PC image browsing software

[tim]

What does everyone use for miage browsing? I've used ACDSee 5.01 for ages, but it doesn't seem to like zooming in on 300D RAW images. Even ACDSee 7.0 doesn't. The photoshop CS file browser works but it's horribly slow, even on my P4 2.66 w/ 768 MB RAM.

[Scottes]

I use 3 programs depending on my needs. iMatch for catalogging and for browsing when I might have to look in several places. Pixort sometimes for browse-sorting, but now that CaptureOne is here I probably won't use that often. Lastly I use IrfanView, though I'm less likely to use it on RAW captures.

From the sounds of it I'd give Pixort a try. It's not free but pretty darn cheap with a 30-day trial.

[OceanRider]

I got EOS viewer utility with my 20 D and I like it. Also use Zoom browser that came with a Canon point and shoot, it rock for organizing pics.

[Rense]

Tim,
I use irfanview and for really quickviewing with a magnification glass
the fastStone Image viewer (http://www.faststone.org/) .

[Littlenose]

Tim, I use ACDSee 3 at the moment, but am keeping my eyes open for anything else intersting that comes along.

[CyberDyneSystems]

My heart belongs to ACDsee.. (still using version 4.. but started waaaaay back with version 1.XX on Win3.1 :) )

But ACDsee doesn't cover the RAW fiels as well as would like.. (though I suppose I should try V 7 to see how much it has improved.

So ACDSee for everything but RAW photos... whcih has needless to say imited it's usefullness as I shoot only RAW now.

For browsing RAW files,. I have found NOTHING as fast as Breezebrowser.. which also doubles as a great RAW converter ;)

[Bodog]

CDS, you need to try ACDSee v.7. 5 and 6 were pretty slow loading RAW files and I was ready to switch to something else. Now with version 7, RAW loads as fast as jpeg (at least on my machine). In a pinch it will also now convert RAW files. Offline catalogueing speed has greatly improved too. Color management is also available...

[CyberDyneSystems]

Sounds like I really need to try the upgrade :)

[lomond]

Tim,
I use irfanview and for really quickviewing with a magnification glass
the fastStone Image viewer (http://www.faststone.org/) .

Just downloaded and installed FastStone Image Viewer, Version 1.8.
This has the ability to view and zoom RAW files. It's a beta version at the minute but so far I like it.

Thanks for the link Rense.

[Jesper]

Tim,
I use irfanview and for really quickviewing with a magnification glass
the fastStone Image viewer (http://www.faststone.org/) .Thanks Rense,

I just downloaded and installed the 1.8 beta version of the FastStone Viewer and it looks good - the first thing I noticed is that it is VERY FAST with my 10D's RAW images. It builds the thumbnails much faster than for example Capture One and also opening an image to view it is really fast. Nice! :)

It's not converting the RAW data itself, it's just showing the embedded JPEG image inside the CRW file, but for browsing that's OK.

Edit: I just discovered that it can also decode the RAW data itself (menu Settings / Settings / tab Raw). And even when I enable that, RAW decoding is still very fast - just a few seconds.

[tim]

Faststone's great! If it would just display the EXIF info for RAW images it'd be close to perfect for me :)

[Scottes]

It's not working on my 20D RAW images... Am I missing something? (I didn't do anything just installed and ran it.)

And it's not that fast on my 48MB 16-bit developed TIFFs. :-)


Edit: Well neither RAW nor CR2 shows up on it's list of extensions or supported formats. Bummer. I was excited for a moment. I'll stick to IrfanView, I guess.
:-(

[dpower]

Just wanted to draw your attention to another post I just read regarding Picasa (the now Google-owned photo software.) Given the level at which most members of this forum are operating, it probably won't take the place of PS / Elements / PSP / etc.

However, it is free and provides some fairly cool viewing, grouping, indexing features as well as CD burning, slide show generation and editing features. From what I understand, it's also compatible with some RAW formats.

I will qualify this "review" by saying I have not yet downloaded the software myself. Just wanted to give you all a heads-up and hopefully save some of you a few bucks!

Further info available at www.Picasa.com (http://www.Picasa.com)

Cheers,
dp

[mwinog2777]

BreezeBrowser

Luv it.

[tim]

Picassa seems pretty good, but it's interface is obviously for people who don't have things organised well. I like to see my heirachy of folders on the left, not a massive list of hundreds of individual folders. Overall a handy tool, but it won't be my main tool.

[lomond]

It's not working on my 20D RAW images... Am I missing something? (I didn't do anything just installed and ran it.)

And it's not that fast on my 48MB 16-bit developed TIFFs. :-)


Edit: Well neither RAW nor CR2 shows up on it's list of extensions or supported formats. Bummer. I was excited for a moment. I'll stick to IrfanView, I guess.
:-(

Scottes, are you using version 1.8 (Beta).
Previous versions don't support RAW.
V1.8 certainly works for the 10D RAW files.

[Scottes]

Scottes, are you using version 1.8 (Beta).
Previous versions don't support RAW.
V1.8 certainly works for the 10D RAW files.

Interesting. I downloaded it last night and managed to get version 1.7. I'll try again - thanks.