general Mac/PS/iView upgrading - advice needed

[alexramsay]

Hi all,

I currently use (have done for several years)  iView Media Pro 3 on a Mac, running on OS 10.4 (Tiger), together with Photoshop CS3. This combination has proved highly efficient and completely stable. However I do now need to upgrade Photoshop to CS5 because of improvements in Camera Raw. This in turn means that my Mac OS will have to be upgraded to Snow Leopard, which presumably means that I will have to migrate all my files from iView Media Pro 3 to Phase One Media Pro 1. Does anyone have any advice as to the best and safest way of doing this? Or about specific problems that may arise?

Thanks,
Alex

[Roelof]

There are a lot of problems with EM1 and Mac users.
You can find information about the sort of problems on this forum under Media Pro & Expression Media:
http://thedambook.com/smf/index.php?board=31.0
Or on the Phase One user forum:
http://forum.phaseone.com/En/viewforum.php?f=43
Before you decide to buy it, test it comprehensively!

Roelof

[alexramsay]

Thanks Roelof - are the problems to do with Microsoft Expression Media, or are they with the new Phase One version - or are they the same thing?

[Roelof]

Hello,
although both EM2 and MP1 are based on iView media it seems that the iView version was the most stabile.
However, Microsoft did extend the functionality and i'm using Expression Media satisfactory ( i have no experience with iView) but on the forums (Microsoft also) can be found a lot of negative posts, i think mosltly apple users.
After the release of MP1 i was very excited because i was ready for a step forward and so i tested i thoroughly. My conclusion was (and still is) that Media Pro is not ready for release yet but it seems that you do not have any other choice than to go with MP1.
My advice is to test it very good before buying anything!
Roelof

[syncrasy]

My conclusion was (and still is) that Media Pro is not ready for release yet but it seems that you do not have any other choice than to go with MP1.

Apparently you can still download a trial version of Expression Media from Phase One's Microsoft Expression Media archive page.

Not sure how much it costs to activate a full version, but I would definitely try Expression Media first before attempting to use Media Pro. But if you use a Nikon camera and Nikon software, prepare for disappointment as Snow Leopard doesn't support NEF edits made with Nikon software.

[Roelof]

Apparently you can still download a trial version of Expression Media from Phase One's Microsoft Expression Media archive page.

If the license allowing to install EM2 when you buy MP1 (i believe it's called 'downgrading') than i would certenly go for that option!
Roelof