Thanks Emil, I've been following iMatch photools.com since v1, and many other DAM software, as well as following the Metada Working Group since it's inception (and embarrassing Google to mature Picasa to it's current library-science qualities -- what a -l-o-n-g- fight!).

Geza, DAMinion is for you -- it CAN let you add tags, but you don't have to -- it auto-reads the existing metadata that you listed and responds incredibly fast to requests to search, sort, and select by your criteria without you having to add anything new to any image record -- 300,000+ images may require that you chat with DAMinion to confirm what catalog resources you'll be building, but this may be the perfect software for you.

Microsoft Windows Live Photo Gallery does destructive editing, moving the original to a cache here it is separate from where YOU stored it, doubling disk space storage, and it renames the original master with a coded long-name hash, and as soon as you migrate your "fixed" image copies to backup or external hard drives, they loose any undo connection with the originals, and your hard drive just fills up with hashed meaninglessly-named un-catalogged un-undoable masters.

Picasa does non-destructive editing, exports copies only on demand, and stores masters of copies below where you put them in a "masters" sub-directory so when you backup or move your image file directories, you automatically get your masters and copies together, so undo is always available, and when you move your files to an external hard drive, 100% of your original free space is freed up, no un-linked masters left behind.

Never use a Microsoft product if an alternative is available.

==========

Regarding this program, DAMinion ... it is a DAM Digital Asset Management program, so look up DAM software to learn how they all are different from everything from free IrfanView and Picasa to ACDSee-whatever, Adobe, and so on -- there are way too many features to explore and asses the function and value of in one giveaway day.

I found that it will read networked directories from one computer, and the speed of first loading, I don't know because I went away, but once loaded with ~10,000 images, the amount of metadata by which I could search, sort, and select was impressive in volume and speed on a modest 2400x2 4 GB XP system, and it was actually fun to see what ISO or focal length were most popular in my catalog -- that's metadata, and the most important metadata we have to add ourselves ... individually, for 10,000 pictures in this experiment, and I ain't going down that road ... for instance, do I have to build a fake small copy data group to test if adding new metadata directly to original master image files is trustworthy, or if I should be satisfied with sidecars?

However, automatic image analysis tools ain't there, so this software is definitely aimed at shops that handle a large collection and need to label it all, and they probably have multiple members on their staff -- it does promise to honor facial recognition work we do in Picasa, so get ready to team this up with Picasa anyway, then we can use the incredible tools of Picasa to do many things DAMinion is not aiming their program to do ... but does DAMinion respect Picasa non-destructive image edits and show Picasa's version of an image or does DAMinion show the original file copy as untouched on disc?

Leawoo depends of iTunes being installed, AbelsSoft depends on .NET being installed, even Picasa depends on Quicktime being installed, so maybe DAMinion could depend in Picasa being installed?

The low price is impressive, especially for the breadth of file types and depth of metadata and power of the database, probably a way to get folks addicted for later purchase in a company, and to get popular feedback to help mature and perfect the program and expand to find new markets ("only" hundreds of companies, but at least thousands of individuals may have purchased or downloaded at least the free version).

But can it keep track of images that have not had their copyrights registered, automatically schedule a notice to build a CD, and then build that CD properly formatted for submission to the Library of Congress before a year goes by?

Will it poke you to renew copyright registration as the years wear on?

It does have check in and check out for images (because ...?), but does it have a way of tracking copies in distribution, in print, in different locations, such as web links to blogs where they are in use, and so on?

Can it catalog our Flickr, Picasa web, or MyShoebox or other cloud storage collection?

Can the end user dynamically expand the relational database to handle their unique situation, such as supporting their own needs for IP Intellectual Property rights management, business management, customer sales and distribution management, a web interface for remote access, even customer access for sales order and fulfillment?

Can it interface with other programs that do those features so we don't have to do double entry to track and record every transaction?

