Picasa is so much better than iPhoto
OK, OK so it's an opinion but its one based on several hours of use with both applications. I am forced to use a PC at work as I have mentioned before and as a result I need to find applications that ease this travisty.
I downloaded Google's Picasa about 3 or 4 months ago and have spent more and more time with it over the last 2 months. I have been using its basic resizing functions to export many of my pictures into another application that has jpeg restrictions. As a result of this increased usage I find that this application which is in its beta stage eats iPhotos lunch. The ease of use and sorting options work seamlessly and the general coolness factor is way up there.
It's pretty unusual for me to find something on the PC side that I like much more than on the Mac end but this is an exception to that rule and I wanted to share this little Gem with those of you who may not have heard of it yet. Picassa is a free application from Google and although there is not currently a Mac version it states on Googles site that one is in the works.
I downloaded Google's Picasa about 3 or 4 months ago and have spent more and more time with it over the last 2 months. I have been using its basic resizing functions to export many of my pictures into another application that has jpeg restrictions. As a result of this increased usage I find that this application which is in its beta stage eats iPhotos lunch. The ease of use and sorting options work seamlessly and the general coolness factor is way up there.
It's pretty unusual for me to find something on the PC side that I like much more than on the Mac end but this is an exception to that rule and I wanted to share this little Gem with those of you who may not have heard of it yet. Picassa is a free application from Google and although there is not currently a Mac version it states on Googles site that one is in the works.
Comments
Originally posted by Playmaker
OK, OK so it's an opinion but its one based on several hours of use with both applications. I am forced to use a PC at work as I have mentioned before and as a result I need to find applications that ease this travisty.
I downloaded Google's Picasa about 3 or 4 months ago and have spent more and more time with it over the last 2 months. I have been using its basic resizing functions to export many of my pictures into another application that has jpeg restrictions. As a result of this increased usage I find that this application which is in its beta stage eats iPhotos lunch. The ease of use and sorting options work seamlessly and the general coolness factor is way up there.
It's pretty unusual for me to find something on the PC side that I like much more than on the Mac end but this is an exception to that rule and I wanted to share this little Gem with those of you who may not have heard of it yet. Picassa is a free application from Google and although there is not currently a Mac version it states on Googles site that one is in the works.
Agreed. I switched only about a month ago and while generally thrilled with my iBook, I wish that Google made a version of Picasa for the Mac.
Maybe iPhoto 2006 will compete a bit better.
I decided that two words best sum up pretty much every version of iPhoto: (1) slow (2) fragile
Core Image color corection ajustments would be nice, I don't think the current version has this(someone correct me if i'm wrong).
Versioning like Aperture would be cool too, since most people use JPEG's it would not be that bad performance wise. If your camputer can't handle Core Image it could just fall back and do things like it does now.
I had tried it out a year ago and didn't find it compelling.
A few things I want to know, like drumstick, is how Picassa handles the color profiling...also, can it handle RAW yet?
Originally posted by Aquatic
the way iPhoto stores pictures is STUPID. iApps should be able to handle multiple libraries without 3rd party apps, and back up, etc etc. Yeah it's fragil and slow. I love it but it reeeally needs help in this department.
So is that something Picasso does? Is that why it is better? Is that the only thing?
Can someone structure a reply on this? From the above I take it that Picasso can:
+ Handle multiple libraries (what is this exactly)
+ Can back up (in what way? iPhoto can back up in some way. What is different)
+ It has better storage (file system layout? Why is it better?)
My understanding of iPhoto is that the file system storage is more a database not fit for human visibility. Spotlight doesn't seem to find stuff in it. You can only search in the app. However, you can drag and drop stuff from it. Is it the work flow people don't like?
So could be get some constructive criticism. Positive and negative. Six thinking hats style maybe. red = what do you feel, white = what is the data, black = what are the bad points, yellow = what are the good, and maybe then green = what can be made better in iPhoto.
