Phase One has officially discontinued Media Pro, the stellar DAM software, and is suggesting that Media Pro users migrate to Capture One. (Past discussions of "integration" between C1 and MP are now moot as Media Pro will no longer be updated or sold.)
Many users have complained about performance issues with C1 catalogs. Media Pro users such as myself lamented the lack of DAM/catalog feature parity between C1 and MP.
This thread is intended to serve as a place for Media Pro refugees to voice their demands for DAM features in C1. After all, Phase One has owned Media Pro for over 8 years, and now they have killed it (even though C1 lacks many of the most useful DAM/catalog features of Media Pro). If Phase One wants Media Pro users to purchase and use Capture One as a DAM replacement for Media Pro, Phase One should provide feature and performance parity in C1 and make the migration process seamless. I've created a list of requested features/functionality below. The list isn't necessarily comprehensive, so I'll update it as needed based on your suggestions. (Update Aug 30: I have submitted this list to Phase One technical support to make sure they are officially aware of these demands.)
Basic DAM/catalog functionality
- Capture One (probably) uses a non-standard database design to associate keywords with images, resulting in poor catalog performance. This unconfirmed issue was discovered by user mli20, who conducted a database experiment and reported the results in his thread "Performance re. keywording, an in-depth analysis." If mli20's conclusions are true, then Phase One should take them seriously and overhaul CO's catalog if it wishes the software to be considered a professional DAM.
- Capture One catalogs apparently work only with "online" images, which results in severe usability flaws. The catalogs "rescan" the files each time you select "All images," resulting in extremely long wait times for large collections of images while the catalog rebuilds thumbnails and metadata. (See "Re: Shame about the Catalogue function...".) This appears to be due to C1 always checking that the image files are "online." I believe this has the secondary effect of never allowing you to preview the images in your collection if the images are on an offline drive. These are severe limitations. A proper DAM/catalog should store thumbnails and metadata in a proper database without having to rescan the images repeatedly and so that you can see the thumbnails of your catalogued images even if the source images are offline.
- Capture One does not allow for useful organization of "variant" images in collections. See "How to delete a variant from one and only one collection?" In the words of C1 user Class A, "Any image variants ... are forced to occur in all albums in which any of their related variants occur. Likewise, removing a variant in one album, removes it from every other album.... As far as I'm concerned, the idea of a 'variant' in C1 is unnecessarily crippled and severely limits one's ability to usefully organise and protect one's images (from unintended further edits)."
- Capture One doesn't allow you to add keywords to very small images, even if the file type is supported. (See "Unable to add keywords to some images (why)?".) This appears to be due to a C1 preference for files that can be edited in C1. That's another severe limitation. Any DAM/catalog should allow you to catalog/annotate supported file types regardless of file size.
- Capture One doesn't allow you to add keywords to monochrome images/scans. (See "Cannot add keywords.".) This appears to be due to a C1 requirement for color/RGB files. Another severe limitation. Any DAM/catalog should allow you to catalog/annotate supported file types regardless of color space (RGB or grayscale).
- Capture One catalogs on a Mac (Windows too?) do not allow for non-contiguous selections, e.g., Shift-clicking non-contiguous groups of thumbnails. This is a basic software design flaw that should be fixed.
- Capture One catalogs do not provide any visual indicators to convey which Collection(s) an image is a member. (In Media Pro, if you select an image thumbnail, the name(s) of the Catalog Set(s) (a.k.a. Collections) to which the image belongs turn orange in color.)
Migration issues (migrating from Media Pro catalogs to Capture One catalogs)
- C1 does not honor hierarchies of MP hierarchical keywords. This should be fixed.
- C1 does not honor People tags / People finder. This should be fixed.
- Other migration issues?
Requested DAM features currently in Media Pro catalogs that should be added to Capture One catalogs (higher priority)
- Custom catalog fields
- Search across multiple catalogs. (In that sense it can catalog an unlimited number of items, beyond the 250,000 image limit of a single catalog.)
- Show Union of Folder Hierarchies (to view contents of parent folder and its subfolders)
- Transfer/copy files to another folder
- Ability to assign names to color tags
- Customizable View Options
- Built-in scripts (for bulk changes to database, metadata, etc.). Yes, it's possible to create custom AppleScripts in Capture One, but not everyone is comfortable writing scripts. There is no good reason for Phase One not to port over Media Pro's built-in scripts to Capture One.
- Make (robust) HTML/Web Galleries (Media Pro's HTML templates are more powerful XML-based templates that can create multiple index pages for a single gallery; easily regenerated without having to re-enter text fields; customizable if you know HTML/CSS) (But Media Pro's code is old and doesn't support HTML 5 for embedded video, so this code should be updated for HTML 5)
- Find duplicate items
- Find missing items
- Send images as email attachments (A user reports that C1 can send single images, but not multiple images in one email)
- Quick access to helper applications (other editors, viewers)
- Set Capture Date
- Set Author Details
- Set Finder Properties
- Sort by file property (e.g., file name, modified date, etc.)
- Find images by file property (e.g., file name, modified date, etc.)
- Sort by place
- Sort by annotation field
- Make Text Data File
- Make XML Data File
- Create Capture Sets (burst image groups)
- Convert Video/Audio Files
- [from another forum user] A proper projection (slideshow) facility, allowing control over things like: which monitor is used for rendering; scaling of projected images; how many images are projected concurrently; choice of background colour; overlay of metadata information; access to a "controller" showing position in the slideshow; ability to set colour label and star rating while projecting; ability to change catalog sets (albums) during projection; and lots more.
- A separate free program that gives clients the ability to view C1 catalogs in read-only mode (similar to Media Pro Reader).
Requested DAM features currently in Media Pro catalogs that should be added to Capture One catalogs (lower priority)
- Support for multiple non-image file types
- Save Slide Show as Movie