iView Stability

[dhull]

I have been experimenting with iView now for a few weeks (actually my trial is about to run out) and I have found a number of issues.  One thing is that the input from PSE script does not seem to work properly.  I have a PSE catalog of around 8000 images and iView took on the order of 26 hours to chew through that and when it did finally finish it didn't have it right (the catalog hierarchies were jumbled and keywords were not listed correctly or missed completely).  I have also noticed a few other things such as when I use the down arrow key to move down through the keywords, the program crashes when I get to the last one, this is very repeatable in my case.

I am running this on a PC and I am surprised to see as many little quirks as I have, since I don't see too much whining about bugs over here, I am wondering if the program is more stable on the MAC platform than the PC.  It does not appear that iView tested the latest release of the PC version very thoroughly before they put it out.

That being said, I do like the program.  It has the nicest UI of any I have tried (except for PSE4 which I also really like -- especially the ease with which tags can be applied) and most things do seem to work right.  I am just a bit surprised to see a program that costs $200 (definitely not shareware like some of the others) with major features that don't seem to run right.

Maybe their new relationship with MS will help in this regard.

[danaltick]

dhull,

I used to use Photoshop Album before iView and I was also unsuccessful at importing my images from Album.  However, I suspect some of those scripts may have been developed by third parties and may not work for all cases.  I ended up just creating my catalog from scratch and have had no problems at all with iView.  It's been very stable for me.  My guess is the import has created a corrupt catalog for you.  I would recommend recreating your catalog from scratch.  I know that can be a headache, but I think it may be the only way to insure a good catalog.  I would tend to place importing third party catalogs into the catagory of "Do at your own risk" if you know what I mean.  I am on a PC too by the way.

Dan

[dhull]

I have come to the same conclusion that the correct way to do it is to write the PSE tags to the files, suck them into iView and then re-build the CAT by hand.  I had not thought about the risk of trusting another program to fiddle with the CAT -- Good point.  I do like PSE4 Organizer, it is not a bad DAM program for hobyists with a primarily JPEG workflow.  It lacks a decent re-name function, IPTC editing, and won't write to CR2 or DNG which is what drove me to look at other solutions.  I really do like the PSE Organizer interface interface though.

[danaltick]

Yes, I've read nothing but good things about Photoshop Elements 4 for the amateur photographer.  However, if you really want to implement DAM, you will have to have a full blown catalog manager that supports all the items listed in the book.  iView continues to impress me even today with all it can do.

Dan

[Angels]

... around 8000 images and iView took on the order of 26 hours to chew through that ...

What are your pc specs? - how much ram do you have? What filetype are those 8000 images?

I am running latest iview on a AMD64 3400 with 2GB RAM (OCZ 400Mhz), a 300GB Maxtor (16MB Cache) on Windows XP SP2.  It took ~2-4hrs for iview to import ~20.000 images (1/3 RAW).

It never crashed for me, but i noticed some slow downs on some operations.

[dhull]

The machine that I was running this on is a 2.4 GHz, P4 with 2 GB of RAM and 80 GB HDD.  The issues that I have seen are quite repeatable so perhaps my use of the term "stability" is inappropriate.  I would put the things I mentioned more in the class of things, "it hurts when I do that" -- well then don’t do that.  i.e. I can work around them.

I have not anteed up the $200 for the program yet and my trial has run out -- so I am through fiddling for a bit.  I am trying a few of the other contenders but I have found nothing with a UI that I like as well as iView (except for PSE4, which I am currently using).  Most of my photos are JPEG with about 300 of the latest ones being DNG.

[Angels]

The machine that I was running this on is a 2.4 GHz, P4 with 2 GB of RAM and 80 GB HDD.  The issues that I have seen are quite repeatable so perhaps my use of the term "stability" is inappropriate.  I would put the things I mentioned more in the class of things, "it hurts when I do that" -- well then don’t do that.  i.e. I can work around them.

I have not anteed up the $200 for the program yet and my trial has run out -- so I am through fiddling for a bit.  I am trying a few of the other contenders but I have found nothing with a UI that I like as well as iView (except for PSE4, which I am currently using).  Most of my photos are JPEG with about 300 of the latest ones being DNG.

I tested alot. I will give you a short summary of my experience:

- I used Imatch for a long time. Damn fast in building the catalog and on the interface side. Never had speed issues (on the interface), BUT it doesn't fit that much in a good DAM system. It uses its own tagging logic and doesn't make primary usage of IPTC/etc. The main issue which draw me away from imatch was: the image viewing is so damn slow (and yes i switched of some setting, which are causing slow downs)

- I use Iview now. It is a bit slower than Imatch (on the interface) and i wish it would have a "please wait i am busy" window. Sometimes it freezes for minutes (f.e. on resampling images) and i am unsure if it is still working or crashed.

- I tried extensis portfolio. After dropping a 20.000 image catalog and waiting 2 hours it seemed it hanged to death (the window couldn't opened anymore and the process was idle). I also noticed that it uses a high amount on files, cause it took ages on deinstallation.

- idimager (or however it is called). Alot of people call it a favorite. In  my humble oppinion : it sucks more than Iview. I had alot of speed issues (i used the pro version) and the interface is far behind usuability...