Media Pro refugees: What are our DAM demands?

[syncrasy]

Note: I realized after starting this thread that there are separate Mac and Windows forums for Capture One, so I have decided to copy my original post to the Media Pro forum and maintain the master list of demands there. Please post future corrections, suggestions, demands, etc., to the Media Pro forum.


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 three lists below: (1) Migration issues, (2) Requested DAM features (higher priority), and (3) Requested DAM features (lower priority). The lists aren't necessarily comprehensive, so I'll update them 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.)

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
• More robust/natural support for multiple catalogs on the same computer. (I have read that CO currently allows creation of multiple catalogs but that the process is a hack.)
• 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, but not everyone is comfortable writing scripts. There is no good reason for CO not to port over Media Pro's built-in scripts
• 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
• 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.

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

[C-F]

And I just created a new MP catalog with ~91k images and 31GB catalog size without a flaw and less than 24hrs - YESTERDAY!!!

Anyways, I will give it some thought but think it is futile at this point to expect any mayor changes in the current 'DAM' portion of Capture1 (hasn't happened for years; why would it now? - in its current stage its still in 'debug mode' at the customers expense - just my humble, insignificant opinion - sad and very disappointing...)

[CorsairVelo]

Doesn't surprise me but I wish companies were more transparent with this stuff up front. Seems like they kept it quiet until they felt the C1 DAM was "good enough". (Obviously, it may not be good enough for some, but good enough for most I guess I should say).

Thank you for that extensive list. As some one who relies primarily on the C1P DAM, there are a lot of good suggestions there. I particularly like:
- search across multiple catalogs. Makes total sense. I find that c1 catalog performance suffers at about 100k images depending on hardware. Lots of photogs shoot a lot more than I do and being able to search across multiple catalogs makes total sense.
- send email attachment. I think C1 can send an image as as email attachment, but it cannot send a single email with multiple images attached. I'd like that.

I'd almost create a "catalog search tool" completely separate from C1, just point it at three or four (or "n") C1 catalogs and allow cross-catalog searches. I don't need to edit images in the search tool, just find stuff and let me right click to open the image in the appropriate C1 host catalog.

[Ian3]

[*]Places tags / Places finder possibly not honored. Can users confirm this?

Places tags created in MP show up in C1 as IPTC - Image entries in metadata, and they can be used with the Filters tool if you have selected Place as one of the filters using the Show/Hide Filter options when you click the ... menu on the filter tool.

[*]People tags / People finder possibly not honored. Can users confirm this?

Yes, I can confirm that this does not appear to be honoured.

Ian

[Ian3]

I would add that I don't think you would find universal support for all the items in your list of features that should be added. For instance, searching across multiple catalogs would be a great idea. Support for multiple non-image file types, and conversion of video/audio files I am less sure about as Capture One would be going quite a long way beyond its core purpose in my view.

Ian

[syncrasy]

I would add that I don't think you would find universal support for all the items in your list of features that should be added. For instance, searching across multiple catalogs would be a great idea. Support for multiple non-image file types, and conversion of video/audio files I am less sure about as Capture One would be going quite a long way beyond its core purpose in my view.

Ian

I'm sure you're right. I copied and pasted my list from my earlier "MP vs C1" comparison of existing features, but I didn't review it for "must have" features. I'll make an adjustment to the list.

[syncrasy]

[*]Places tags / Places finder possibly not honored. Can users confirm this?

Places tags created in MP show up in C1 as IPTC - Image entries in metadata, and they can be used with the Filters tool if you have selected Place as one of the filters using the Show/Hide Filter options when you click the ... menu on the filter tool.

[*]People tags / People finder possibly not honored. Can users confirm this?

Yes, I can confirm that this does not appear to be honoured.

Ian

Thanks for confirming. I updated the list. Apologies to all non-U.S. readers for the U.S. spelling of honored. Now if I can just figure out how to add more color to my list.

[syncrasy]

- send email attachment. I think C1 can send an image as as email attachment, but it cannot send a single email with multiple images attached. I'd like that.

Thanks. I updated the list.

[Eric Nepean]

Good list

Scripts (for bulk changes to database, annotations, etc.)

Capture One is has a considerable number of features that can be controlled by applescript. See the scripting forum.
https://forum.phaseone.com/En/viewforum.php?f=70

Find missing items

I have published scripts that do this
https://forum.phaseone.com/En/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=28640&p=138286&hilit=missing#p138286

[syncrasy]

Scripts (for bulk changes to database, annotations, etc.)

