BTW, I took the photos in the Example Images.dtBase which is downloadable at http://www.devon-technologies.com/support/academy/dt_examples.html.
These are smaller versions of the original 8.2 megapixel images, which are a bit large for downloading.
One of my favorites is the Parliament building in Budapest, across the Danube from a castle Eric, Christian, Annard and I were visiting.
It is true that iView Pro has tons of features most users (or at least I) will never use, and it is true that it’s not cheap. But all those inessential features don’t hinder the workflow, and the application is relatively easy to master. And when I see an application which is reliable, which suits my needs, and which is relatively easy to master, then I mostly buy it. I prefer to spend some money in order to save some time. I didn’t make a thorough marking investigation before buying, so there may well be applications which would have equally suited my needs and which are less expensive. But I don’t care.
The only thing I do regret about iView Media Pro is the simplicity of its Slide Show Feature. I’m not one of those who want to impress their audience with lots of eye candy; my needs are very basic. But even my basic needs are not met by iVMP. I sent a message about this to the developers and they confirmed that things are as they are (even in the newest version), and that they don’t have any concrete plans to change this.
Timotheus,
I perfectly agree with you about the reliability and usability of an application. There is one point where you seem to be wrong 
: there is no other application that will suite your (and my) needs better. I have been looking around a lot and have found nothing but iView.
I just hesitate because I think it should be easy for DT to grasp the meta data and enter IPTC data with scripts and folders.
Bill! The example data base is nice, and when I see the photographs from Bietigheim and Ludwigsburg, close to where I went to highschool, I feel a bit like I should be there now (particularly in the season of new wine and Federweißer)… But, to the database: Don’t you think that it would be a great asset for DT users if they could add IPTC / XMP meta data via sorting into groups directly into the photos? 
Best from the hot springs
Maria
The fact that iView is now owned by Microsoft doesn’t concern you? It bothers me, because I seldom agree with MS’s idea of good software design.
Shoebox http://www.kavasoft.com is an interesting alternative with great metadata utility, but an apparently spotty development history; GraphicConvertor http://www.lemkesoft.com does a little bit of everything, a lot of them very well, and is possibly the most actively developed application on the planet; Adobe Lightroom is still in beta but looks very promising - and it runs on a G4 processor, unlike Aperture.
As you might guess, I’m on the same quest for the Ideal Photo Management Tool. I’m running with GC at the moment, but Lightroom + GC for photo retouching might eventually be my ideal solution.
Actually, DT with the cataloguing abilities that Maria suggests + GC would do it for me, but I’m guessing that the folk at Devontech have their hands full with other things for a while.
Thanks for reminding me of this fact. It was another reason I wasn’t that interested in buying iView.
Isn’t that interesting? It is a good application, the best solution on the market, but there is something that says “Don’t buy me!”.
It should be so easy for DevonThink to extract meta data from and add meta data to picture files, and I am sure it would drag a lot of new customers who feel similar about iView like most do here on the forum. I am really sad that there is no echo on that aspect here in this thread.
Best,
Maria
hallo.
there is some more, i expect from an »image-bank«. like the possibility to compare and rank photos on a finger tipp and export to various formats.
luix
But adding metadata can be done via the comments, right? That is how i do it right now, from within DTP.
Gerben
Gerben,
that is correct, you enter meta data into the info panel’s comments and export them to the Finder / Spotlight comments. But this restricts your information to the Mac platform at best, and meta data are not separated according to “capture, location, person, event” etc.
So I prefer a folder setup in DT that mirrors the IPTC data fields and to replicate pictures to these groups, which have subgroups that form the category of the data field. E.g. you create a folder for the IPTC field “Event” and in that folder you create groups for several events like “Ichirous seventh birthday” or “Europeans talking about politics while burning cars in the streets of Bietigheim on the 7th April 2006 (hi Bill! 
)”
The highest level of the hierarchy mirrors the variables/ data fiels of the IPTC suite, and the levels below the categories of specific values.
I thought of adding scripts to these folders which add the folder name into the IPTC field that is embedded into the picture.
Of course, the whole thing should work without really modifying the picture files, and I think of starting that picture database project again without that aspect. But it would be nice to know that there will be an option in the fuuture to batch-categorize new imports and to add the information of those pictures that are already categorized as I described to the real IPTC fields in the future.
I hope my explanations were understandable, the more I write the worse I write…
Best, Maria[/list]
Hi, Maria:
Bietigheim is such a quiet and pleasant community that I wouldn’t have expected unrest. Were there really cars burned in the streets there?
While I don’t use DT Pro as the manager for all of my photo, I so sometimes Index photos that are related to a project I’m working on, and see added value in what you are proposing. Perhaps one of these days. (But there are so many looming priorities for development!).
Hi Bill,
the remark about burning cars was a presponse to one of your recent comments on Europeans burning cars on the streets, so I thought it a funny idea to think of Schwaben (those living in and around Bietigheim) would ever burn cars…
Now, it is good to know that you see added value in these suggestions. I think it would make DTP an interesting purchase for many more people (not satisfied with iPhoto, not happy about iView).
Best, Maria
Edit: DT could edit iPod export of media, so iPhoto would be redundant.