Canon IXUS 240 HS
Canon PowerShot SX240 HS
Nikon D800
Samsung DV300F
Olympus OM-D E-M5
Nikon Coolpix P510
Canon PowerShot SX260 HS
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ30
Nikon Coolpix S9300
Picasa - The Perfect Christmas Gift
Picasa Press Release 23/12/03
WHO: The procrastinators who need the perfect gift for the digital camera enthusiast.
WHAT: Picasa, a photo organizer that can be used by photographers of all skill levels to easily categorize their digital photo libraries, fills a common problem faced by anyone who saves digital photos to the PC. Picasa is the most efficient and easy-to-use way to organize new and old Holiday photographs, memories and events from your life. Picasa users do not have to manually organize their digital photos; all images on the hard drive are added upon installation and new images are automatically added as they are saved.
WHY: Upon installation, all images on the hard drive are automatically organized into albums, and new images are automatically added as they are saved to a user’s hard drive. Picasa allows its users to browse quickly through the entire collection of photos on their PC by displaying thumbnails of each image. The thumbnail system removes the need to search for digital pictures using original file names, which makes it difficult for most digital camera owners to find the photo they need. Advanced features include: cropping, rotation, red-eye removal, keyword search, slideshow (with music), movie support and photo timeline display.
WHERE: Consumers can purchase Picasa for $29.00 or download a free 15-day trial at: www.picasa.net.
Canon IXUS 240 HS Review
Canon PowerShot SX240 HS Review
Nikon D800 Review
Samsung DV300F Review
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Review
Nikon Coolpix P510
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ30
Canon PowerShot SX260 HS
Fujifilm X-Pro1
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V
#1 Fazal Majid
Do yourself a favor and get IMatch (http://www.photools.com) instead. You want a database you can grow with, not one with limited functionality that will end up a straightjacket, and IMatch's category management is second to none.
11:17 pm - Tuesday, December 23, 2003
#2 Mark Goldstein
Do you know how iMatch compares to Extensis Portfolio, Fazal? The latest issue of Practical Photography magazine (Jan 2004) awarded it 94%.
11:21 pm - Tuesday, December 23, 2003
#3 Fazal Majid
Don't get me wrong, Extensis Portfolio is a fine product with multi-user, client/server capabilities that are essential for workgroups such as advertising agencies or newspapers. Those people can afford the time and effort to write captions for evey frame, and then searching for keywords makes sense. Most individual users do not have secretaries and need an effective yet sustainable system.
That said, about 3 years ago I tried everything, including Extensis Portfolio and Canto Cumulus, but found them unsatisfying, until I tried IMatch. The main way I reason is using categories, and IMatch gives me the full power of set theory. For instance, photos in the Golden Gate Bridge category will automatically appear in the San Francisco category. If I want to find a photoof my family in front of the Golden Gate, I ask IMatch to show me the intersection of "Golden Gate" and "All Family", which in turn is defined as "Father AND Mother AND Brother AND Myself". For more details, see my weblog article.
A filing system is a very personal thing. Some people my find a purely chronological system more appropriate for them. Some want a purely visual recall system, for which a simple browser like ACDSee or Picasa works fine, but it won't scale to tens of thousands of pictures. With digital and its low cost per frame, many people are getting to hundreds of thousands of pictures to file.
11:34 pm - Tuesday, December 23, 2003
#4 Peter
What do you consider a best freeware product in this category? Thanks.
4:06 pm - Thursday, December 25, 2003
#5 Mark Goldstein
I'm not aware of any freeware products in this category. Adobe Photoshop Album, Picasa and Jasc Photo Album 4 seem to be the cheapest.
1:04 pm - Saturday, December 27, 2003