When importing directories from subsequent drives, can it identify duplicates and offer to delete, incorporate, update, backup, or whatever is appropriate, or do we do that manually later after -w-a-i-t-i-n-g- for all duplicates to load?

Can it import and intelligently put files in the chosen library scheme, rearranging a messy drive (Picasa can automatically rearrange existing files and directories during import)?

My problem with RoboImport was that I could never refine the programed schema to work properly, and the software did not work with me iteratively to help me get it right, so I tanked it and moved on.

If I were to offer cataloging services to clients, I'd reorganize them in place with Picasa, then maybe explore DAMinion as a second step -- of course they'd need many other programs and skills and staff to take over after I left, but I'm just exploring where DAMinion fits into our digital archive lives.

Thanks for offering this here, it is definitely not a shallow, easy to asses program, and deserves a much stronger marketing presentation than the vague teaser opening this giveaway today -- REWRITE! -- I'm not sure how to get people over the threshold to understanding the purpose and function of the program, but the responses seem to indicate that we're all still guessing.

I can't understand why more people haven't been seduced by Microsoft's 'Windows Live Photo Gallery', available free.
It does all the importing, cataloguing, tagging, captioning, etc that you'd want.
It integrates with cloud apps including email, has correcting functions, multi-grouping/sorting, facial recognition, rotating, stitching..
I don't know what it doesn't do for the average user.
Highly recommended.
WLPG.

There is a serious limitation of 25,000 photos in this Basic version.

Tried it and the user interface is not intuitive.
It stares at you with a blank screen and demands that you load a "catalog". Or else it refuses to proceed further.

But you do not have any catalog yet.

After searching the menu for a while, then you found the Startup Wizard under "Help". This to create a catalog so that you can start to use the software.

It seems user unfriendly.
Most likely will uninstall this after some time.

Some more alternatives are Adobe Lightroom and Apple's Aperture.
Nowadays, camera manufacturers bundle very good software into the package when you buy a new camera. A friend bought a Leica C digital camera 5 days ago and it came with Adobe Lightroom 5.

I will keep using my tested and proven ACDSee.

One freeware that helps in renaming photos is the excellent Ken Rename and it can insert the date and time when each photos was taken, into the file name as a prefix. You can batch process for large numbers of photos.
Of course individual file name can also include details such as "pasta lunch at xxx restaurant"

If you put your photos into folders based on events, e.g. "March 2013 trip to France", then you have a well organised system.

I do not bother with tags in photos.

I looking for a catalog prg for years having cc 300.000 pics. I do not want to manage and tag them just to search by name or date in different media like HDDs and a few DVDs. First I need: speed and thumbnails stored. This is the 3 info I have on my pics and I want to search with this attributes only. It seems to me Daminoin is not for me, but for groups working with common files, identified with lots of tags by and for theire job. My requirement is to feed the prg with HDDs and make search to do one catalog with links and thumbnails. Then after I would search within by name, date and see the thumbnails without opening large pics. That is the fastest way to find items for me. Is there any simple but useful prg for this purpose? Thanks a lot for yr proposal! Geza

At first, I was sceptic about this giveavway: I use Picasa (free) and Zoner Photo Studio (giveaway version) for photo management. I am happy with them and don't need any other photo manager.

BUT, then I read on the daminion website that it supports other formats than image/video formats, including pdf files! I have been searching for a long time for a manager/meta data organizer like picasa for pdf files, and now I finally found it :)
Thanks, gaotd

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the comprehensive and constructive comment!

Daminion is tightly integrated with EXIF/IPTC/XMP/MWG and allows you to automatically sync all your annotations with image metadata. It can write and read even hierarchical tags like keywords, categories, event, people, etc... in a range of media formats, including Camera RAW images (directly! or to sidecars)

We don't support face recognition yet, but Daminion can import faces/people from Picasa 3.8 (or lower versions).

