Okay, [@Mick], here’s more:
Installing on a second computer …
11 – It does not show importing in progress,
– only 4 images, 1 of “Today”, 1 of “This week”, 1 of “This month” and 1 of “This year”,
– with no other information,
– so I clicked on an image, and it opened a wall view,
– and crashed, and tried to recover my information,
– I re-opened PhotoInsight, and it seemed to pick up where it left off,
… I’d like it to show me stuff as it finds it, and let me get to work browsing and exploring, as Picasa shows me stuff as it arrives so I can explore while it imports other new stuff, and I’d like it to be stable.
12 – I clicked on an image and it opened in “Single image layout”,
– and then I could not figure out how to see the previous or next image,
– so I clicked on “Filmstrip layout” and it showed images below the main central image,
– but the main central image was not on the film strip,
– so I still have no idea where I am, where the image is,
– I clicked on one of the filmstrip images,
– and it became the main central image,
– the prior image is gone,
– and since it’s not in the filmstrip,
– I have no idea where it was nor how to get back to it,
… I’d prefer something more mappable, like Windows File Explorer shows us where we are by double- or triple-frame window presentations of directory tree, one directory contents, one image contents, all three on screen, so we know where we are when we are looking at anything.
13 – I clicked on “Statistics” and it shows some neat stuff,
– like how many pictures I take averaged across each hour of the day,
– and it believes that I shoot an average of 1,000 images at 7 pm ( 19h ) every day,
– with a Sony camera ( out of 26 cameras ),
– and a 300mm focal length ( out of 115 focal lengths ),
– unknown exposure ( out of 220 exposures ),
– unknown software ( out of 0 software ),
– how about that,
– and it shows a world map with “Number of shots per country”,
– but it’s blank, so unknown country,
– and there are the 3-dot controls in the upper right corner of each tile in “Statistics”,
– but the three dots do nothing,
– and it seems to refresh the “Statistics” display occasionally,
– but nothing changes,
… I’d prefer that statistics work and not be blank and uncontrollable, what are the three dots for?
14 – I went to “Photo wall” ( on the left ),
– and ALSO selected “Photo Wall Layout” ( on the top left ),
– and I slid the slider ( on the top right ) to adjust the thumbnail size,
– and now I can see thumbnails,
– up to 17-to-34 images across ( depending on if they are portrait or landscape orientation )
– and up to 11 1/2 images down ( ? ),
– yet nowhere is a map of where these images are in the real-world of my Windows filing system,
– though a directory path and filename pop up for each image with a mouse-over,
– one at a time, then disappears, only one location shown at a time,
– and if I scroll the mouse wheel,
– the whole wall of images scrolls up and down,
– and some images are blank showing an arrow-circle instead ( DNG, NEF, TIF, KDC file extensions ),
– yet some DNG, NEF, TIF, and KDC files do display, go figure,
– when I click on an image, it replaces all the thumbnails in order to view the one image,
– but the view still shows “Photo Wall” on the left,
– but “Single image layout” on the top left, not “Photo Wall” on the top left,
– some images from raw look like JPG thumbnail images from the raw, not the entire raw contents,
… I’d prefer structured filing system management, this feels like dumping all my pictures on the floor, and saying “… oo, oo, this is neat, and this is neat, and this is neat, and this is neat …” but that’s not management.
15 – I look at a picture, and there are icons below,
– like the idogram of a person, hover the mouse, it says “author” but I cannot click to add an author,
– it says 100%, but I doubt that, an image with 4,928 pixels-across on a 1,080 screen-dots-across display taking up only 33% across the screen width ( 4″ across 13.5″ ) and yet it says “100%”, something here does not mean what the programmers think it means,
– it’s not 1:1 image pixel to screen pixel,
– and it’s not filling the viewable space,
– so what does 100% mean to the PhotoInsight programmers?
… I’d prefer that if you’re gonna show me something on screen, that I should be able to click on that thing and do something with it, get information on it, control it, enter data at it, change it,
… I’d prefer that the program identify and explain what it’s displayed information means, like what does 100% mean if not “full screen”, and if not “1:1 image-pixels:screen-dots”, and if not “fill the viewing area”, or something, but none of those seem to apply.
16 – I cannot manage the drives and folders predictably, it thought I tried to add the desktop, I did not, so I clicked “remove this folder”, and it took 5 tries to get it to respond, I tried adding a network folder, oops, crashed again, and when restarting, it asks where I want to search, as if it forgot everything I just told it, everything it just saw, so I tell it to re-look in the same single local hard drive directory ( C:\DCIM ), and nothing, no pictures, so I go back into “Settings” and tell it to look at the directory it just saw, and it’s starting all over again as if it has no idea it was looking there just a moment ago, so I’ll wait again,
… I’d like things to work, first time, every time, but, unlike free Google Picasa, PhotoInsight apparently does not leave a record file in each image directory telling the program what the directory means, I think I’d prefer the program to remember, for example, if I had created tags, would they also be gone if I disconnected a directory for any reason, and then reconnected that same directory?
17 – I just added some tags, then removed the directory, then added a network directory, and then checked the PhotoInsight “wall”, and the original directory is still in view, the network directory is nowhere, not even scanning, but at least tags are still displaying, even though I removed the directory,
… I’d prefer things to work, to be responsive, to tell me what it is doing, why is it showing me a directory when I have no directories selected in “Settings”?
