PM 5 Catalogue release date?

[tdiaz]

..and here it is 8-August. Three. More. Months.

Talk about missing the boat.

[Kirk Baker]

I've seen this before, even from the inside - there's probably reasons and excuses galore, but no real product. This gives us some valuable insight into Camera Bits. They have one real programmer, Kirk. Updating, upgrading, and supporting Photo Mechanic is a full time job for him (better hope he lives forever and never leaves Camera Bits!). Adding in the catalog is a great feature but unless they hire someone else or clone Kirk, it's not happening. And obviously it's not happening, or if it does will it have been worth a 5 year wait ? Now there could have been development problems with base packages, connectivity, database design & maintenance, etc. - especially if they did everything from scratch. And there could have been bad management decisions too, but the fact is a long promised product is still vaporware - or did I miss a release or PR announcement, even for a Beta ? They may not like this post, but they deserve this post. 1 year is a long time in tech. 2 years an eternity and a whole product cycle at least. 5 years, a joke and a warning sign...

You're making a number of assumptions here.  There are several engineers at Camera Bits, Inc.  And more than one engineer is working on the Catalog add-on.

I can tell you that each of these posts are read and that we understand your frustration.  But we know that we haven't lived up to our goals for producing Catalog already.

We're working very hard on Catalog.

-Kirk

[tdiaz]

Perhaps you should remove all trace of the Catalog feature off the web site then.

Seriously.

With no projected date in sight, that you care to publicly release. Why even tease people?

If what you make is -anything- like Photo Mechanic, it will kick some preverbal tush. But since it for all intents, does not exist, it matters not, to the outside world.

It's one of the huge reasons I never totally stick with Photo Mechanic. It's a 10 ton hammer, the Swiss Army Knife of photo tools, but since it can't remember one day from the next, it's pointless for where I'm trying to slide it into my workflow.

I'd -really- like it to replace Aperture, since that thing is a sloth demon bloated pig.  But at least Aperture keeps a library for me, allows me to search, and export to FTP.

With the library being the big part of that.

5 Years. Entire operating systems change, expectations, hardware, development environments, the whole world as far as bits and bytes are concerned, will change in 5 years. Dare I say -twice- even.

I so want to use it. If it only existed.

[JS]

You can search and ftp in PM as well. So if You don't know how to use PM, what You need PM catalog for?

-john

[syncrasy]

You can search and ftp in PM as well. So if You don't know how to use PM, what You need PM catalog for?

-john

See Catalog Software Basics by dpBestflow.org.

[tdiaz]

See Catalog Software Basics by dpBestflow.org.

Great link.

Might be a little more like, "if you don't know the difference between a catalog and browsing application.." then why comment on it?

Of course I can ftp and search with Photo Mechanic. Why should I when I can do that with Aperture, which is also a cataloger?

.. that is looking to be replaced. Which is the real topic of the thread.

[Luiz Muzzi]

You can search and ftp in PM as well. So if You don't know how to use PM, what You need PM catalog for?

-john

See Catalog Software Basics by dpBestflow.org.

Hi,
Thanks for the link...simple and clarifying text.
I assume, then, that PM will have a very robust catalogue system which will import all of the keywords  and the rest of the metadata we have applied with PM over the years. It will be easy to "upgrade" to PM's catalogue system.
Regards,

-Luiz Muzzi

[tdiaz]

.. But I really am getting desperate for a cataloging software so I'm going to have to sort it out soon.

We're working on it!

-Kirk

Camera Bits, Inc., a pioneer in the development of software for professional digital photographers, is previewing the latest editions of its popular photo workflow software, Photo Mechanic 5 and Photo Mechanic Catalog, at PhotoPlus Expo 2011 in New York City from October 27 – 29. Current and prospective users of the Photo Mechanic software line can expect to see new features that will ultimately make their photo editing experiences even more efficient and effective. Camera Bits will also host in-booth (# 367) demonstrations for Photo Mechanic 5 and Photo Mechanic Catalog.

Coming in 2012!
Photo Mechanic’s Catalog is the same Photo Mechanic you know and love, with an added SQL database that provides top-notch speed and search flexibility, allowing you to search through thousands of photos in seconds.  You can scan for photos and movies, add photos to the catalog during Photo Mechanic’s powerful Ingest and Live Ingest, and search for simple words or by complex queries.  Photo Mechanic Catalog allows you to share your catalog with multiple users.

The next big thing!
Photo Mechanic’s Catalog is the same Photo Mechanic you know and love, with an added SQL database that provides top-notch speed and search flexibility, allowing you to search through thousands of photos in seconds.  You can scan for photos and movies, add photos to the catalog during Photo Mechanic’s powerful Ingest and Live Ingest, and search for simple words or by complex queries.  Photo Mechanic Catalog allows you to share your catalog with multiple users.

