What software do you use to manage your photos?
 

Hey everyone, I just came home with a nice little digital camera and had a question or two for the masses.

The camera itself came with a few pieces of software (some of which are horrible, some of which are pretty handy) but I was wondering if there is any preferred software for not only importing images, but at the same time managing a large amount of photos, other than just using windows explorer (unless of course, if that is the preferred option ;) )

I decided on the Canon A60, instead of the A80, simply because I wasn't able to justify the extra couple hundred dollars.

It came with a starter edition of Adobe's Photo Album software, but it is limited to the first 250 images, then I would have to buy the full version.

It also came with some canon utilities (which seem pretty good) and a photo suite that I've already gotten rid of called ArcSoft PhotoImpression 4.

I'm on windows 2000, so no mac software for me on this one.

Also, any ideas on where I can pick up some affordable CF memory wouldn't hurt either. It came with a 16meg card, and I'm looking to get a 256mb (at least) card.


Any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated. Now I'm off to play with my new toy ;)



/me beems with glee at his new toy...


[edit]
http://tfproject.org/tfp/showthread....threadid=40319
this thread has some nice links for the flash memory that I'm going to check out. any other links that you guys and gals have used would be useful as well.

gee, hope i'm not asking too much...

http://www.crucial.com/store/listmod...kage&cat=Flash

crucial has pretty decent deals on them. 256mb for 56 dollars.

just wait till somebody puts them out on sale and then grab them if you are not in a big need.

No, it's not a huge rush at all, but I'm sure this 16meg card will get very small very fast. It's only a 2MP camera, but they're still fair sized images.

Thanks for the link though. I know crucial is solid when it comes to RAM, i should have figured they would be on the ball with other digital memory too.

I use iPhoto, personally... easy import, simple editing (very simple, you crop, you can adjust hte light, you can zap some red-eye, that's about it), easy export. syncs w' your iTools acct if you have one. s'cuse me, your .mac acct. *glares @ apple for taking away her free e-mail*

I've heard iPhoto was a good one, but I'm on a PC, so no luck for me.

There are times that I wish i had a mac, just so I could play with the software. I've been a wannabe mac-head for ages. Just can't afford the suckers :P

i use thumbs plus.. i have used it for years.. great little program..

I use acdsee 6.0

It's a great program and is free to try, and not to expensive to purchase.

http://www.acdsystems.com/english/Products/ACDSee/index

I remember using acdsee 2 or 3 a while back. it was definitley a good one. thanks for the tip peach.

and i'll give thumbs plus a google as well. :)

heh, seriously, even second-hand they can be pricey. i really lucked out getting mine. sorry I missed hte PC-only in the origional post. hope your camera treats you well :)

i'm still convinced that in the next few years i'll own an apple laptop. we'll see how it goes though.

i'm having a blast with this thing, and i've only had it for a few hours. let's see if i can get it working as a webcam now... :D

I use a program called Firehand Ember to manage and view my images. It displays images in a contact sheet style format and can resize, adjust brightness, color, etc.

BTW, if you have a Sam's club membership, I think they have a Simple Technologies 256Mb CF card for around $50.

sandeep, I have to fully endorse the Apple laptop idea. We got a Canon S45 last spring, and got my wife an I-Book this summer. I have previously been a PC only guy. The laptop and the cam seem to work in perfect harmony together. I-Photo is very intuitive to use. We're big time Apple believers now.

I don't think there are any Sam's Clubs where I live (at least none that I know of).

I can almost promise that I won't have the laptop in the near future. The money just isn't in the budget. But now you've really got me wanting one. :P

the software i use to view/manage photo's is cam2pc, there is a freeware version here http://www.nabocorp.com/cam2pc/index.php works good, i just have to turn off the tumbnail casheing, because i have a couple gigs of pics... but a good free program...

Photoshop to edit, sucks to browse with photoshop, but great for editing...

i don't use any (need to test posting, not being a smart-ass) :-)

Most of the reviews I have read put adobe photoshop album at the front of the pack. I like it ,but like you, have only used the preview edition which is fully functional except for limiting the amount of photos you can store.
I plan on purchasing the full version but havn't gotten around to it yet.
For funtionality and ease of use its great.

P.S.... Ashton, I find anything and everything about photoshop 7 difficult. Admittedly it is a very powerful program, but to the novice like me its like being lost alone in a foreign country.

I have the full versions of Photoshop 7 and Adobe Elements. They are great for manipulating images. For managing images, and really quick resizing for e-mail and such, I love my ACDSee.

Editting - Photoshop, cataloging/viewing etc - Acdsee

I have 4.5 gig of pictures with a thumb cache of 10 mb.. It's definitely worth turning caching on.

Oh, I use Acdsee btw. I switched from the "classic" version when I got my digicam.

I pull them off of them off of my memory stick in MY COMPUTER and then organize them myself making my own folders.

I use ACDSee, but i've considered making the leap to Photoshop Album.

for most general purposes tho, ACDSee. :thumbsup:

I've given the new version of ACDSEE a spin and it's treating me pretty nicely. I think I may just stick with this until I find anything that makes me want to switch. I just resized an image in it, and it was as easy as it should be.

Thanks for all the input everyone, I've made notes about all the other suggestions incase I wanted to try something else.

The help is appreciated.

ACDSee - definately!

I use that for sorting images and moving them around - it also has a very useful feature of checking duplicate images. If you have two images with the same name, windows will just give you the dates and sizes. ACDSee will show you both and give you the option of renaming or deleting either. It will show you the sizes, dates, resolution etc - very useful!

If you don't fancy the full new fancy version I've got a copy of ACDSee Classic on my computer - v3 or something. Best of all it works without being registered, although there ae ways around registration for v5... ;)

PM me if you want a copy - I'll happily let you have a copy.

As for editing images in detail, it has to be photoshop.

I was using the camera and scanner wizard built into XP to download my photos and not doing top much to manage them. Then I check out breezebrowser. Nifty piece of software, does wonders with RAW images as well if your camera supports them.
http://www.breezesys.com/BreezeBrowser/

Works a treat with canon digitals.

I've been using Adobe Photoshop Album for about 6 months now. Version 2 fixes some bugs from version 1 and has a slightly improved interface. The app is great for tagging, sorting and searching your photo collections, but only has basic editing functions.

irfanview.com to view and shit...
photoshop to edit and shit...
hope u like it and shit...