Another caveat for all you Picasa lovers. If you have keywords embedded in photos outside Picasa do not expect Picasa to know that unless they’re JPG’s.
You can double your work by adding tags (keywords) to your TIFF’s in Picasa too. It’s a fun thing to do because Picasa will then allow you to search them. But, unless you are 100% done with your ‘real’ photo work and have time to add this as icing to your cake, I would discourage you from wasting your time on it. … [continued]
Here’s the short version: … [continued]
If you’re going to annotate your photos, one of the likely reasons is to be able to share it. This is some of what I’ve discovered about sharing IPTC & GPS from various programs. … [continued]
It’s official. Canto Single User is the same insanely complex software as MediaDex.
It has the same help file with the same uselessly-small graphics.
They changed the icons, shape and color, on the main menu. Whoopdeedoo. They removed the most important one (add assets) and added one for configuring the screen layout. (That’s nice.)
The new ‘photo editor’ can hardly be called an editor. It can crop and re-size photos and change brightness levels.
The slideshow works now without crashing the program. That’s nice.
The search options in MediaDex were simple to access from the menu bar; this is a pain.
You can create and play QuickTime movies from your pictures. Big deal.
It’s still missing a simple way to rename files.
If you’re an organizing junkie you’d probably like it, but be prepared for a long hard slog to learn this software.
If you’re determined, please read my post called MediaDex Primer.
Don’t get me wrong. I liked this software, having made it past the intense learning curve to a basic level of usability. But it cost me $80 a year and a half ago. I don’t see what suddenly makes it worth $400. Because they changed the color of the icons?
(Update: Apparently the form of IPTC they use/used is/was all messed up as well. I found out after I moved to GeoSetter. So, nix on this product. Entirely.)
MediaDex is no more. Convoluted, but I think the story went like this. In the beginning was (still is) Canto Cumulus, corporate-level digital asset management system with a price tag so high they don’t quote it on the website. Then they came up with a single user version called MediaDex, organization minus the worldwide sharing part. Horribly abstruse piece of software with a support forum full of frustrated users. Nevertheless, potential to salivate over.
Apparently, someone else thought so, too. Now it’s become Canto Single User, being sold and supported through partners in Germany, France and Australia. So far I see there’s an image editor, watermarking and a modernized interface added. It will take more than that to impress me. Going by the price tag, I’m expecting all the bugs to be fixed and a good dash of user-friendliness added. Fortunately, there’s a trial version so I can find out.
User datasheet PDF
$400 USD or $200 for the upgrade from MediaDex.
Windows and Mac compatible.
Picasa 3 has been out for awhile and has lots of fun new features. Today, I’ll look at geotagging.
I love scanning old photos. I think.
Every once in awhile I get into a photo-starvation state. So many ancestors, so relatively few photos and when I ask, this is what I get: “There are no more family photographs, you have them all.” Then, when I get really busy with something else someone finds another batch and sends them off to me for scanning.
Update: MediaDex has been defunct since 2008. It’s now called Canto Single User. I don’t recommend it. If you’re looking for good IPTC software, try Photo Mechanic or GeoSetter.
Only because I have eyes in the back of my head, I know that some of you have tackled MediaDex for your IPTC ambitions, or are in the midst of tackling, and you’d probably like to shoot me for even suggesting it. But if it’s not too late, I’m going to reveal some of the inner workings of this mysterious software.
IPTC is a standard for embedding metadata in photographs. This is a summary of what is and isn’t IPTC-compatible software.
… [continued]
Email from a reader:
I have studied all your postings on digital photo organization. I am at a brick wall and I need some help.
I have been using Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0. I like the way it functions. However, for some reason, it keeps crashing on my computer. I believe this is because the program was written such a long time ago that XP is having difficulty with it.
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