KEDOS  I like the application a lot, but I'd like to be able to access my Canon Rebel from the program. Because Mac OS X doesn't recognize it as an external drive, I have to first open image capture to access pictures from my canon and then import them into photo mechanic. For that reason, I won't be purchasing the program.  
(Version 4.5.3.2)

CHARLES TETON  As another reviewer has said, "If you are a digitally based photographer, then you need PhotoMechanic . Period." The fastest viewer, sorter, ftp'er +++ out there... And with fantastic support. If only all software was like this.  
(Version 4.4.3.3)

LAZARUS  If you are a digitally based photographer, then you need PhotoMechanic . Period.

It is the single most useful tool in the market, nothing touches it for professional workflow in terms of organising and accessing images. I started using it about 6 months ago and almost on a daily basis find new ways in which it helps me work faster.

The developers are very open to suggestions and respond personally to queries. As for price, well I wish that my $1400 CS2 with fancy bridge could load images for preview as fast as PM. It is instant. jpgs and RAW.

my business generates several 1000 images a week and the ability to vet them, rename them and save them to 2 locations as they come off the card, and then burn to CD/DVD (and across multiple discs if needed) all from one app, is so tremendously timesaving.

The Email and FTP features are a huge time saver. Clients want images emailed, select them, size them to what ever pixel dimensions and dpi and send them. Done.

The zillion ways to catagorise images is so much better than Bridge, its a joke. Sort by any piece of metadata that you like. Great for separating images that are shot on different cameras, but merged and renamed in chronilogical order such as weddings. Want to see what each photog shot? Sort by serial number then.

It just goes on. Any claim that PM is not a quality program, comes from the mouths of fools and is simply absurd.

If for some reason your camera is not supported, email the devs and let them know. Or get a real camera :-)   
(Version 4.4.3b0424)

M85  I own this and GraphicConverter. GC is a great program but isn't set up to ingest, tag the best, or rate on a scale a folder full of images.

PM is purpose-built for a professional workflow. There's nothing else in it's class for that.  
(Version 4.4.3b0424)

ANONYMOUS  LOL. Pentax RAW.

For you and the one other guy out there who uses a Pentax digital camera.  
(Version 4.4)

ANONYMOUS  The only one!!!

The best!!!

I run through thousands of digital immages every day, super!!

Finaly digital immaging is becoming serious.  
(Version 4.3.7)

ANONYMOUS  I did something stupid: I used the batch rename command of this program that I was still testing without backing up the photos first (was on a trip, limited HD space + time). For some mysterious reason, PM stopped renaming midway, but didn't give me any error message so I didn't know what was going on for a while. But I couldn't find a particular photo I remembered shooting so I went in the folder and discovered about 50 files with weird names like temp00003445.jpg (forgot exact format, but something similar).

Judging from other reviews, this bug must not be that common and I'm just unlucky, but I have to rate from my own experience, and I wasted so much time just to figure out what was going on and manually reorganize everything that I pretty much hate this program.  
(Version 4.3.7)

NEIL2112  Good reviews. But I only have one question: is it worth 5 times the price of GraphicConverter? I have a 700Mhz G4 iMac. Is PM that much faster. If it is I'll gladly pay the price.   
(Version 4.3.6)

PETE  Well, with OUT any questions this software is very, very EXPENSIVE !!! BUT??? Very, Very GOOD !!! I think probably the BEST there is.........if I will buy it? Well, it depends if I'll be able to "mug" a local bank, just kidding.......  
(Version 4.3.6)

ANONYMOUS  As a photojournalist working at a big daily and for various wire services I can tell you nothing touches this program. Iphoto's ok for the very casual user, but gives up a hell of a lot of speed and power for it's simplicity.

PhotoMechanic tech support is also second to none.  
(Version 4.3.5)

MAROOK  Tried this one out, and I have to admit it loads images fast.

On the downside, it does Not read EXIF data(at least there's no way to show them like in iPhoto), so it show all 'portray' images laying down, meaning the time you saved on loading the images, you spend flipping images the right way.

Also missing is a Reveal in Finder - strange feature left out of a n application used to browse folders of picts.

