New User impression of IMatch after 2 months of use (and a bit of rambling)

[lnh]

Been working with IMatch for about 2 months now, and starting to feel very comfortable with the product. Is it perfect? Certainly not, but that is an unrealistic expectation and not a single piece of software ever written is perfect. Is it incredibly impressive that it's the work of one developer? Beyond belief! A recent bug had me trying some examples in other products so I could see how they worked with the data.

I most recently came from Photo Supreme, and starting it up and using it again felt strange. So limiting compared to IMatch, and relatively slow. Yes it's interface is "pretty" and it has some advanced features like versioning, but nowhere close to the flexibility we enjoy. Although IMatch is much more complex, the fact that it actually has comprehensive documentation is refreshing and useful.

I also have Lightroom 4.x which is used mostly for ACR and sometimes the editing tools rather than the DAM features. I'll usually use DxO for RAW conversion, but sometimes ACR is a better tool. The simple packaged edit features in LR are nice when they can do the job and Photoshop would be overkill. I've only played around with it's DAM features and never felt it was were I wanted to commit my entire database not only because it didn't have all the features I'd like to see, but also because of a lack of trust in Adobe since they changed to the mandatory CC model.

Just to check out facial recognition and tagging, I recently installed the latest version of digiKam on a Linux Mint 17 installation I keep on a fast USB memory stick. Lets not even talk about how painful it can be to install Linux apps which aren't part of the app manager; talk about generating grey hair. LOTS of features but few really work well, and lots of crashes and the Linux version is said to be much more stable than the Windows one. Didn't really find it's ability to find faces and match them all that impressive. Pretty good for an open source project, but not even close to industrial quality.

I like that IMatch doesn't waste effort on being a photo editor as many exist and are highly evolved. Good integration with existing editors is much more valuable. Looking forward to seeing IMatch evolve with new features over time.

[Richard]

Is it incredibly impressive that it's the work of one developer?

Yes it is and no it is not perfect and never will be but Mario will make it as rock solid as any application can be. Resolving bugs in IMatch and making it highly dependable has always been a strong suit for Mario. Right up there is the fact that Mario provides some of the best support in the industry. With IMatch 5 he has developed one of the best help manuals available. After watching over the ptforum from the beginning and now this one, I am also very impressed with the helpfulness of so many IMatch users. 

[Ferdinand]

Fully agree with Richard.

[DigPeter]

As a computer illiterate, I fully agree with all the above.  IM5 I have found makes the process of cataloguing and management a whole lot easier and quicker than IM3.  Mario is ever ready to help with problems, while he is up to his eyes in development.  I also greatly appreciate the friendliness and assistance rendered by the more experienced on the group.   Thanks you everyone.