I am disappointed.  I view Photo Mechanic as a tool for professionals.  I am disappointed that functionality seems to be taking second place to a "pretty" interface.


Hopefully, Bug fixes for Photo Mechanic 4.x will continue until Photo Mechanic 5 is upgraded to match the features of Photo Mechanic 4.

[Kirk Baker]

Adobe CS6 allows the user to choose the user interface.  The default is the sexy light text on a dark background.  The old (dark text on a light background) is but a click away for those that need the functionality.

it is a shame that Photo Mechanic has sacrificed the old User Interface functionality.  For me, the new Interface makes the program much harder to use.  Although I desperately want the non-modal preview window (and other new features), I am better off with a UI that I can read and use.

There is an easy solution.   If you don't like the new Interface, don't buy it.  Wait until the Photo Mechanic offers the option of the older, and more usable interface.

By waiting until the User Interface is working again, we are setting up a financial incentive to restore this feature.

Personally, I am disappointed.  I view Photo Mechanic as a tool for professionals.  I am disappointed that functionality seems to be taking second place to a "pretty" interface.


Hopefully, Bug fixes for Photo Mechanic 4.x will continue until Photo Mechanic 5 is upgraded to match the features of Photo Mechanic 4.

The feature set in PM5 exceeds the feature set of PM4.6.

We hear you all.  We understand.  I am spending my entire weekend coming up with a solution.  Please bear with me.

No need for any further feedback, please.

Kind regards,

-Kirk

Kirk A. Baker
Senior Software Engineer
Camera Bits, Inc.

[Hayo Baan]

Please ad me to the list of those who are unhappy with the new UI (colours in particular). The old UI was much easier on the eyes, more professional looking and feeling, by some considerable way.

PM has always been great, along with reliability and functionality, the superbly well balance UI features and colours have been critical to this.
So much time is spent looking at the UI these days, why mess with something that just worked, I don't recall people coming to the forum with complaints about the UI; at most people seemed to want a few extra features and also the cataloguing.

Sorry but the new UI colour scheme is not at all friendly for extended/repeated use; certainly not for me.

Hi Graham and the others who don't like the new UI and especially the colours.

Interestingly, I really like the new colour scheme. In fact the colour scheme was almost exactly the same as what I was using for PM4.6 (for the contact sheet and preview windows as that were the only things you could configure).  Having said that, I can see what you mean by the dialogues being a bit less readable now; in the new scheme there is less contrast and this could be a problem especially if your lighting conditions aren't ideal.

Perhaps this can/will be made customisable in a later release?

[ThomasJ]

Hi,

I was looking forward to the possibility of rotating the crop, but this function will be worthless, if I'm loosing the quick access to the crop options. As a sports photographer I'm often changing the ratio (e.g. form 3:2 to 2:3 or 1:1), but now it costs extra time / a click to get the crop options. And another worse case, in PM5 I have to change the two values to get another orientation, in PM4.6 it was only a click on the arrow-button.

Kind regards from Germany
Thomas

[Kirk Baker]

Thomas,

I was looking forward to the possibility of rotating the crop, but this function will be worthless, if I'm loosing the quick access to the crop options. As a sports photographer I'm often changing the ratio (e.g. form 3:2 to 2:3 or 1:1), but now it costs extra time / a click to get the crop options. And another worse case, in PM5 I have to change the two values to get another orientation, in PM4.6 it was only a click on the arrow-button.

You can save snapshots of your favorite crops.  One click selects from the menu.  It's faster once you've set it up than the old way was.

You no longer need to swap crop orientations manually.  Just drag your crop in a portrait orientation and the crop will dynamically swap.  It's much faster.  And you don't have to create a snapshot for 3:2 vs 2:3.  Create one of the pair.  Just drag the mouse in the shape of the orientation you desire and it swaps.

-Kirk

[Graham Morgan]

Hi,

I was looking forward to the possibility of rotating the crop, but this function will be worthless, if I'm loosing the quick access to the crop options. As a sports photographer I'm often changing the ratio (e.g. form 3:2 to 2:3 or 1:1), but now it costs extra time / a click to get the crop options. And another worse case, in PM5 I have to change the two values to get another orientation, in PM4.6 it was only a click on the arrow-button.

Kind regards from Germany
Thomas

True, the actual contact sheet colours can be set up the same, but the dialogue and info panels can't; makes quite a big difference to the overall feel............. one that  just seems a little misguided/unnecessary (IMHO).

Hopefully we can get some choice for this to.

Hayo, I enjoyed looking at your images on 500px, some good/interesting stuff.

Kirk, I have no doubt that you will be listening and working to alleviate the concerns being expressed, it's this extra effort that makes PM so damn good.

[Lars]

I only "played" 10min with the new version and haven't yet checked whether the crop and the rotation is taken by Lightroom (I hope it will do). Why I have stopped playing with it: I'm getting an eye cancer with this dark desktop! 

As a professional I often have to write captions under bright light conditions (soccer games or outside where the sun is shining). The white text on that dark desktop is not to use and it's really terrible!

I really don't understand why software manufactures always change functions or features for no reason. The old interface was good to use. Have you guys ever tried to use the current interface to cation some hundreds of photos. Please try it and I'm pretty sure you will spend the first free minute of your programming time to change back the colors to the old style...

Please please change it back!

Greets,
Lars

[retief]

No functionality issues at all so far.  The new crop and preview functionality is great, very helpful. 

Not to beat a dead horse regarding the color, but the two specific places that i have problems with the colors, and that really hurt usability for me, are specifically in the Structured Keywords panel where the black text on the dark grey background is almost impossible for me to read from any distance.  No contrast here at all, I find it hard to believe that anyone can like this scheme.  Changing the text to White when selected looks fine, but the background is far too dark for black text.  The other is the blue color that appears on the folder names when you expand a drive in the Navigator window, same problem for me with legibility.

Comparing the usability of the UI between V4.6.9 and V5, I don't see any big difference, other than the two items noted above, for me.  In general I find the gray backgrounds to be soothing, I just think you have gone "too gray" in a couple of places.  And those two issues, at least for me, could easily be solved by giving me the ability to alter the overall background color of PM5.  Three features would be nice to have in this area.  The first is to note what color you have picked for Backgrounds/Selected/etc.  I find it very difficult to tell, from the little swatches, witch color is selected.  Second would be to have the Apply button work for a "test", without leaving the dialog as it does for other changes, in fact I would like Apply to be a "test" overall.  Third would be to have a "reset to default" button for your standard color scheme.

I'll pop the other "feature requests" where they belong 

Thanks,