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Reviews of IMatch (Photools)

IMatch

by Photools

Product Link: IMatch

User Reviews / Comments

This is a collection of unbiased & balanced reviews of IMatch

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Review
Rating		DateLinkReviewWas This
Review
Useful?

[2]		 2012-08-14  

IMatch 3.6:

Pros:Good for maintaining databases with thousands of images. If you are a programmer you can write scripts that are capable of doing anything you can imagine. Software never crashes is robust and stable.

Cons:User interface is very cllumsy resembling the first decades of computer software development. Veterans of the field will remember the days of writing programs for every function to be used by an end-user. Endless sessions of testing, debugging, documenting, punching onto the cards and so on. When you ask the forum there are fanatic fans of the program who tell you everything can be done all you have to do is to read hundreds of pages and to write lots of code.

[12]		 2007-01-19   IMatch 3.5
Pros:
  • Very fast and stable, even with big datasets.
  • Powerful categories and IPTC capabilites.
  • Scripting allows for much expansion, if you are willing to learn.
  • Lots of useful features, like WWW galleries, support for images on removable media, advanced searching for image content etc.
  • Really suitable for people who need to handle large image database, like many 10,000 or even 100,000 of images (and thanks to its speed actually only one suitable for that afaik).
Cons:
  • GUI hard to work with and outdated - after using IMatch for 1.5 year I still find interface uncomfortable and lacking in functionality.
  • And regarding IM development cycle it seems it's not going to improve anytime soon. Delevoped in spare time by a single person- with obvious influence on pace of development.
  • I was partially lured into purchase by promises of features that still haven't seen light of the day (!).
  • Lacks anything resembling timeline view.
  • Don't hope anyone from your family will want to work with it.
  • Bottom line- I am abandoning IM and evaluating alternatives. Something easier & nicer to work with, even at the cost of speed. I am an amateur and I want photography to be at least a bit of fun, also when it comes to managing image database.

[6]		 2006-10-28  

IMatch 3.5.0.22

Pros:
Hierarchical organizing system for categories while most other programs just use a flat list of keywords. Very powerful with VB like scripting language. Can still keep track of files that have been moved to off-line storage like CD\'s or DVD\'s. Once images are tagged you can easily find images with any combinations of properties you can think of.

More features than you can shake a large tree branch at.

Cons:
Lots of gotcha's at almost every turn. I can't spend more than an hour with the software without getting frustrated by some little bug or poorly documented feature and I've been working with computers for 25 years. The fans on the forum are almost religious zealots. They will constantly reiterate that there are 500 pages in the help file. 500 pages of vague, poorly worded, or out of date information is not helpful. Getting real information out of the developer or the forum is like pulling teeth. Plus, if you take too long to write your message in the forum it dumps you out and looses your message.

So, if you are a patient, experienced computer user, with 10s or even 100s of thousands of images and you need powerful categorizing and searching, and are willing to put in the dozens of hours it will take to truly figure out all of the features and gotcha's then this is a great product especially for the price.

[1]		 2006-05-18   IMatch 3.4

Pros:
Very easy to use. Very flexible cataloger. Decent EXIF editor, excellent IPTC editor.

Cons:
Definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Version support promised next revision for over 4 years now. It ain\'t gonna happen people. Get over it, and get something else if this is as important to you as it is to me.

[3]		 2006-03-10   IMatch 3.5

Pros:

I have used Imatch for a few years now. It is robust and powerful and although the interface can be daunting, the standard functions are easy to access and use.


Cons:

I have bought the upgrade to the latest 3.5 version now and had hoped for versioning but it is not yet available and the interface hasn't really improved. I don't think Mario can really keep up with the competition on a part time basis and I have switched to using idimager (which I have been using alongside Imatch for sometime) which does have versioning and is developed on a far faster cycle with even better support by the developer than the good Imatch support

[4]		 2006-01-08   Purchased it, tried getting it to work and gave up after a few hundred pictures. Interface is hard to learn and to process large numbers of pictures. I also had bugs with interfacing with video card drivers - thumbnails would turn grey and would only resolve with reversion to old video drivers.

Many people love this software, and the author does seem very supportive, but I wouldn't recommend it personally.

Disclaimer: I'm a prosumer, not a pro. I've got about 5000 images to work with, not 50,000 or 500,000.

[3]		 2005-12-30   I have been using this software for about 2 years. It is very robust and a gem to use. Lots of functionality and, once you take a few hours to learn to use it, the software is very intuitive. The user interface is fine but does take a little time to get used to. It has just about every function that a photographer could need.

This software simply cannot be beat, especially given the price.

[11]		 2005-05-25   Have been using the product for a year now. Acquired it mainly for its IPTC update feature, which works to my satisfaction compared to other IPTC editors. The price was right. As a bonus I am using its archive-tracking ability (to CD in my case); I'm using it's bigger-than-thumbnail JPG "Off-Line Cache" to view archived images without the CD being in the CD-reader. It's sufficiently fast on my 500 MHz Windows machine, although the indexing of new images is slow because it spends time creating an image signature to implement its image matching search feature.

[11]		 2005-04-15   Similar comments. Wonderfully strong product, takes a fairly large amount of tech ability (programming) to really get the most out of it. This is a product developed by one individual in his "spare" time. Has been promising the next great thing (v3.5) for over 1.5 years with no delivery in sight. Fairly arrogant about the featureset but is extremely good about fixing bugs and updating the product to suit new camera models. Almost too diligent as this is one of the things that seems to delay the next version.

[9]		 2005-03-23 Link Forum Review: Concerns over delayed next release (3.5), and whether developer is interested in user opinions for UI & versioning implementation.

[10]		   Link Review by About.com of IMatch 3

[19]		   Link Review by Luminous Landscape of IMatch 3

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