Version 2 means nothing: Daminion is available for public since April 2008, and it's preceedor (PicaJet) is available on the market since 2004. And our team is involved into the image management software industry since 1999.

Part of the information can be automatically extracted and displayed from the image metadata (camera info, shooting info, GPS info, picture subject info, etc...). And thanks to support for the industry metadata specifications you can easily exchange the metadata between Daminion and other DAM solutions.

More info on our web-site: http://daminion.net

Check also out our 3 mins intro video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Za_QpR9Z68U

@ 18 Peter Blaise - and anyone interested in a (paid, though) extremely full-featured and flexible DAM application particularly for photographs: have a look at iMatch. Especially the current beta is hugely powerful. Not cheap but worth it.

Murat,

From your website:

"Daminion Software (formerly known as PicaJet.com)"

PicaJet is also photo management software. So, it would appear your company is in a transition phase, and you actually have two similar products competing with each other (Daminion and PicaJet).

I think we need some clarification about the target audience for both products, as well as your future plans for each.

Cheers

Is a good tool for IPTC XMP images tagging / organizing, you can rewrite file names etc. With the free version it lets you tag 15.000 files and with thisone 25.000 . I think you can skip it.

Re: the "bad web site" comment: On the face the site looks fine. However, it does not clearly explain what products are offered, nor the differences between all the titles they have listed here on GAOTD. Furthermore, the "buy" page is split into multiple "buy" pages. If you don't have a grasp of what they are offering, it gets a little confusing.

It seems they offer two main products: a cataloger for your photos ("standalone") and a cataloger for photos on a server (anything with "server" in the title).

Under the "standalone" line, they offer 4 versions: Free, Basic, Standard, & Pro. Today we are offered the Basic version. The only difference seems to be how many files the program will handle. See this page: http://daminion.net/order/buy-daminion

If you want to buy the server version, you need to go to this page: http://daminion.net/order Differences seem to be based on number of users.

The description given here is misleading. Describing what is offered as a solution for small teams is wrong. This seems to be nothing more than a basic cataloger. The program that would be useful for small teams is any one of the "server" editions.

As for how great this cataloger is, I can't really compare it to Picasa because I tried Picasa and hated it - it wasn't any better than the native Windows filing as far as I could tell. I've just played a little with this program and it seems fairly good. It supports nested tagging in an easy to use format, which I like. There is a map in the side bar, so that if there is GPS data, I think it will pinpoint the location on the map. You get a choice of maps to use, like Bing or Google, ect. It seems to load it live from the internet, so being disconnected will probably make this feature useless. I've tried manually pinning the location to an image using the map (general state/city), but so far have been unsuccessful. It probably needs GPS units.

When trying to "customize" any of the screens, I just get a blank drop-down menu. I don't know if it is a problem or simply unavailable in this version. There is a "tray" area at the bottom. I have no idea what the purpose of that is, except that I can drag images down to it. Which is the final problem with this software: there really isn't any good help available. Clicking on the "tutorials" under "help" takes you to a page that is describing the server edition. Going to the general "help" file leads to a Wiki page that has all the features listed, but doesn't really indicate how certain features are helpful. Part of the problem may simply be that the "standalone" version are simply watered down versions of the main program developed by this company: a server based cataloger for teams.

I don't know if this is worth the download or not. I catalog my photos based on folders, descriptive file names, and tags. However, if you need more flexibility in finding your files, this may be something for you. It can't hurt to try.

Interesting licensing options based on catalogue size. Most people will probably find the free version is all they need, it's the same program just limited to 15k max per catalogue.. Have a look at the options on their site,
http://daminion.net/order/buy-daminion

Does DAMinon include automatic and structured controlled vocabulary and IPTC/XMP inclusion and sidecars, and does it import/export an XML database to other programs, and does it include automatic image analysis for recognizable things beyond existing EXIF and IPTC, but also automatic content and face recognition, can it automatically backup images locally or to the cloud, and track sales and use licensing, and keep track of where all copies of an image are, in print and as files?