Now in development!
Photo Mechanic’s Catalog is the same Photo Mechanic you know and love, with an added SQL database that provides top-notch speed and search flexibility, allowing you to search through thousands of photos in seconds.  You can scan for photos and movies, add photos to the catalog during Photo Mechanic’s powerful Ingest and Live Ingest, and search for simple words or by complex queries.  Photo Mechanic Catalog allows you to share your catalog with multiple users.

Now in active development!
Imagine an add-on to Photo Mechanic with an SQL database that provides top-notch speed and search flexibility, allowing you to search through many, many thousands of photos in seconds. You’ll be able to scan your disk for photos and movies to kick-start your database, add photos to the database manually or automatically during Photo Mechanic’s powerful Ingest and Live Ingest, and search using simple words or with complex queries from a long list of IPTC and Exif metadata. Interested? We can’t announce any dates yet, but stay tuned to ourTwitter and Facebook feeds to be the first to know when anything is announced.

Will it be 2013?

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

Hi there,

Thanks for the question. We're actively working hard on this project daily.  It is a top priority for us, and we realize the need for it. We want to ensure that it meets a high standard of functionality and usability before showing the world. We're energized by the passionate inquiries :-)

-Mick

[greyhoundx]

I gave up the other week on Camera Bits releasing a catalog product in any reasonable time frame after waiting patiently since Oct 2011, and spent the money they would have/could have/should have gotten on Lightroom 5. You'll be lucky to see a fully released product in 2014 or 2015, if ever. Anyone with a need to catalog their photos today - or tomorrow - needs to seriously look elsewhere, don't bother waiting.

[vAfotoriporter]

I gave up the other week on Camera Bits releasing a catalog product in any reasonable time frame after waiting patiently since Oct 2011, and spent the money they would have/could have/should have gotten on Lightroom 5. You'll be lucky to see a fully released product in 2014 or 2015, if ever. Anyone with a need to catalog their photos today - or tomorrow - needs to seriously look elsewhere, don't bother waiting.

I don't quite understand you and the others complaining.
Who ever told you to wait for the PM catalog feature? I use PM and Lightroom only as an editor so I prefer to use another catalog software. And I'm happy with this setup for years.

I'm eager to see what Camera Bits has up in their sleeves too, but I understood their words: they are working on it, but it is not yet complete nor will be introduced any time soon. I don't blame or rush them. There is no point doing it.
At the moment they don't have any product you wish for almost as much as they do. They don't ask you to pay for the non existent product. They don't collect money for something not existing. They don't even ask you to wait for it. They are working on a product that hopefully will solve a lot of our problems. But it is not yet complete so please find another solution for your problem elsewhere and check back later if there will be something new. Actually it was a big and growing mistake on Camera Bits' part to mention their plans with the catalog feature.
They shouldn't have told it so you wouldn't get angry for still not doing it. But their greatest mistake in revealing some of their plans was it fuels high expectations and leaves long time to grow them that will be even harder to meet. I'm sure they learned from it and they will never tell you what they are up to ever again before they can introduce a product or new feature. And it is the right thing to do.

But it changed nothing for me. WHEN ever Camera Bits will present their catalog feature I will check it out and decide if it is worth to switch to it and pay for it and I will do it gladly in that case. If it won't fit my needs I won't do it and I won't even blame them for what took so long and not even meeting my needs. I will tell them my opinion on it and I trust they will listen as usually.

I never saw any writer who could complete any of his books faster just because a lot of fans were knocking the door to see the new book....and especially none of those books got to be any good read.

[Luiz Muzzi]

I agree with you, Szurke.
After all, one should use appropriate software for each and every need. Sometimes we even have got to have different softwares to do the same thing, just in case...
I myself use PM, Lightroom and DPP. And I am willing to check PM's catalogue system when it comes out. Perhaps I should use it, or not? Who knows at this point?
Regards,

-Luiz Muzzi

[IngoThierack]

Wait here also :-)
looked at different products, but no has really wat i search for.

Client on Windows and Mac,

central database(please support open source DBs, so we don't need to use crippled products) for multiuser, or for access from different computer, in my case preferred solution would be an PostgreSQL DB, server is already up and running :-)

Open data format, and documentation, so i can set on top of the db an web-frontend if i like.

Fast on indexing files, even on network storage. On tested solution tool needs over 1 minute per file, and then it doesn't also read the sidecars xml files .

Would be nice, if we can get a few technical hints, what you plan to support or use here.

Regards,
Ingo Thierack

[stefsegers]

Hi Guys,

It is again a lot of months later and stil nothing on the catalogus add on. Is there more info afvalbakken Aboutaleb the net product. I really want to get rid of lightroom because of it 's speed. I am looking for several options but also currious about camerabits

[Mick O (Camera Bits)]

As soon as there is anything to share, we will do it right here on these forums for our most engaged user community. :-)