Digital BW, The Print

+1 for this software.  Now called Media Pro and offered by Phase One. Been using it since it's iView version 1.0 days, and it's great that Phase One management has rescued it from almost certain death at the hands of Microsoft. What makes it a better DAM (digital asset manager than LR or Bridge is that it will catalog much more than just image formats, and is equally at ease at tracking both on-line or off-line files/folders (ie. on CDs, DVDs, unplugged external drives, etc).  I use it to keep track of Excel, Indesign files, plain text and RTF files, PDF, Word files, etc.  And if on a Mac, it will write/embed caption data to any file using the file resource fork, so you can extend the use of IPTC fields with file formats that don't officially support IPTC (something that both all OS platforms should have done long ago at the OS level). All in all, IMHO, Media Pro still the best-in-class software for DAM. That said, LR will be better for photographers needing to handle basic image edits to lots of files in batch (.e.g, a wedding or sports event), and many photographers like the way LR seamlessly handles sharpen-for-print routines (which i'm guessing/hoping could come to PS in the next release). 

What remains to be seen is if Phase One, in efforts to compete more with LR, merges or integrates Capture One with Media Pro at the expense of Media Pro"s usefulness in tracking non-image file formats. That would be sad, but it won't surprise me if/when it begins to happen.

cheers,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Clayton Price <clay@...> wrote:
>
> Hi -
> I've been reading all these lightroom discussions, and interestingly, nobody has mentioned Expression Media, which was known as iView before 
> Microsoft bought them out. And now I understand that one of the digital back companies has purchased the company. I've been using it for a
> long time, and don't really take advantage of all it offers, but will say that it's a very good data base, with much more capacity than Light Room, 
> and it handles a large number of profiles, including DNG.
> 
> It does not replace using Photo Shop and/or Camera Raw, but is terrific for organizing and searching, adding key words into the metadata, and 
> a lot more. At least for me, since I've used PS from its' beginnings as well as Camera Raw when it was introduced, Light Room seemed okay,
> but still doesn't solve my data base problems, so the combination of those with Expression Media still simplifies my process.
> 
> Is there something about it that I've missed?
> 
> Clay Price
>