Or do we have to label each picture one at a time, manually ... then do it all again later if we want to also or alternatively use Picasa or Adobe or Canto or PicturePark, or if the database won't run in Windows 9 or 10, or if we "touch" the image in another program, do we have to relabel the image again to re-include it in DAMinion?

How slow does it run to build an initial database, then how long does it take to audit or rebuild that data base on a regular schedule, and coordinate databases across multiple computers, such as when coming back from the field with a laptop full of new images, and does it store it's own thumbnails, or does it have to "see" a master picture in order to keep it in the catalog (such as keeping track of my archive of off-line CDs from Kodak)?

Much to read and explore hands-on:

http://daminion.net/wiki/index.php/Format_Support

http://daminion.net/feature-tour/daminion/broad-format-support

Yes and no to my questions ... but it's only at version 2, so it's quite young -- Microsoft Word is at version 14 and can't do most of that stuff for text documents!

I understand and honor DAMinion for their efforts - I see this as programmers working with a few clients who wanted a custom application, then maturing their offering to be more and more all-purpose in order to sell it to a wider audience ("hundreds" of customers).

But those are my goals -- maximum smart automation about image contents, along with lossless, recyclable metadata, backup, and distribution tracking.

So far, for me, on multiple computers with 20,000+ images, I do it manually using library science schemes to construct a reference system from the get go.

Picasa includes face recognition and whole-image manipulation tools, and can print really nicely, and can upload to free Picasa web or free Flickr in batches, properly resized (2048x) for the web site's free storage options, resulting in new JPG copies of any image file type; MyShoebox can automatically upload small JPG copies (1024x) of JPGs, unlimited, free.


Read about competitive efforts:


http://www.opensourcedigitalassetmanagement.org/

http://digitalassetmanagementnews.org/dam-vendors/

where is Ashraf and Giovanni when you need them. I think I will stick to picasa3. my alternative:

http://www.downloadinfo.co/lp/review/picasa/MTY1OTA5NDY3MF81MjlmMzlkOGU5MWI3/?kw=picasa+3.0&subid=DIPIUS&cust=picasa+3.0&type=picasa&lptype=bing&utm_campaign=DIPIUS&fwd=1&rnd=0e00e1dccdeaf0b53992102cda400b126dcd301d&ts=1386166744

APPCRASH report

Description:
Stopped working

Application Name: Daminion.exe
Application Version: 2.0.0.911
Application Timestamp: 5270ee1a
Fault Module Name: mscorwks.dll
Fault Module Version: 2.0.50727.5472
Fault Module Timestamp: 5174dd69
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00172026

Apart from image and Camera RAW formats, daminion also support video format such as MTS, MOV and MP4.

Details:
http://daminion.net/feature-tour/daminion/broad-format-support

I have a solution for all photographers which does NOT require a database, uses WIN XP, WIN Vis-7-8, likes old and new pix and video, too. I have taken pix as a hobby since my first Kodak Brownie and 35mm Argus C3 (look it up) in 1960. Find any photo, on line of course, like in an external 4TB HD, can be found in a second. If it's a JPG, any additional description data travels INSIDE the JPG as well (that's not a secret, nor is it necessary for this pgm).

I am looking for a programmer who will write it and give it away for FREE, as Freeware, not steal my copyright from me.

I'm sorry ahead of time for posting here. I just know it will be seen by thousands perhaps.

To JR Jones. What specifically is wrong with the website? Looks and works good for me.

Absolutely useless registration page @Chrome.

"Notice: Undefined index: name in /home/daminion/public_html/temp/process_giveaway.php on line 8 Notice: Undefined index: email in /home/daminion/public_html/temp/process_giveaway.php on line 9 Warning: file_get_contents(http://daminion.info.ivy.arvixe.com/Keygenerators/GAOTD.aspx?name=&email=): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 014 in /home/daminion/public_html/temp/process_giveaway.php on line 10"

http://i.imgur.com/ehlpnj7.png

To Jeff:

Daminion allows you to put one image to multiple tags, which is not possible in case of the Folder based organization.

