Product Reviews

iView Media Pro v 3

Digital Asset Management (DAM) software is theoretically designed to simplify the lives of those who spend their working hours awash in high volumes of computer-generated media files. Clearly, digital photographers, who create volumes of new files with nothing more than the simple press of a shutter release button, are prime candidates for software that is supposed to take the burden of post-processing these files away from the user and move it squarely onto the back of a more qualified bit of software.

Long-time digital photographers remember with equal parts fondness and bitterness the program Cumulus, an early leader in the DAM space that turned suddenly from its photographic base and focused instead on the enterprise client, leaving behind a group of photographers dazed and confused.

In its wake came the dominance of two programs: Extensis Portfolio and iView MediaPro by the almost-eponymous iView Multimedia. Both programs developed a loyal following of users, though each camp would admit that their beloved program was good but flawed. Many discovered that the flaws of one of the programs were the strengths of the other, and so adopted a two-program system for asset management. Each subsequent version attempted to plug more of those holes, and to develop the tool as an all-in-one solution.

As 2005 drew to a close, both companies announced new versions of their software, with iView MediaPro advancing to Version 3. (A review of Extensis Portfolio 8 will be in a future issue, as it was announced but not yet shipping at press time.) While this newest incarnation of the media management software is impressive, it may well be safe to call iView Media Pro the program with the worst sense of timing in recent memory.

Thanks to the near simultaneous announcement of Apple Computer's Aperture, a program designed from the ground up to serve the needs of the professional photographers?and thereby compete with applications such as iView?any potential hype hoped to be gained with a new version was blown away by Apple's marketing machine.

Certainly, iView Media Pro is designed to do more than manage photographs. It's an able and competitive asset management solution, whereas Aperture is designed to work with photographs and nothing more. The media-juggling abilities of iView make a big difference to the multimedia author, but photographers care about moving their images, and iView Media Pro suddenly came to be judged not solely on its own merits, but based on a comparison to a program with a slightly different scope and purpose.



Bag Of Tricks

iView Media Pro has been a favorite among many photographers thanks to the simple interface and the power that interface contains. This newest version has added seven major new features, and a host of improvements and enhancements to streamline workflow.

What it has not changed, thankfully, is its ability to simply catalogue a user's drive, as opposed to managing files in a proprietary database structure (as does Aperture). As a result, a photographer can keep images stored in any order locally or offline, and the program simply maintains a thumbnail of each, a database of metadata, and a link to any remotely stored files. Leaving a user's files intact means that they can navigate to files locally without having to use a visual interface.

The process of importing files has seen a great overhaul, with iView able to import from storage media (while performing batch changes), or locally. The program has gained the ability to import based on Spotlight criteria, meaning that it's possible to point the program at an entire hard drive, and to tell it to import only files that match specific search criteria. It's also a snap to import from iPhoto and Photoshop album, and it's even possible to import from the Internet. Simply point the program at a Web site and let it rip.

In testing, all the import methods worked well. However, an existing iView Media Pro catalogue with 10,000-plus images repeatedly crashed the program, requiring us to start over and re-catalogue the entire drive.

Strangely, the program is no longer capable of displaying thumbnails larger than 320 x 320, even though offline a user can choose to create a full-screen preview. This decision was probably made to improve screen draw times?scrolling through large-sized images can take a while?but it's a poor decision. There are many times when it's handy to view large-sized previews, and it's often a lifesaver when trying to pick out selects from a batch of rapid-fire photographs.

A new Pro Lightbox mode attempts to make up for this allowing for four-up image comparison (this is the first of many iView features that are similar to Aperture's, with Aperture outclassing iView), a handy way to view larger previews and make selections based on more fine details. This mode allows for scrolling (even allowing users to scroll to the same point on multiple images) and provides a histogram and IPTC data overlays.



Finding A Needle In A Haystack

The new iView Media Pro 3 has greatly improved one of the most important aspects of an asset management program, the method by which one searches for files. In addition to providing a standard file dialogue box, the program has a column of filters, designed to allow for instant file-winnowing. This column is broken down into a date finder, file-type finder, metadata-finder, and more. Inside each finder is a list of available choices, for example the date finder lists "2005, 2004, 2003" and so on, while the file-type finder lists "Photoshop, CS2, TIFF, NEF" and more. Besides each is a list of how many files match that criteria, so that clicking on that field results in a narrowing of visual results to only reflect the available choices.

Shift-click on "2005" and "NEF" however, and your results expand or contract to show you just the files that match those criteria. Shift-click on the Metadata filter for location and select "France" to see only photographs that were shot with a Nikon camera in 2005 with France in the IPTC data.



Zoom Zoom Zoom

In another iView/Aperture parallel, the program has implemented a new zooming loupe feature that allows for pixel-level viewing of any file. Clicking the loupe button kicks the user into the Lightbox mode, an extra step that should have been avoided, as moving to the Lightbox takes upwards of four seconds, even on a PowerMac G5 Dual Processor 2.0ghz with 7 gb of RAM and an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.

Speed in general seems a bit off with this version, most likely because our test copy was version 3.0. New releases often concentrate on features first, and then pick up speed in subsequent incremental updates. Scrolling through a selection of 12409 files by using the scroll arrow resulted in a period of fast scrolling, with intermittent "hiccups" as the dual processors maxed out.



As You Like It

The interface of iView MediaPro 3 is much more customizable than the previous version, and now has the ability to display user-selected sets of metadata, custom layouts and more. In fact, many of the operations of the program have seen big changes and improvements, from the program's batch-renaming tools to its Web gallery design and creation tools. In all the program has more than 30 improvements over the previous iteration.

The Price Is Right

One area in which iView shines, relative to Aperture, is the price. Single-user licenses cost $199, whereas Aperture will set you back $499. For many, the similarities in features and the lower price will be enough to stay loyal to the program.

iView Media Pro 3 is, quite simply, an excellent digital asset management solution. Its ability to manage multiple file types puts it in a different class of programs from the Apple-branded solution that will invite the most comparisons. iView is not designed specifically as a post-processing tool in that the feature sets are oriented more toward someone looking to locate their files amongst tens of thousands of images than they are to someone looking to select, edit and print photographs from a shoot that just occurred.

But it's a friendly tool at a good price, and it has some nice new features. The fact that other programs may perform many of the same tasks with more finesse doesn't detract from its solid performance. The fact that the program runs on both Macs and PCs is another strong point for many, many photographers.

For $199, it's hard to go wrong. If scrolling and mode-switching speeds can pick up some speed with updates, so much the better. For the studio looking to manage multiple file types, iView is a great bet. For the photographer looking for a super-slick interface and a really focused set of pro tools, iView might be too much of a jack-of-all-trades, but it has a comfortable set of tools that the prosumer and pro photographer alike can learn in no time, and use to manage vast collections of images.



iView Media Pro v 3 www.iview-multimedia.com

Pros: Great update includes many new features.

Cons: It's not the only game in town. Speed could improve.

Price: $199