CoreData and full CoreImage support would be nice additions but nobody will allow it...people with 10.2 and 10.3 will complain and cry about Apple dumping support.
I too would like to see iPhoto take care of versioning and organizing *without* touching or caring where photos are on the hard drive...but this thing is part of a consumer suite, it needs to run on as many Macs as possible.
Same with iTunes...it could be 10 times better, but alas, it's being held back by that fact that it has to run on Windows...so no CoreData, no Spotlight, no CoreAudio effects for yuo. The iTunes team has been unwilling to split the codebase and with iTunes 5 and now 6 that whizzed by, it's highly unlikely we're gonna see something done about this for at least another year...
The worst (for me) is that I don't think it handles color profiles. Everything is assumed to be sRGB. Not sure about RAW support, last I checked, it didn't support, but newer versions might.
It sounds like Picasa works better when used with a file system. Given that there is a trend away from that from Apple (and Microsoft) to this spotlight type thing, what does that mean?
Originally posted by curmi
Given spotlight, iPhoto could (potentially) be able to find all your images on your hard drive, and they just appear in iphoto almost instantly. So I would think an iPhoto for Tiger could work even better in this way.
It sounds like Picasa works better when used with a file system. Given that there is a trend away from that from Apple (and Microsoft) to this spotlight type thing, what does that mean?
Yes, Picasa functions like iPhoto+Spotlight. The program must install something into the OS to auto index new or changed files.
Your "file system" notion is somewhat confusing to me. The trend you speak of is to manage files by meta-data instead of filenames and folders. Adobe's XMP is also another strong motivator.
Most of us understand meta-data as information like date, location, event, etc... But try thinking of filenames and folder names as meta-data as well, only that it's static and inflexible. When you rename a file or put it into a folder, you are actually adding "meta-data". The file itself, afterall, is just a bunch of bits. Opening folders is like performing "searches", except that it is static and always returns the same result. So you see, filenames and folders are simply [an obsolete form of] "meta-data".
Spotlight searches meta-data, including filenames and folders. So, Spotlight is nothing special when you think about it... Picasa does what Spotlight does, in addition to iPhoto functionality.
You mention:
+ colour profiles
+ RAW support
What else?
I'm trying to get a balanced view, and then we can think more about what iPhoto should try to be. What good points can it take from Picasa? What god points does it have? What could it do that neither can?
Does the interface suck compared to Picasa? Does it have poor editing features (red eye etc)? Does the zoom feature suck?
It didn't. There are definitely folders on the external HD that never made it back to the new HD, and most photos ended up being duplicated or triplicated. Any photo that I rotated, for example, came back as the non-rotated image plus the rotated image.
As a result, my iPhoto library has more than twice the pictures it should have. Since it has over 4000 images it is going to take me a long time to clean it up.
This is the first Mac prgram that I cannot stand, but only from the back up perspective. All the rest is fine for me. Red-eye works better than PS (IMHO), cropping is beautiful (I use the constraints a lot), and the limited editing is fine.
David
1. Preservation of the file structure keeps me in control of where the photos are. This is a bigger deal for me for my photos because I often email my photos and...
2. Picasa has Gmail integration. It will automatically resize the selected photos and open a mail compose window. To email anything from iPhoto I need to first find and resize each photo individually. This is a problem because...
3. iPhoto does not automatically monitor my computer and create albums from photos I add. With thousands of photos that have no preexisting metdata and still have their original camera file names, Spotlight is useless for me. I don't have the time to relabel or caption each of my old photos. Finding old photos in Picasa is easy because...
4. Picasa creates albums automatically in chronological order. I wish that I could create albums in iPhoto under calendar year headings. This is exactly how Picasa organizes it albums.
Ultimately I have no idea about the nuts and bolts of either piece of software. I know nothing about RGB. What I do know is that the Picasa experience was easier for me. I am a guy who shoots snapshots on a regular basis, emails photos on a regular basis and likes to go down memory lane on a regular basis. Picasa has been perfect for me in this regard and I feel a little let down by iPhoto.