Daminion will be useful if you have a lot of photos and usually spent some time before finding a right photo.

Remember that "Pictures you can't find are JUST AS USELESS as pictures that are completely lost!"

A new Daminion version will coming soon with a set of improvements:
- Batch file renaming
- renaming and adding watermarks for exporting images
- Creating Contract Sheets (in PDF format)
- Access limitation on file level

This software looks interesting. Thank you. W

The license code did not show on Firefox24 and IE8.
The license code showed on SRWare Iron (clone of google Chrome browser) so it >>could<< show on Chrome too... hope it helps.

Now it works.
Alternatives are Adobe Bridge and ACDSee which I use. Both are not freeware.

This is a GOTD and if for some reason it does not work, you cannot reinstall after the 1 day expiration is over.

My advice is that if you have a few hundred thousand or millions of photos, before decide on any such software - to use eaither freeware or buy the software. You would be investing hundreds or even thousands of hours tagging the photos using the software.

Hi there,

I've been a pro photo seller for years. So, I tried this application, could install and register it without problem.

But, I couldn't find why it's better than a free one like Picasa with which you can organize, share, edit,apply dozens of effects and so forth.
If you don't like Picasa, then the freeware Xnview offers many and many features too, features that Daminion doesn't offer, sorry.

There was a problem with generating license for names with spaces. We fixed this issue. It works now.

#meme

If you have a lot of snapshots from your camera on your hard disk, it looks very difficult to fing anything there when you want. You have to digging there for hours. This soft gives you an alternative: you have to dig throuh your snapshots for a week (at least!) to assign a lot of suitful keywords for any photo. Otherwise this program is useless. But, be careful! If you were not creative enough in choosing those keywords, you will never find some photos on your disk, at least, with this software!

Hi there,

we have checked the registration and it worked on most of our PCs. In case you don't see the key after request try using any other browser to submit your data (worked for us).

___
Updated.
___

We contacted the developer and the issue was immediately fixed. As they said, "It was a problem if a name contains spaces."

We are sorry for the inconvenience.
--
Regards,
GOTD team

This has features that could be useful to those who are serious about managing their photos. While Windows 7 can search across a wide variety of tags and knows about hierarchical tags, it doesn't let you create hierarchical tags. Version control can be useful when working with multiple tools. While some tools keep a complete editing history and let you recover any earlier version, that only applies to that specific tool. The version control in Daminion is easier than trying to do it yourself with filenames, folders, or tags, but it still relies on the user self-reporting changes and steps. Note that some cloud services have primitive version tracking, such as Google Drive.

Downloaded, and it seems pretty basic. Find your photo's by keywords, date taken, camera used, etc... The description makes it sound more like it's designed for small business use, which I can understand. I don't know many people that catalog their pics other than generalized folders such as family, friends, mountains, blah blah blah. Overall, unless I'm missing something, this is totally pointless for the average user, unless you have several thousand tagged photo's or your looking for that one photo that you got with that camera you seldom use. Gonna pass on this. Judging from what I've seen, I really hope I'm missing something cool but doesn't sound like it

I have heard of File cataloging software, but for an image catalogue , its something new for.
Can someone try and comment on its usefullness.

Can't get the license.

Page http://www.daminion.net/temp/process_giveaway.php says:

Your Daminion Standalone (Basic) license is:

To register your Daminion copy:

Select the above license text and copy it to ....
Launch the Daminion
Open the Help menu and navigate to ....
Click on the 'Add License > From Clipboard' option.

Thank you!

Seriously, check out their very poorly constructed web site.
I couldn't trust their product if their site doesn't function correctly. Their GOTD offer appears watered down.