iView Media Pro

[steve harley]

they whom i call Andrew Brown wrote:
> A photographer recommended iView to me warmly this morning, and I recall 
> having been impressed when I tried it out a few years ago... so I went 
> to the iView site to read that "iView was acquired by Microsoft in June 
> 2006". It is now Expression Media.

i still use an older, pre-Microsoft version (2.6.4), but i 
believe Microsoft has kept the features i describe below intact 
in the process of assimilating it; i haven't tried the Expression 
Media trial because there is no upgrade path from iVMP 2.x

compared to iPhoto, iVMP has a much wider set of tools for 
tagging and managing information about image files; it also has 
strong  AppleScript and a free cross-platform "viewer" 
application; it is not at all intended for manipulating photos; 
it's competition are the (somewhat higher-end) media catalogs 
like Extensis Porfolio and Canto Cumulus; Lightroom and Aperture 
seem to emphasize image manipulation enough that i'd place them 
in a different category

i took a chance on iView to build a detailed catalog of my 
father's photography; it paid off; i stored print size, date, 
condition, location, subject information, print and image serial 
numbers and numerous keywords for a few thousand prints; iVMP let 
me do compound boolean searches and complex sorting on any of 
these properties; then when i needed to treat this info 
relationally, i used AppleScript to move the iVMP information 
into a FileMaker database, and from FileMaker i could use 
AppleScript to display a selected set of images back in iView

i also produced a variety of "contact sheets" using iVMP's quirky 
print interface; finally i shared the catalog with my dad's 
dealer and another associate, one on Mac, the other on Windows by 
burning a DVD with the catalog, the image files, and installers 
for the catalog viewer

i don't think i could have easily done all of this with iPhoto; 
it stores less info about each file, doesn't search nor sort as 
capably, and has a weaker AppleScript implementation and no 
cross-platform viewer; otoh, iPhoto costs less, has a much 
cleaner interface, and it has a lot of integration and 
convenience features aimed at casual photographers; besides the 
technical project described above, i have used iVMP for three 
years to store my personal snappies; i'm now trying out iPhoto 
and it has me really on the fence with the dilemma Apple consumer 
apps often give me: does the convenience outweigh the loss of 
control?