18 – It installs and runs the Everything program, as well as it’s own PhotoinsightService, both in the background all the time, restarting after reboot, and it all seems to be based on a cobbled-together group of open-source or sharable free utilities, see [ C:\Program Files\PhotoInsight\licenses ]:
– chronicnetcore.txt
– everythingnet.txt
– gong-wpf-dragdrop.txt
– litedb.txt
– live-charts.txt
– metadataextractor.net.txt
– mvvmlight.txt
– named-pipe-wrapper.txt
– newtonsoft.json.txt
– nlog.txt
– simpleinjector.txt
– structuremap.txt
– Wibci.CountryReverseGeocode.txt
– xmp-core-dotnet.txt
– ZetaIpc.txt
– and it builds 110 directories at [ C:\ProgramData\PhotoInsight\Cache ]
– full of thumbnails built to 341 pixels across max by 256 pixels down max at variable 75% to 90% JPG quality, perhaps dependent on the calculated qualities of the original image file JPG quality,
– so with 10,000 or 20,000 original image files, or more, this will build 10,000 or 20,000 thumbnail files, or more,
– not even in a single zip file structure, so that’s gonna grow, especially hogging disk space slack,
– it appears NOT to eliminate thumbnails when removing a directory from “Settings”, so these seem to stay forever,
– ( is THIS where it saves tags, inside the JPG thumbnails ? But they are named like [ 0bbe2289-5d50-4e5d-9d60-f062586c94d8.jpg ] and such, rather random and inaccessible to other programs, and no way to tether them to, or transfer the tags to, the original file ),
… I’d prefer some cohesive intentional structure to the program, not just cobbled together found objects, no wonder it feels like it has no purpose.
19 – I searched for where it stores it’s image tags,
– and apparently ONLY in it’s own database,
– not in the image file or in a sidecar file,
– and get this, I added IPTC tags to an image file outside PhotoInsight,
– and the image file was locked,
– so I exited PhotoInsight,
– added tags manually ( using free IrfanView ),
– then restarted PhotoInsight,
– and looked for the tags I manually added to an image file,
– and PhotoInsight did not see them,
– so I added more tags inside PhotoInsight,
– and it crashed out, over and over,
– and each time I restarted PhotoInsight, it remembered it’s own newly added-but-crashed tags,
– but somehow the conflict with changing the image file outside PhotoInsight caused PhotoInsight to incessantly crash when “touching” that same file ever again inside PhotoInsight,
… I’d like anything I do inside PhotoInsight NOT to get lost outside PhotInsight, and anything I do outside PhotoInsight not to get lost inside PhotoInsight.
20 – Nope, no more, I’m done,
– there is no programming here, this is not even a college or high-school programming class assignment because there is nothing original here,
– this is just open source utilities in a package,
– and it’s woefully dysfunctional,
– I cannot get it to see images on network drives,
– and it does scant little at all anyway,
– no image import,
– no image rotation even,
– no image exposure auto adjustment even,
– no image resizing,
– no image export,
– shows no directory tree,
– can’t re-organise our filing according to any scheme,
– it’s just a bunch of random tools that don’t do much on their own, let alone work together.
Free Google Picasa is at v4, this is at v1, and Picasa was way better at v1 than this, so thanks, PhotoInsight, but please please please get samples of other vendor’s software that are readily available out in the field, get super familiar with the competition, and make your software equal to or better than the competition BEFORE asking us to look over your shoulder and direct you … to even make it work at all, let alone to make it better, better than the competition, which you should have done before release.
Please, no more alpha-testing.
– – – – – – – – – –
Alternatives, aside from free Google Picasa, we all can web search for [ best DAM software compare ], see and review them, there are some that are free to try:
– Widen Collective
– PhotoShelter for Brands
– Brandfolder
– Canto
– Bynder
– Image Relay
– IntelligenceBank Digital Asset Management
– Syndigo Content Experience Hub
– Salsify Product Experience Management Platform
– ImageKit
– Wiredrive
– ENPS
– iNEWS
– MediaValet
– Daminion
– pCloud
– Kontainer
– monday.com
– Nero 9
– OpenAsset
– Frontify
– Mediafly
– Extensis Portfolio
– Filecamp
– iPresent
– Lucidpress
– CONTENTdm
– Percolate
– Pimcore
– BAM!
Yeah, there’s a lot of sophisticated competition out there for DAM Digital Asset Management software, but hey, PhotoInsight calls themself DAM software, so I’m just responding to that claim, thoug it’s a false claim.
Alternatively, ANY image browser is better than PhotoInsight,
– the software that comes free with your camera,
– even Windows File Explorer with View > Extra Large Thumbnails is BETTER then PhotoInsight,
– and safer, and more reliable, and more controllable.
– Picasa
– IrfanView
– Picasa
– FastStone Image Viewer
– Picasa
– DigiKam
– Picasa
– Photoscape
– Picasa
– XnView MP
– Picasa
– JetPhoto Studio
– Picasa
– Paint.NET
– Picasa
Hint … Picasa.
Yeah, there’s alternatives out there, and somehow I get the impression that PhotoInsight never tried any of ’em.
.