Photo sorting software

okitoki · 12-18-2008, 01:25 AM

Currently I am using Lightroom to preview my RAW files, and to do some PP before saving them to jpegs... .

However, sometimes it does become very resource hungry, and my PC would completely slow down to the point of crashing...

I looked for a patch update WIndows XP that would read Pentax's raw format (PEF) but the update is for Vista?

So, does anyone have a recomendation for a freeware that can view PEF files... can sort in some logical manner, and can show information of tha photo? All I want to do is able to quickly browse through the photos, but not doing any developing works on them

cheers

Class A · 12-18-2008, 02:01 AM

Originally Posted by okitoki

So, does anyone have a recomendation for a freeware that can view PEF files... can sort in some logical manner, and can show information of tha photo?

Try Picasa 3.

Mike Cash · 12-18-2008, 03:01 AM

I have been running LR2 with 1gb of RAM and had considerable performance problems. A couple of days ago I bumped up to 1.5gb and so far am very pleased with the improvement. The software doesn't hang up or require me to go into the Task Manager to kill it and start over again now. How much RAM do you have installed?

Photo Tramp · 12-18-2008, 05:49 AM

The more RAM you can give your computer the better it is for any Adobe product. Adobe is a memory hog and has always been. Know this, (the more pictures you add to Lightroom the slower it will process) If you can add additional memory do so and light room will eat as much as it has to to function.

Photo Tramp · 12-18-2008, 05:52 AM

Oh yeah try Picasa 3 it has power and uses a lot less memory. It's a nice program if you don't need all the extras Adobe throws at you.

*Wheatfield* · 12-18-2008, 06:53 AM

Originally Posted by Photo Tramp

The more RAM you can give your computer the better it is for any Adobe product. Adobe is a memory hog and has always been. Know this, (the more pictures you add to Lightroom the slower it will process) If you can add additional memory do so and light room will eat as much as it has to to function.

I put a 4HD striped RAID array onto my machine just for Photoshop/Lightroom. Memory is maxed out at 4GB (XP-Pro won't address more than that). I was finding that things really slowed down when I ran out of RAM and was into the swap drives, so it seemed like a good idea.
It definitely speeds things up.
Also make sure that the swap drives for Adobe are not the same drive as your operating system swap drive.
And, if you are putting more than 3gb of RAM into your machine, make sure you use the /3gb switch in your boot.ini file (Windows XP users).

With Lightroom, I have the primary catalog on the striped drive, and am backing it up to a mirrored drive.

Scottie137 · 12-18-2008, 07:13 AM

ArcSoft — World-Leading Multimedia Software Provider: RAW Thumbnail Viewer

It worked/works well for me...good luck...

okitoki · 12-18-2008, 08:26 AM

thanks for everyone's feed back....

Currently I have only 2gig of mem running... so I guess its time for me to bump it up abit more... errr... maybe after X'mas since I already spend abit on my lenses

I have downloaded Picasa, and tried it... seems to do what I want... fast access to all my photos, easy to sort and managed information... haha... didnt even realise I accumulated more than 5000 photo over this year alone

emalvick · 12-18-2008, 09:08 AM

IMatch works well with very modest memory requirements. Go to their forums and you'll see some people with 100,000+ images running without any issues whatsoever. Before my new computer, IMatch was handling my 20,000 image database without an issue on 1GB of RAM... My RAW software on the otherhand struggled to open one image.

Pooky125 · 12-18-2008, 05:51 PM

I use MyPhotoIndex ( The free digital photo sharing organizer | My Photo Index ) Not sure if it's compatable with Vista, but definitely is with XP, reads PEF files just fine, and, after the initial load time, opens and runs pretty fast. Don't know what I'd do without it.

SpecialK · 12-18-2008, 09:29 PM

Do you have Pentax software that came with the camera?

It works OK if it doesn't have to actually do anything :-)

*reeftool* · 12-19-2008, 01:28 PM

Picasa is free and will read and let you edit your PEF shots. More memory will help. My tower came with 512mb and I added a 1 gig memory and improved things a lot. I don't know if XP has a patch to view PEF files. Vista does. Actually, as a viewer and photo organizer I think Picasa is as good as anything out there and doesn't use the system resources that Adobe does. I have noticed a slight slowdown with Picasa 3 as they have added some features (and bloat). My 6 year old P4 system is nearing the end. My slots are all full, my graphics driver crashes from time to time and AGP cards are getting hard to find and while I could do some more upgrading, i'm saving for a new system.

systemA · 12-19-2008, 02:34 PM

I use Faststone Viewer

kerrowdown · 12-19-2008, 03:17 PM

If your using CS3, Bridge that's bundled with it, does a fair job.

vitalsax · 12-31-2008, 02:49 PM

dpmagic plus then i lost the key