Mac image database

What do you recommend?

[rjohara]

I'm starting to accumulate enough digital images that I really need to start organizing them, and this summer I may scan in lots of my 35mm slides which will give me even more to deal with.

What do the Mac people here recommend for an image database application? I'm not talking about something that serves images to the web directly, but rather will let me catalog and retrieve images from my collection that I may want to use on the web.

I know iPhoto is available; I'm still hanging on to my System 9.2 and trying to avoid OSX (though I may have to break down this summer). I downloaded the trial copy of iView MediaPro, and that looks quite good. That may be the one I go with unless anyone else has a better recommendation.

[Yidaki]

You should go with OS X if you plan to work with a lot of pictures. Why start with someting new under OS9 and three months later, learn to set up the same under OS X? Apple's focus is on everything digital imaging, video an picture. Allthough i didn't try iPhoto, i guess it's pretty well suited for your needs.

Are you willing to pay for a solution? If so, how much?

[bird]

I used to maintain a Cumulus server in a previous life, and it did its job quite nicely. That was before OS X, but I think they were one of the first to port it there. May or may not be in your price range, but it's quite powerful, especially in a networked cross-platform environment.

[aaronjf]

rjohara,

I am going to have to go with Yidaki on this one. You really should switch to OS X. Once you get used to it, a week or two, you will love it.

iPhoto is a great free solution. I have to do a lot of product photography and it works fine for handling under a couple hundered photos.

If you have a couple of bucks to throw at it you might try Extesis's Assest management tools. Portfolio is a great tool for managing lots of images. I used it on a project that had 15,000+ slides to be scanned and images archived (no I am not kidding about the number, took three months).

[Yidaki]

>15,000+ slides to be scanned and images archived (no I am not kidding about the number, took three months).

... slow scanner, slow operator, or? ;)

[aaronjf]

Ha ha, most of the slides were old and worped. So they kept jamming, lots of fun.

[john316]

Filemaker Pro allows you to import images from folders into the database.

[Yidaki]

>Filemaker Pro allows you to import images from folders into the database.

hmm, 4th dimension also, allthough there's some more work that need to be done with such development tools. However, coding your own databases can be a gret money saver.