Review: iView Media Pro 3

info view  |  organise view  |  image editing options  |  web publishing
light table options  |  light table split view, histogram and magnifier

Software Details Details at a glance DAM Software PC: 2000, XP+ Mac: 10.2.8+ We clicked with Capture sets, Website creation, Speed of labelling and searching, free trial Shots in the dark Can't easily import just one type of file, the slow Light Table Links More iView information www.iview-multimedia.co.uk

As well as the RAW format, the idea of efficient workflow is the current “big thing” in the camera market and Digital Asset Management software has been born out of this need. DAM software allows you to import photos into a single catalogue file and then quickly work through them, deleting the dud photos, editing the better ones and tagging your favourites.

Media Pro 3 is a piece of DAM software for Mac or PC, developed originally by iView Multimedia for professionals but now available at a more consumer friendly price (£129.99 for the full version). The program aims to make the most time-consuming tasks like importing, searching and publishing quick and hassle-free meaning you spend less time sorting photos and more time taking them.

Before we start the review, a special mention has to be made of Microsoft's recent acquisition of iView Multimedia, and therefore of Media Pro 3. The software is still available through the iView Multimedia site and tech-support will still be available for Mac and PC. While the future of iView is very unclear, it could be a good thing for users if Microsoft is committed to the DAM idea and loyal to existing customers.

Importing
Media Pro 3 isn't just a tool for photographers; it's designed to be used by anyone using media files. You can import over 100 different types of files into Media Pro 3, including photos, sounds, html files and even fonts, so the program is suitable for overseeing a whole project - photography, website or film. By default the importing options are set to import every type, but the files can be reduced to eight categories. Unfortunately these categories are pretty vague and there is no way to only import a single type of file, such as .jpg or .psd unless you specifically type 'jpg' into the name box. This may not sound like much of a problem but if you decide to work on an old project you may end up importing a lot of unnecessary files, which will have to be got rid of later on.

You can import files either by folder, from a CD or from a camera. Unless you are getting images from camera, Media Pro 3 will simply make a link to the file instead of physically copying it. This has various benefits as the import process is a lot faster and you can't accidentally delete a file (unless you choose the option to send the file to the Recycle Bin - thankfully not linked to the Delete button). For bigger or multi-person projects you can set up Folder Watching that will scan for added files at set intervals.

Cataloguing and Searching
Cataloguing is what the program is really about; helping you find and choose the files you want. Media Pro 3 allows labels, ratings and other tags to be attached to each item, and these are used to filter the items displayed.

The standard label is colour, which can easily be assigned by using the number buttons as you scroll through (red being the key 1, green 2, blue 3 etc). Slightly less easy to assign is the 1-5 star rating which involves the Alt key as well. The colours can be named in the preferences, so the colour red can also be called “Paris” for example. This is a pretty handy ability when you are working through a set of new photos, and you have a whopping ten colours to choose from. Thankfully there are other default tags that can be set up, and these are tucked away at the bottom of the “catalogue fields” section. These include people, keyword and scene and more than one of each can be attached to a photo, and so a photo of a group of people can have a people tag attached for all of them and another for where they are. The crucial difference is that only the star rating is visible to other DAM software like Adobe Bridge, colour isn't.

One of the better ways of searching, and perhaps one of the best features of the program, is Capture Sets. These can be set up when importing or viewing, and selects images that are within a set time of each other, from 1 second to 60. Since a lot of photos taken so closely together will be very similar with only slight variation it's likely that only one photo will be needed in the end. This feature makes it easy to choose which one to keep, or to collect burst shots together.

Three views are allowed, list, thumbnail and media, which are pretty self-explanatory apart from media, which is a full-screen view. The way items are sorted by in list view dictates the way they are sorted in the other two views. The thumbnail view is the easiest to navigate and use for searching for the obvious reason that it has images, and a snapshot of this is used for making contact sheets. The size and colours of each item can be changed but curiously the thumbnail size can't be changed on the fly without the images being rebuilt (thumbnails are created when they are imported).

Publishing
To anyone other than a professional user the way the program can publish your work is possibly most important. The program can print out single images and produce contact sheets as you'd expect, but it can also produce slideshows and HTML web pages full of photos.

Slideshows are set up within the program and alongside the photo can display capture dates and keywords, be set to music and switch with the typically cheesy fades popularised by PowerPoint. Once set up they can be exported, but only as a Quicktime movie - which is OK if you are on a Mac but less if you are a PC user as its unlikely you will have it installed, it isn't a standard PC program.

Publishing photos as web pages is more useful, taking the selected photos and automatically putting them in a website, saving the hassle of doing it yourself. There are 16 themes included (my favourite being Umaliare) and more can be added later. Unfortunately you can only gauge what the theme looks like from the tiny image as there is not a preview mode before you commit. Additionally you cannot set them up to show photos by date (for example) inside the pages; instead you will have to export pages for each date and then edit them together, which is something that's been overlooked. Nevertheless, this feature is very useful and time-saving, the included galleries are quite eye-catching and you can easily create your own templates.

Other features
Newly added in the free 3.1 update was a Light Table feature that allows up to six images to be displayed side by side for comparison. It is a nice feature on paper but isn't too impressive in practice. The interface of the Light Table isn't very intuitive relying on shortcut keys instead of buttons. These shortcut keys are displayed in a pop-up when you enter the Light Table but they disappear when you start using it, making them very easy to forget and the feature harder to use. However it does have some nice features, including an Exposure Warning setting that highlights under- and over- compensation. The Light Table is a good idea, but it isn't a good enough reason to buy the program based solely on it.

There are some rudimentary image editing functions, on RAW files too, and batch functions can be set up to edit a series of images in the same way. However it is recommended that you use an external image editor for anything more complex. Thankfully there are buttons on the main bar that can be dedicated to opening a photo in a specific program and it is relatively easy to add more programs to this list.

So should you buy it?
Even if you aren't a professional photographer, DAM software is very useful for the simple reason that it allows you to keep track of your photos very easily. As cameras get better and memory cards bigger, it is easier to take more photos and then to lose them. A program like Media Pro 3 is designed to keep track of all these photos, if you take those extra few seconds tagging them up, and it does have a lot of features that set it apart from the competition - covered in our Verdict box below.

Our Verdict

Even though Media Pro 3 has been designed for professionals, it's accessible for everyone. The program has professional workflow in mind so it has a quick and uncomplicated cataloguing system (apart from at greater image numbers where there is naturally some slowdown when importing). Its other forte comes when publishing, and even though the website publisher has some niggles it is a definite reason to go Media Pro 3. While online websites make it easy to upload and share photos, nothing is as easy as getting some free web space and getting Media Pro 3 to do it for you. Best of all, there is a free 21 day trial available so you can try it out yourself.