I would consider this app if these bare-bones features was available.. but then again, iPhoto 5 is about to hit the streets...  
(Version 4.3)

KARENBUCKLAND  This program is VERY FAST at generating variable-sized thumbnails for many types of images (including RAW files), yet it doesn't save disk-filling previews unless you want it to. Very flexible renaming features. Nice implementation of adding IPTC data using templates and EXIF/IPTC variables. Excellent for copying files from CF cards to laptop or desktop computer. Very simple to use, so I can maximize my time in the field concentrating on capturing images and downloading them quickly, yet with plenty of control over sorting and categorizing. Nice preview size. Highly recommended! Good suport from developer  
(Version 4.2)

RITKEN  I agree with most of the above comments. I work at a company that gets hundreds of photos each day and they need to be organized and searchable. We ordered both Photo Mechanic and iView Pro. iView Pro seemed too cluttered and slower but I favored it over Photo Mechanic because of the annoyances while navigating. The clicking on folders and having to navigate through each nested folder to get to the photos was a pain. I'd prefer it to be set up more like Adobe Photoshop's Image Browser (If only it was an external app!) I've also had issues with some TIF files not showing up and other JPEG's showing up all black.  
(Version 4.2)

STEFDNK  I think Charlesworth has completely misunderstood Photo Mechanic.

Not only has he based his preview on 4 and not 4.2.

4.2 includes a bunch of new features such as transmitting via ftp directly form PM.

Color class is another new feature that allows you to quickly mark your files and speeding up your workflow.

Photo Mechanic is not free, it is not cheap, if you don't need it. If you are a professional PJ you will need it and you will find it cheap.

Image import is reasonably well handled, but you should take a look at the options offered by Nikon View to completely rename everything

If there is one thing Photo Mechanic handles well it is renaming files.

And furthermore the handling of IPTC and the use of variables in the IPTC are a must for any professional.

I'd like the option of bigger thumbnails. Most of the other applications allow you to scale the thumb nails and that is useful when you have a 23 inch screen and want to look for the best shot of someone when they all look very similar.

Bigger thumbnails?. How large do you want them?

I haven't measured in pixels, but I would say I can get thumbnails at approx 500 pixels wide.

The previews are limited by the jpg preview size attached to the file.

That would not be so bad if I could click on a folder and see the image I needed even if it was in a sub folder. No, I have to click through sub folders to find an image before it will even display

I really don't get that. If you use the ingest function you can save the imported files in any folder of your choice.

It will as default save in a dated sub folder, yes, but it is easy to change that.

I use the dated folder, making it easier for me in the archiving proces.

What I'd like people to consider is its functionality compared to "consumer" applications such iPhoto, Kodak EasyShare, Canon ImageBrowser, and Nikon View, or to Canon's "Pro" File Viewer. All of these are essentially free and for the most part have everyday capabilities beyond Photo Mechanic.

Comparing Photo Mechanic to any of these browsers is like comparing a Range Rover to a

horse cart. They both will eventually get you to the right place, but at different cost and speed.  
(Version 4.2)

UZ BOXBERG  P. Charlesworth is absolutely right. The best image browsing program ever for OSX was "Curator", by the unfortunately gone "Caffeine Software", which was 39 bucks at the time. (it can still be downloaded from their website http://www.caffeinesoft.com/

but you have to get a serial no., although it should be in the public domain ?!). Curator had a nicer interface, the fastest thumbnail creation, resizing and scrolling, built-in timed and manual full screen slideshow for sorting by highlighting images from within the show (!), HTML export, customizable downsizing for mail etc., the most complete EXIF-imformation I've ever seen, contact sheets, image annotation and renaming (automatic from EXIF), and most important, it let YOU create your file system (unlike iPhoto !) in that it created symbolic links to your files (you could also create albums within the app). Finally, I use to keep thumbnail images after burning originals to disc and deleting them from HD, for easy retrieval. (By the way, in three years of heavy use it never ever crashed one single time !!).

If you don't find a SN for this, try at least that cross-platform app called "XnView", which is FREE, and does everything PM is supposed to do (it needs X11, but no problem under Panther; otherwise it looks a bit like a Linux/Windoze thing). In addition, XnView not only creates contact sheets, slideshows etc., but you can do basic image editing, filtering etc., the red eye reduction is fantastic, and best of all, it has great automatic renaming capabilities of whole folders (xxx01, xxx02 etc.). And, it is FREE !  
(Version 4.2)

PAUL CHARLESWORTH  This review is based on PM 4, and not on the latest version. At $150, this software is probably out of the reach of casual users. That may be the authors intentions, to only serve those of us who can purchase our cameras on a business account. I'm lucky to have my univerisity pay for such luxuries as the new EOS 20D, but many people are not. Even with ths luxury, I question the value of this software after using it for the demo period, bust as the "professional" choices for image cataloging are fairly limited, there is little competition.

What I'd like people to consider is its functionality compared to "consumer" applications such iPhoto, Kodak EasyShare, Canon ImageBrowser, and Nikon View, or to Canon's "Pro" File Viewer. All of these are essentially free and for the most part have everyday capabilities beyond Photo Mechanic. Photo Mechanic has a slight edge in terms of snappy feel, but so should software with little functionality.

