General question RAW-xmp-sidecar

[sinus]

Hi
I have a general question, where maybe someone has experiences or facts:

I have, say, 100'000 raw-images, in my case nefs from Nikons.

From these 100'000 images I have "developed" with Lightroom only 10'000.
I work with xmp-sidecars.

So I have 10'000 xmp-files for the metadata for 10'000 nefs.

90'000 nefs have metadatas, but all these datas are only in the IMatch-database, not as xmp-files.

What would you think, should I let create 90'000 xmp-files for these nefs (write-back metadata) or should I simply leave the data in the DB?
Would creating these 90'000 sidecars has some impacts on IMatch, negative or positive?

Thanks for your thoughts or experiences about this.

[pajaro]

What would you think, should I let create 90'000 xmp-files for these nefs (write-back metadata) or should I simply leave the data in the DB?
Would creating these 90'000 sidecars has some impacts on IMatch, negative or positive?

Thanks for your thoughts or experiences about this.

I have a different scenario (I use sidecars even for jpgs) so I cannot answer both questions, but as for the number of files - I work with about 130 000 xmp files and do not see any negative impact on IMatch speed.

Pavel.

[sinus]

Pavel,
thanks for your input.
Yes, using sidecars for jpgs is indeed a special workflow. If it works good for you: fine. 

[Mario]

90'000 nefs have metadatas, but all these datas are only in the IMatch-database, not as xmp-files.

When IMatch indexes one of your NEF files it produces a rich XMP metadata record importing and mapping existing EXIF, GPS and IPTC data.
This process can be repeated at any time. No need to write out the metadata into XMP files.

If you have edited metadata, e.g., by changing a rating or editing keywords, titles etc., this data 'lives' only in your IMatch database. Until you let IMatch write it into the XMP file (and the NEF file), no other application can see it. And when you loose your database and all backups of your database, your modified data is lost.

Writing XMP sidecar files for 90,000 sidecar files and also updating the corresponding NEF file to ensure that the embedded metadata and the sidecar files are in synch will take quite some time. For the performance of the database this makes no difference, there will be the same amount of metadata as before. But I would do that only if really needed and if you changed metadata in IMatch.

[sinus]

90'000 nefs have metadatas, but all these datas are only in the IMatch-database, not as xmp-files.

For the performance of the database this makes no difference, there will be the same amount of metadata as before. But I would do that only if really needed and if you changed metadata in IMatch.

Thanks, Mario, this is what helps me.
I have of course changed the metas like City, Copyright, photographer, headline and so on.

Hence I will - from time to time - let write also the not used nefs back, so that IMatch writes a xmp-sidecar.
If there is no difference in the speed and so on, I will do that.

90'000 xmp-files more, with backup and so on, is not that bad, I think.
But loosing all metas, written in IMatch, would be very bad. 

IMatch gives me a lot of possibilities to write back Metas, so this is very convenience to do this from time to time.

Thanks!

[Mario]

I wrote back metadata t0 7000 files this morning. Took maybe 10 minutes or 15...
All files on SSD storage. Fast PC.

[sinus]

I wrote back metadata t0 7000 files this morning. Took maybe 10 minutes or 15...
All files on SSD storage. Fast PC.

REALLY FAST ... phew... and ssd, cool. 

[Mario]

REALLY FAST ... phew... and ssd, cool. 

A 256 GB SSD now sells for 75€ on Amazon...