[OT] iMatch 5 "public" beta available

[ferdinand-paris]

I mention this here (again) because I recall that there are a number of ASP users who also use IMatch (and also IDImager users, who may be interested, given its recent demise). ASP fits well with a DAM like IMatch because of its "file system" mode, i.e. you are not forced to use catalogs. Moreover, IMatch 5 makes it much easier (than V3.6) to exchange metadata with ASP using XMP.

The IMatch 5 beta is out and available to those who've bought V3.6 or 3.6:

http://ptforum.photoolsweb.com/ubbthrea ... #Post70213

There is a new forum for V5, which has all the details on how to get the beta

http://community.photoolsweb.com/index.php?topic=57.0

You'll need the email address you used to purchase V3.5/6, and if you've still got that then it's fairly automatic. If not you'll need to send Mario purchase details.

F_P

[coolrat]

I for one would am thinking about purchasing iMatch 3.6 just so that I can begin using the new iMatch 5. I've already designed a huge nested key-word list that I'm using in Lightroom 5 to attach keywords to my photos. But Lightroom 5 seems really quite inadequate for most DAM tasks.

When I purchased Aftershot Pro, it looked (on paper) to be the perfect solution! It was multi-platform and I could use it on Linux, Windows or Mac, and it offered a catalogue and keyword feature and use it to organize and keyword-tag all of my photos. However, in actual use, Aftershot Pro has disappointed me. The workflow is brilliant, but the effects of its RAW editor are inferior to PhotoNinja. And its DAM capabilities are weak. It doesn't have a good keyword editor, nor does it seem to update photos when I re-arrange or re-name the keywords in the nested-tree. Lightroom can do this. But its so full of bugs that I want to switch to iMatch 5.

I can only hope Corel will release a significantly-improved version of Aftershot.

[jknights]

Whilst I love iMatch and would advocate it is the best DAM it isnt on Mac yet so unfortunately since I moved from Windows I cant use it any more.

Such a shame for me as it really is that good. However nothing would induce me to go back to Windows. I use it but only if I cant do stuff on my Mac or Linux platforms.

[ferdinand-paris]

While I've never really seriously considered a Mac, if I were to, the lack of IMatch would be a major hurdle for me. That and Qimage, although I don't use it as much as I used to. Some people claim to have IMatch running on a Mac in some sort of virtual environment, but I'm not sure how well.

F_P

[afx]

No idea about v5 yet, but v3.6 does not seem to have any high demands on the screen output.
As my experience with Windows guest VMs on Linux shows, the disk access is definitely fast enough in VMs, often faster than native (at least for the Windows on Linux scenario).

cheers
afx

[Franz Dur]

... ASP fits well with a DAM like IMatch because of its "file system" mode, i.e. you are not forced to use catalogs. Moreover, IMatch 5 makes it much easier (than V3.6) to exchange metadata with ASP using XMP....
F_P

It even works if you write your xmp/iptc into the raw file (I know many won't do it, but I am brave -or unconcious-). It was already possible with NEF in IM3, but in IM5 it works also with my Panasonic RW2. This is because IM5 uses Exiftool for reading/writing metadata from and to image files. So potentially IM5 can read/write xmp/iptc to any raw file that Exiftool considers safe to write to. Of course do some intensive tests with backup images before taking the plunge...

Francis

[jknights]

I believe that it would be possible for Mario to port iMatch3/5 to Mac but it is not on his radar.
Having worked with Bibble/ASP plugin developers I can tell you that if you use the QT toolkit and C++ then writing to all environments is very much easier than trying to do it all in C++ code.

I am also fairly sure that if I wanted to then I could get iMatch running in a Windows VM on my Mac but it is not the way I want to go. I have to respect that Mario doesnt want to go to Mac and/or Linux but it does reduce his userbase.

[ferdinand-paris]

It even works if you write your xmp/iptc into the raw file (I know many won't do it, but I am brave -or unconcious-). It was already possible with NEF in IM3, but in IM5 it works also with my Panasonic RW2. This is because IM5 uses Exiftool for reading/writing metadata from and to image files. So potentially IM5 can read/write xmp/iptc to any raw file that Exiftool considers safe to write to. Of course do some intensive tests with backup images before taking the plunge...

I think that this is one area where Mario risks some blow-back. Just because ExifTool thinks that a file format is safe to write to doesn't mean that everyone will be happy with it doing so. (But note that automatic write-back is not enabled in the default install, and all write-back options can be customised.) For my part, I've always been relaxed about writing to NEF, as it's so widely supported, but have decided to make ARW files read-only and use side-cars.

I believe that it would be possible for Mario port iMatch3/5 to Mac but it is not in his radar.

I seem to recall the Labs staff saying that if you start out to design a cross-platform package then it's not so bad. But retro-porting is much, much more difficult. It's taken him years to get to where he is on Windows - I've been beta testing for 2½ years. Won't happen in my lifetime.

F_P

[hannes_hab]

does it work with wine on linux?
don't really like to use WIN - even on my new pc with win7 64 bit WIN is much slower than linux
so my main working area will be linux

[Dutchmm]

[quote="hannes_hab"]does it work with wine on linux?

Hannes

I tried out iMatch4 on wine, and it worked OK. I have decided to persevere/continue/live in hope with AS for the time being, so I haven't tried out the new version. But the odds are good that it will work, especially with the 1.6 release candidate of Wine that goes so well with my other Windows only software.

[Franz Dur]

...
I think that this is one area where Mario risks some blow-back. Just because ExifTool thinks that a file format is safe to write to doesn't mean that everyone will be happy with it doing so. (But note that automatic write-back is not enabled in the default install, and all write-back options can be customised.) For my part, I've always been relaxed about writing to NEF, as it's so widely supported, but have decided to make ARW files read-only and use side-cars.
....
F_P

Exiftool is tested by so many users that I think any problematic read/write into this or that raw file will get detected. The problems wil arise with raw files with in file and side-car xmp, as is already the case for NEF touched by CNx/ViewXn and by Adobe.

ASP seems very tolerant, it opens and reads infile xmp from RW2 without problem and writes everything to the derived jpg. Did you try with a Sony raw?

Francis

[ferdinand-paris]

I did try it initially, and it can be done. It depends a little on what other s/w you use. There's a risk that IPTC won't be found in the image because it's not expected. Perhaps also XMP. Adobe software won't write to the file and therefore there's a risk that the embedded XMP will get out of sync with what's in the sidecar. Given how few programs handle embedded metadata in ARW I thought it best not to use it. The issue of embedded XMP getting out of sync with the sidecar of course applies to any file format, and so I have decided to configure IMatch 5 to only put XMP in the sidecar for NEFs, although I will let the XMP propagate to IPTC in NEFs, since that is so widely supported and because I've got so much of it already. We can discuss how to configure XMP in V5 once you're more familiar with it, but perhaps we should do so on the new IMatch community site.

If I was starting over again now, and being able to use IMatch 5, I would probably use sidecars for all RAW, simply because it's so much faster than writing to the RAW file.

The reason I suggested that Mario risks blow-back is because there is a very widespread view that RAW files are sacred and anyone who dares to suggest that they can be modified is a heretic and should be burnt at the stake, let alone someone who writes a program that does this. Now the default install doesn't, but as soon as you enable metadata writeback it will, unless you also edit some other metadata settings.

F.

[Franz Dur]

OK Ferdinand, see you on the photools Community forum (I post under a different name there°

Francis