Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Pro Business Discussion => Topic started by: Paul Wright on October 21, 2017, 03:37:13 am
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My primary workstation since late last century has been one high spec custom made PC after another. Like clockwork, they seem to last 3 years before starting to behave badly. My laptops have always been Macbook Pro, and they last for absolutely years. Ditto a Mac Mini which is my hard working Office, iTunes and fooling around machine. It's still perfect after many years of daily abuse. Macs seem to last.
With a move to a high specced iMac as a primary post production workstation coming up soon, the one piece of PC-only software that I'll really miss is Breezebrowser Downloader Pro (https://www.breezesys.com/Downloader/index.htm)
It's a little gem of a utility, with broader functionality than PhotoMechanic Ingest (http://http://wiki.camerabits.com/en/index.php/Ingesting_Images) function. I've done a bit of a search, but alternatives appear to be thin on the ground. It could be that I'm missing something. I do have a current PhotoMechanic license, but will readily buy a viable Breezebrowser Downloader Pro alternative.
-pw
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What is "CF Card Download Software"?
You just drag and drop.
The beauty of the Mac is that you can select to View Large Icons and you see each raw file in the finder and select the ones you want if necessary. I only really use that to identify the complete fails.
If there is some obscure other reason then you can get VMWare Fusion for $49 and run Windows in a window. You will never use it though.
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What is "CF Card Download Software"?
You just drag and drop.
The beauty of the Mac is that you can select to View Large Icons and you see each raw file in the finder and select the ones you want if necessary. I only really use that to identify the complete fails.
If there is some obscure other reason then you can get VMWare Fusion for $49 and run Windows in a window. You will never use it though.
Downloader Pro does a zillion things more than just browsing or looking at the files. The OP wants the processing capacity, which includes logical renaming of files based on patterns, camera serial numbers, dates, times, type of file, etc. etc. What you said you can do on MacOS is equally available natively on Windows. Windows, though, has Directory Opus which is so good that, as I've said recently, I know several Mac users who run Windows as well just to use DirOpus.
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Well OK, sounds like a Ben Hur workflow though. I do most of that in the raw converter such as the rename tool in Canon DPP or in Hasselblad Phocus.
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Well OK, sounds like a Ben Hur workflow though. I do most of that in the raw converter such as the rename tool in Canon DPP or in Hasselblad Phocus.
Ben Hur. Hah hah. Yes there is more than one way to skin a cat. Drag and drop works fine.
However, working for many clients, often importing 2-3000 files per project, the workflow benefits of a full featured ingest utility cannot be understated.
In the context of an efficient workflow, it doesn't add complexity, it brings simplicity. Once integrated into your workflow, reverting to drag and drop would be counter to good efficient work practice.
-pw
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Ben Hur. Hah hah. Yes there is more than one way to skin a cat. Drag and drop works fine.
However, working for many clients, often importing 2-3000 files per project, the workflow benefits of a full featured ingest utility cannot be understated.
In the context of an efficient workflow, it doesn't add complexity, it brings simplicity. Once integrated into your workflow, reverting to drag and drop would be counter to good efficient work practice.
+10. Seriously. Downloader Pro is a wonderful tool and makes large imports from multiple cameras/projects/photogs/etc. a breeze (or, a Breeze, in this case ;-) ).
Unfortunately, I'm yet to see someone suggest anything for OS X with the same level of functionality with PhotoMechanic (which you already know) being the closest (but not close enough, really).
Maybe someone will come up with something this time.
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In the video production world there are a few tools but the focus is generally upon copying to multiple destinations and verification of data, speed of transfer. Simplest is Hedge www.hedgeformac.com which can trigger Applescripts etc. for renaming and so on, but a world away from what you are talking about.
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In the video production world there are a few tools but the focus is generally upon copying to multiple destinations and verification of data, speed of transfer. Simplest is Hedge www.hedgeformac.com which can trigger Applescripts etc. for renaming and so on, but a world away from what you are talking about.
Nice one. Had a quick look. Looks like a great tool.
-pw
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I'm reaching here because I haven't tried any of the utilities.
But much as I love Mac, I have to wonder if the utility would somehow run afoul with Mac's auto-launching Pictures program. I know you can go around through the back door to disable Pictures, but until I heard from someone who's done both-disabled Pictures AND used a utility- I'd be a little leery. Just as leery as trying to run a utility with Pictures still auto-launching every time you insert a chip from your camera.
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There is also this that I see often on film sets. http://www.imagineproducts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=59&zenid=4a3f6b45181ef4a3211b3db3507b2726 (http://www.imagineproducts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=59&zenid=4a3f6b45181ef4a3211b3db3507b2726)
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Just as leery as trying to run a utility with Pictures still auto-launching every time you insert a chip from your camera.
Auto import is an option in the Photos app or if you have an older OS in the Image Capture app.
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Thanks for the conversation. I'll likely just run with the Ingest function in PhotoMechanic which is a powerful utility, just not as deep functionality as the PC only BreezBrowser DownloaderPro. I wonder if the developer Chris Breeze could be encouraged to offer a Mac version?
-pw
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Thanks for the conversation. I'll likely just run with the Ingest function in PhotoMechanic which is a powerful utility, just not as deep functionality as the PC only BreezBrowser DownloaderPro. I wonder if the developer Chris Breeze could be encouraged to offer a Mac version?
You can but ask! That said, I don't think Downloader has been updated in a couple of years (nothing to update, of course), so depends on what he thinks his return on investment would be to port it over and support it. But I'd ask!