iView Media Pro 3.1.1 CR2 files

[david_richardson5]

Hi folks

 

Has anyone used the new release of iview Media Pro 3.1.1 and got it to sync

annotations with the CR2/xmp files to have them viewable in Bridge? I ask this

because if it does, i will purchase, if it doesn't, i won't!

 

Many thanks

 

Dave

[wildpicture]

You can download the 3.1.1 version as 30 day try out from their website. It�s fully functinal for 30 days, so you can it yourself.

[david_richardson5]

Well actually it's a 21 day evaluation. If i was able to download it i would do that very thing to try it, but as i'm sending this from an internet cafe whilst on holiday, i thought i'd ask the 'experts'. It seems that no one knows, or they don't understand the question.

Many thanks

Dave

[bennyboy]

Anyone else find it totally locks up their pc if they drag and drop nested folders where there may be some psd's?

 

Instant PC lock up if I do.

[jack_rabin]

No digital asset manager computer software can embed IPTC XMP metadata into a

Canon .CR2 RAW file because Canon does not permit writing data to RAW file headers.

Nikon .NEF files permit it, but not Canon. Well, I take that back, I thnk Breeze Systems

implements a full Canon software development suite, and does enable writing data to

the .CR2 if you use BreezeBrowser software products. But, like Photo Mechanic (the gold

standard browser), it is browser not a cataloger. On the cataloger software front, and iView

is the "single user" gold standard in that catagory, there is no product that writes to .CR2.

Adobe Bridge either creates the kludgy .XMPs, or writes to a database. Both stupid.

 

All other manufacturers pretend to embed, as does PSCS2, which has bugs in its IPTC

metadata implementation (oh, excuse me, features to maintain backward compatibility

with Legacy IPTC metadata).

 

On the Mac platform, when you sync in iView Media Pro, I believe all you are doing is

sending metadata to the Mac File Resource Fork. "Appears" to work, but if you move the

file to another machine, bye-bye metadata. On Windows platform, there is no sync-ing at

all. You think you are embedding, but you are really not.

 

What many Canon .CR2 shooters have done, who want true IPTC metadata embedding, not

the stupid .XMP side car files, is adopt an Adobe DNG workflow, embedding the original

RAW in the DNG incase you ever want to reprocess it. If you embed IPTC metadata in iView

(or any program) to a DNG, then open in Bridge, you will see the data. It's really there.

 

So, iView struggles with all this. It is not their fault. I believe the new release will allow you

to "write" an .XMP output file which Bridge can read. Go the iView site, check the release

notes. I think they put this feature back in because of Canon RAW users.

 

But, the whole thing is messy. If you appreciate what iView does well (a lot of users do),

but also need a Browser like Bridge, adopt a DNG workflow and be done with the problem.

Of course, DNG is not special, it's just another RAW format with its own weaknesses, but at

least it is open to embedding metadata that Bridge/PSCS2 will "see."

 

This is a very "deep"problem for us at work, and I've probably written it badly here.

Jack

[wildpicture]

I have tried it myself with CR2 raw files from my 1D mkII camera. It seems to work fine. You can add IPTC data to the image and then synch it into the RAW file. The raw files seems to be unharmed. They can be opened afterwards without problems in Canon�s DPP, Capture One, Photoshop CS2 and Breezebrowser. I haven�t tested Bridge yet as I never use it anyway. The IPTC info added is recognized and shown by other software. I only noticed that "event" which I had annotated wasn�t showing in CS2. But I haven�t done any full serious testing.

 

So far, it all seems to work properly and the RAW�s don�t seem to get harmed in any way. Still I am a bit reluctant to apply it to all RAW in my archives. I will wait until there are more results from other testers as well.

 

I do hope there are no hidden problems and iView Mediapro will be able to write IPTC into raw�s safely as Breeze has done for such a long time. It would be a great feature, as it will finally make my RAW�s and annotations independent of any software.

[david_richardson5]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I have just done a quick test and the .CR2 files actually do have the IPTC data embedded, but when I delete the annotation, and re-sync it, the new annotation stays there......

 

More testing then......