[parsons]

just hit space bar and it wil give you a larger fast preview of it (not full res). other than that i use lightroom and preview (select all the images and double click one of them. easypeasy

[Frogfish]

Thanks for mentioning this, I've just tried it and even though I use Lightroom 3.6 for most stuff, this Xee program replaces the Mac Preview app quite well for images.

As with most Mac programs, when you're in Xee or Lyn hit Command/i and you get the EXIF data (Lyn's version is far more comprehensive for some reason).

[Indria Djamil]

Just downloaded Xee and Lyn. I like Lyn better but you have to pay to get full working version.

[Nuff]

Lightroom, since that's the only way to manage and view raw files. DNG in my case...
Imports it straight into my netowrk storage from SD card which is nice and once in LR I select, rate, flag, tag my photos.
The ones that didn't make a cut, which happens vary rarely I will delete. But I prefer to keep most of them for future use...
Since everything is nicely organised and categorised, the good stuff is very easy to find.

[RobA_Oz]

just hit space bar and it wil give you a larger fast preview of it (not full res). other than that i use lightroom and preview (select all the images and double click one of them. easypeasy

I generally use the space bar for a quick preview, too, but it only works on Leopard and higher, IIRC (I run Lion, now).

Other than that, I use Adobe Bridge, as my main catalogue/viewer. Version 5 adds some further basic editing features, as well.

Edit: I should have said that Camera RAW adds the extra editing features.

[darrenleow]

Photo Mechanic

[falconeye]

I HATE programs that force me to IMPORT my files before I can see them.

Lightroom has a "Synchronize" context menu option. No need to import, just use your folder structure. However, LR will scan for changes only after you said sync.

Just for viewing?
Adobe Bridge, which you should also have, is very useful for a browse, or simply use the innate QuickView feature of OSX

+1

However, I think MacOSX is severely lacking a fast viewer. By fast, I mean fast to view and to browse. On Windows, I am using Thumbs+ . It is lightning fast and has no problems browsing network shares with hundred thousand images (it then maintains a local thumbnail database). Thunbs+ competes with ACDSee on Windows but ACDSee on MacOSX is a joke.

I could never find anything even near to Thumbs+ on the Mac. Anybody?

All the tools on MacOSX I tried break if #images per network directory exceed 10,000 and if not, they're slow.

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Last edited by falconeye; 03-13-2012 at 02:04 AM.

[NewportPreacher]

I like Phoenix Slides --> Phoenix Slides
free and fast.

[falconeye]

I like Phoenix Slides --> Phoenix Slides
free and fast.

I tried it.

You're right, it is nice and fast. So far the best on the Mac I've seen. Thanks for your hint

But let me say it is no peer for Thumbs+. It cannot cache thumbnails or directory listings (so, if a directory timestamp didn't change, it won't have to scan that subtree again) and doesn't maintain a list of offline media which you even can browse by meta data or keyword etc. Also, it doesn't list filenames/directories in alphabetic order which can be hard too ...

So, Phoenix Slides is practical for directories of up to maybe 10,000 while Thumbs+ goes into the millions.


P.S.
And Phoenix has the same bug as some other Mac software incl. Finder. Opening SMB directories with ~10,000 entries is slow enough to be considered fail. It isn't an SMB issue as I can say 'ls' on the same share in a Mac Terminal window and there is no significant delay.

[tempelorg]

Since you mention offline catalog - check out "CDFinder"! - there's also a Windows equivalent: CDWinder.

It's originally a cataloging app for your offline media (CDs etc), but has become a much more powerful tool, and it should keep thumb imgs of pictures now, too. It's a small (single) developer here in Germany, he's very friendly and quick with adding features.

Oh, look - it's called NeoFinder now: http://www.cdfinder.de/

[falconeye]

Oh, look - it's called NeoFinder now: Catalog all your data on Disks, DVDs, and CDs with NeoFinder!

Tried it already. I mailed the author my list of complaints

[Verglace]

I use lightroom 3, but if you just want to view the photos the built in Preview can show even the raw files (for me anyway, using Lion I'm not sure if installing adobe products allowed it to have that ability or not).