Large Lightroom Databases

[djcsmith]

With Lightroom 1.4, my databases could only hold about 1 year's worth of photos, before they became unstable.
This made searching for a photo cumbersome; something that Lightroom is supposed to make easy.

With Lightroom 2.0, I was hoping to try to create one large database.

Anyone else have issues keeping track of 100k+ photos?
How big are your databases?
What do you do to keep your databases working as they should?

David

[john beardsworth]

Stability of the underlying system? LR tests RAM, disk input and output.

My biggest test catalogue is just under 100k and I don't see any signs of instability. I have optimized the database occasionally, and have rebuilt previews, but I'm often deliberately trying to break things rather than needing to do so.

LR2 makes it easier to find things. You've got the iTunes-style filters, great for exploring and changing what you're trying to find as you go. And when you know what you're doing you've got smart collections where you can set up much more targetted queries.

John

[djcsmith]

Thanks for your input, John.

My computer is an AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core with 3 Gig of RAM, running XP SP3; while not state-of-the-art, still a respectable machine.

I'm going to try and see if I can create one large database for all my photos.
I've heard elsewhere that previews can be the cause of many problems, and it is a good idea to regenerate them occasionally, especially if upgrading an old database.

I would like to get comments, good and bad, from others who shoot tens of thousands of photos a year.

David

Stability of the underlying system? LR tests RAM, disk input and output.

My biggest test catalogue is just under 100k and I don't see any signs of instability. I have optimized the database occasionally, and have rebuilt previews, but I'm often deliberately trying to break things rather than needing to do so.

LR2 makes it easier to find things. You've got the iTunes-style filters, great for exploring and changing what you're trying to find as you go. And when you know what you're doing you've got smart collections where you can set up much more targetted queries.

John
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