Capture One is has a considerable number of features that can be controlled by applescript. See the scripting forum.
https://forum.phaseone.com/En/viewforum.php?f=70

Find missing items

I have published scripts that do this
https://forum.phaseone.com/En/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=28640&p=138286&hilit=missing#p138286

Thanks. It's good that C1 allows for adding scripts and that such user-to-user resources exist. I have added (and modified) a few custom scripts to Media Pro. But not everyone is adept at scripting, so my request is to include a good number of prepackaged scripts similar to those in Media Pro. Does C1 have any built-in scripts? Or is scripting entirely left to users?

[Ian3]

Scripts (for bulk changes to database, annotations, etc.)

Capture One is has a considerable number of features that can be controlled by applescript. See the scripting forum.
https://forum.phaseone.com/En/viewforum.php?f=70

Find missing items

I have published scripts that do this
https://forum.phaseone.com/En/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=28640&p=138286&hilit=missing#p138286

Thanks. It's good that C1 allows for adding scripts and that such user-to-user resources exist. I have added (and modified) a few custom scripts to Media Pro. But not everyone is adept at scripting, so my request is to include a good number of prepackaged scripts similar to those in Media Pro. Does C1 have any built-in scripts? Or is scripting entirely left to users?

I have no experience of this (though I am a Mac user) but it's worth noting that AppleScript is, of course, a Mac-only thing.

Ian

[Eric Nepean]

Scripts (for bulk changes to database, annotations, etc.)

Capture One is has a considerable number of features that can be controlled by applescript. See the scripting forum.
https://forum.phaseone.com/En/viewforum.php?f=70

Find missing items

I have published scripts that do this
https://forum.phaseone.com/En/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=28640&p=138286&hilit=missing#p138286

Thanks. It's good that C1 allows for adding scripts and that such user-to-user resources exist. I have added (and modified) a few custom scripts to Media Pro. But not everyone is adept at scripting, so my request is to include a good number of prepackaged scripts similar to those in Media Pro. Does C1 have any built-in scripts? Or is scripting entirely left to users?

C1 only has two built in scripts, there should be more.
However, any user can write a script and add it to C1's scripting menu.

What built in scripts does MedioPro have? (might be some good ideas here)

[syncrasy]

What built in scripts does MedioPro have? (might be some good ideas here)

Here's the current list (I copied/pasted/edited from the original iView manual, so there might be some typos). One of the custom scripts I added, that I wish were standard, is the "Copy/Move Annotations" script.

Annotate
• Copy from Head of Selection (Mac) will copy all
annotations from the first selected item and
apply them to all other selected items.
• Copy from Items with Same Name (Mac) will
copy annotations from selected items to
items of the same name but a different suffix
(such as Raw+JPEG), or having the same full
name in other folders.
• Description from EXIF copies all EXIF
photo metadata into the Caption field.
• Description from Text Files (Mac) searches
for .txt files in the same folder as the original,
and copies the contents into the caption field.
• Description from Text Lines (Mac) opens
a text file and uses each line of the file as the
caption for the selected items.
• IPTC Date from Capture Date copies the
EXIF Capture Date and puts it into the IPTC
Date Created of the Annotations pane.
• Keywords from Folders (Mac) enables
you to add keywords to media files from
folder names. The pop-up dialog provides the
option of defining the level of folders in the
path you would like to use for keywords.

Files
• Rename Using EXIF Date renames files using
valid EXIF Capture Date field. See Media Info
Panel to view the Capture Date field.
• Rename Using Text File (Mac) opens a text file
and uses each line of the file as the new name
for the selected items.
• Set Date Modified to IPTC Date will set the modification
date of the selected media files to the
date defined in the IPTC Date Created field.
• Set Finder Comment (Mac) will save the Caption
field inside the file’s comment field, visible in
the Finder and the “Get Info” window of original
files.
• Set Finder Label (Mac) will set the color label of a
file using label marking ID set in catalog.
• Use as Desktop Picture sets the desktop picture
of the main monitor to the selected item
of the front catalog.

Select
• Landscape, Portrait, Square will select all images
that match that proportion.

Tools
• Copy EXIF to Clipboard copies all EXIF photo
metadata to clipboard.
• Copy HTML Theme (Mac) will offer the option
to choose an HTML theme and place a copy
of it to the user-defined Plug-ins folder.
• Reveal Plug-ins Folder provides will open the
user-defined Plug-ins folder on the desktop.

[Eric Nepean]

Hi Mark
Thanks for the list.

I note that the select by orientation function already exists in Capture One.
Some of these would be simple to write as an AppleScript, there are a few exceptions:

• Capture One does not allow writing annotations by script (only reading) so those functions are not possible.
  
• Capture One does not allow file renaming by script so those functions are not possible.

As Ian has mentioned, that still leaves the Windows users with no alternative.

[syncrasy]

Capture One does not allow writing annotations by script (only reading) so those functions are not possible.

Writing/copying/moving annotations in batches I consider basic functions of any decent database, so not having those capabilities would be a deal breaker for me.