My first concern is how this software helps you organize your images. Well it does not really. If you look at the album systems, date organization, and folder organization of the others, this program is far behind them. That would not be so bad if I could click on a folder and see the image I needed even if it was in a sub folder. No, I have to click through sub folders to find an image before it will even display. If you are shooting several groups per day, several days per week, several months per year, you have a huge backup of nested folders and I'd like a quicker way to get to them. Take a look at how Apple and Kodak handle this, and see how smooth it works.

Image import is reasonably well handled, but you should take a look at the options offered by Nikon View to completely rename everything. It is a very useful option. I also like Kodaks ability to scan the backup disks I make so that when looking for an image that has been archived, my software would tell me where it is.

I know that, for the most part, people frown upon some of the tools that iPhoto, Adobe Photoshop Album, or any of the others offer, but they are very useful quick fixes and if well written are extremely effective. It is essential that any image program such as this has a basic set of tools that the consumer would use.

I'd like the option of bigger thumbnails. Most of the other applications allow you to scale the thumb nails and that is useful when you have a 23 inch screen and want to look for the best shot of someone when they all look very similar.

What do the authors mean by "Optimized for professional cameras?" Are we talking about RAW, because there are plenty of RAW-Capable applications. Are we talking about EXIF, because all the Nikon and Canon cameras I have provide essentially the same data. What exactly does this mean? Maybe it is the "Image Variable Technology," whatever that means.

Where does this program shine? Well, it feels faster than the most of the others, but that could be attributed to its spartan interface, and it provides the best contact sheet. All the other applications provide contact sheets, but only Nikon View really challenges this applications single strength.

Well, my demo period has almost expired and I am sure that I missed some important features that a "Pro" cannot live without. However, for me, there are too many less expensive and more capable applications available to even consider spending $150 of my own money. I'm not sure I'd even spend $150 of my companies money when I can do all of this with the free applications I am provided, or one of the cataloging applications I already have (iView and Tri-Catalog).  
(Version 4.2)

RMC  This isn't a buggy shareware program. It's a tool in constant development by a dedicated group of professional programers that respond to their users requests for features and help. You get what you pay for. If you aren't a pro, or at least a serious amatuer photog, you probably can't afford and don't need this program. You're right, it is annoying. So, don't bitch about the price of something you don't want, need or understand. You don't go into a Honda dealership and bitch because you came in with a Civic budget, but can't afford a loaded Prelude.  
(Version 4.1.3.1)

ANONYMOUS  I'm not one to complain about price, I usually get annoyed by such posts.

but

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS??

Come on. No way.  
(Version 3.2.6)

FRONTPAGE  First of all, this is an app targeted at professional photographers so if you're just looking for new tools to try for a digital point-n-shoot, NikonView, GraphicConverter, iPhoto, or some such app are better deals. I'm a fulltime professional using Nikon D1s and D1Hs and our department has been using PM (Photo Mechanic) for several years. I had popped in, looking for an update and saw that no one had commented on PM with over 1700 downloads made here. Maybe the price is steep? I was shocked, honestly, when I saw the figure for a new user. Our company pays for it. Simply put, PM is as stable as anyone could ask for. And when I'm working deadlines, the thing that rakes my coals is a seizure of a computer. I work with images every day, opening folders that contain upwards of 500 each sometimes, and PM has rarely ever seized or frozen. And upgrading to OSX with PM installed, I have only had occassional Photoshop crashes while sending photos over the 56k. Never have I had to reboot while editing and transmitting, and have had one PM crash that I can recall in OSX. The user interface is easy to adjust to. I have been working with v.3.2.2 for months now and have had numerous updates, all of which were quite stable, including the days of Quantum Mechanic. For businesses, it's a great investment for the digital shooter, but for the individual who has to watch the counting of beans, there are some freebies out there. Or, at least some apps that don't quite cost an arm, leg and eye (which is the last thing a shooter would want to lose). As a backup, I have NikonView loaded, but have only used it as a curiosity, I think, twice. We had PM in Macs from G3/233 Mhz to G4 Titaniums and iBooks using OS9 and Jag. All of the computers used had a deep cache of DIMMS installed (thanks, Dave) since other programs being used included Photoshop, AP Leafdesk, IE/Netscape, Fetch, and the occasional "Cat-in-the-Dock." It'll be hard to distinguish the value of PM since the money didn't come from my pockets, and I have yet to do without it, fortunately. But I think it'll be 5s across the board since the features, ease, and stability are tops. Value? I decided 5. Because the target IS the pro market, and NikonView and GraphicConverter are not yet able to keep up with this. If it were my money, I'd probably wind up shelling out the bucks in a huff, complaining about the cost (but that's what tax write-offs are for).  
(Version 3.2.4)