Can Lightroom......

.... replace other digital asset management software? I'm currently using iView

Media Pro3 for DAM and I just purchased my copy of LR1...

 

I've not been happy with IVMP for numerous reasons, crashing issues, slowness,

etc... not to mention the fact that it has been bought out by MS and a major

change is going to happen with the software. I've got the feeling that I may

soon have to ditch the software for something better.

 

I like the way LR catalogs folders, and how easy it is to find images. Does LR

have the capabilities yet to catalog images that are not on the HD? ie.... dvds

and cds or is that an unrealistic expectation at this point?

LR can catalog images that are on removable media or are otherwise not available. They do need to be available to be imported the first time (on local disk or removable media). After that, you can take them off line. If you generate standard previews before taking them offline, you can even do some things with them even while they are offline, like view them in slideshows.

 

If the path to the file is the same every time you mount the removable media, it all works swimmingly. If the path changes, then you'll need to tell Lightroom where it is each time you mount (for just one of the images on the media).

I've been using iView MediaPro for several years but now find I rarely start it up at all, with

Lightroom taking its place. It still does a couple of things I would love to see in Lightroom ...

like its in-depth search facility, and I like the quality of the HTML it produces. But it's pretty

much relegated to occasional use for me now.

 

Godfrey

So far,for me, the answer is yes for still photographs; haven't tried it with video or audio.

There's some debate over the issue of Lightroom versus iView.

 

One issue I've found is that using a different Raw processor is not easy with Lightroom: you

must export the Raw file. You can't just edit the file in place as iView lets you do.

 

But I'm with you: I don't trust the Microsoft buyout and my guess is that many people will

move to Lightroom, as Godfrey and Ellis have. I plan to do much more in Lightroom myself.

"One issue I've found is that using a different Raw processor is not easy with Lightroom: you must export the Raw file." Obi

 

I'm not sure I understand. Wouldn't it be easier to use the other raw converter first, export it as a 16bit prophoto tif, then import into LR?

I doubt that it makes any sense to use LR if one is going to do the raw processing elsewhere. Raw processing (along with printing) is LR's strength. To my way of thinking, LR is for those who formerly did their raw processing with ACR, combining it with iView or Bridge, with PS used for printing, which is exactly how I used to work. LR doesn't have the DAM capabilities of iView (I tried unsuccessfully to move my existing iView images to LR, but LR couldn't handle the metadata), but when I use it for new images that start life in LR, it completely replaces three awkwardly combined apps (iView + ACR + PS) with one app, with a vastly improved UI overall.

 

--Marc

 

ImageIngester.com

One additional strike against Lightroom as a DAM is its inability to import images larger than 10,000 pixels along any one dimension. If you stitch panoramas or scan large format transparencies, LR won't handle them.

 

I haven't experienced any of the crashes or slowdowns reported by other users of iView; in fact, I find that version 3.1.1 works flawlessly. But like others, I don't think the MS buyout bodes well for the future of iView, and expect it to turn into a slow, buggy, bloated beast of an application.

 

I'm hoping that Adobe fixes this 10k pixel limit quickly.

Don: <i>I'm not sure I understand. Wouldn't it be easier to use the other raw converter

first, export it as a 16bit prophoto tif, then import into LR?</i>

<p>

The scenario I'm referring to is this: you shoot a bunch of Raw images and ingest them into

Lightroom. 6 months later, you need to process one. Lightroom lets you locate the image

quickly via the metadata. Now you need to process it. There's no easy way to launch an

external raw processor right out of Lightroom, as you can with iView. You need to either

export the image, or you need to note its folder location and manually navigate the

external processor to that folder.

<p>

Marc: <i>I tried unsuccessfully to move my existing iView images to LR, but LR couldn't

handle the metadata</i>

<p>

Hmm...In my case, Lightroom had no problem reading the metadata placed into images by

iView. In the case of DNG and TIFF, Lightroom read all the XMP metadata placed by iView.

In the case of NEF, it could only read the IPTC IIM metadata, because iView doesn't embed

XMP or IPTC Core metadata into manufacturer Raw files. It does write XMP into the resource

fork on Macs, but Lightroom doesn't know that.

<p>

Thus, for example, ratings - an IPTC Core field - applied in iView to NEF images didn't

make it to Lightroom, although they easily make it the other way. Lightroom writes the XMP

sidecar, which iView reads.

<p>

You do need to sync out the metadata in iView and read it manually in Lightroom. Both are

manual processes.

Not yet. At the moment iView media is much stronger DAM tool. Beside I have large colection of photos in iView allready. I think I can get the best of two words this way: I import files from CF card to Lightroom, flag rejects and cull them, rank with star ratings, do some basic keywording, develop, export as DNG, run the exported files trough DNG converter again to get full previews embeded and import DNG files to iView Media Pro3 DAM. If I later need specific file(s) in format other then DNG I open it with Lightroom and output it directly or through Photoshop (I have Photoshop 7 and not CS, CS2 or CS3).

 

If the DAM capability of Lightroom is improved with consequent versions I will migrate my collection to Lightroom at some point. There are few problems with migration that are not solved yet: people from iView is not transfered to Lightroom and there is a problem of transfering hierarchical virtual sets.

 

Regards Marko

>You need to either export the image, or you need to note its folder location and manually

navigate the external processor to that folder.<

 

An easier option is to right-click the file in LR and select "Show in Finder," then open it with

your converter of choice.

Thanks for all the answers! Guess I shall be holding on to iView for at least a bit longer then.