[Digikam-users] New User: is digiKam right for me? and if not, what alternative?

[Gilles Caulier]

2008/1/28, Yuval Levy <digikam08 at sfina.com>:
>
> Arnd Baecker wrote:
> > For just viewing you could consider using showfoto,
> > which is part of the digikam package.
>
> I had to do a sudo apt-get install showfoto. I looked at showfoto, as
> well as at gThumb reccomended by Yan Seiner (thanks!) gqview and again
> at digiKam.
>
> > Another programm which is well suited for a fast display of
> > images is gqview.
>
> and the winner is...
>
> ... it would be quite arrogant to declare a winner after such a short
> time for testing. moreover, there are as many different workflows as
> there are users, so what works for me might not work for you.
>
> I have a few observations though.
>
> All above tools can load the RAW images of my Canon 350D, both from a
> local copy as well as from the network drive. A testimonial to the
> maturity of some of the code.
>
> However there is a big variation in speed, and speed, i.e. the time I
> have to wait until the display is updated, is important to me. In
> testing it I made sure caches are empty.
>
> gqview was the fastest. its user interface is IMHO rough and unpleasant
> to use, but I am not sure that a list dedicated to digiKam is the right
> place to suggest improvements to qgview.
>
> digiKam was significantly slower than gqview. Unfortunately too slow for
> me. So my question is: why is it so slow (after all, most tools use
> dcraw for RAW decoding)? and: can I do something to help change that?
>
>
> > But: even for well-sorted image collections digikam provides
> > features, which I find extremely useful:
> > - rating of images:
> >   Together with the new quick filters this allows to simply
> >   display a subset of the really good images
> >   (e.g. if you want to show it to someone else who only
> >   has time to see the best 10% ;-)
> > - tagging of images:
> >   once all images are tagged properly (well, this takes a bit of time
> ;-)
> >   this allows for finding images with specific characteristics
> > - adding comments
> >
> > All these can be searched for very quickly and efficiently.
> > As digikam can be configured to write this information
> > into the image metadata, these could be accessed from other applications
> > as well.
>
>
> I like all of those features. Even if I personally don't have a use for
> them, I am sure they are useful to other people.
>
> What I am extremely allergic to are applications that write into the
> images.
>
> The paradigm should be:
> 1. don't touch the originals.
> 2. in case of doubt, all images are to be considered originals.
>
> I love XMP sidecars and application databases to contain these and more
> metadata - the more the merrier - just stay away from my files. I
> understand the good intentions, but mistakes happen. I don't need to
> recall the damage done by Microsoft's Vista to Nikon RAW files.
>
> One thing that I noticed about digiKam: I tried to delete an album and a
> scary dialog came up: "These albums will be moved to the Trash Bin". And
> a checkbox saying "Delete files instead of moving them to the trash".
>
> Album = Folder? is this going to delete the folder from my file system?
>
> or
>
> Album = abstract entity, collection of pictures as represented inside
> digiKam?
>
> I got my answer, and I did not like it: Album = Folder.
>
> Which means that when I first created an album, it duplicated the files
> from the first folder used for it. Then, when I added pictures from
> another folder to that album, it duplicated them too. When I tried to
> delete the album, the dialog did not inform me of its location. But when
> I tried to delete an individual picture, it did.
>
> Adobe Lightroom used to behave like that during beta testing. For
> release, they got the message. Now, removing the equivalent of an Album
> only removes it from the database (by default), leaving the files and
> XMP sidecar untouched. I can elect to have the files deleted as well,
> but it is an option, not the default. I can copy files into Lightroom's
> own folders, but I can also have it leave them where they are and only
> add them to the database.
>
> Is this possible with digiKam as well? I have not found out yet how.
>
> I wish the delete dialog would be less threatening to me. I wish it
> would clearly tell me whether I am deleting an abstract entity or an
> actual folder/file.
>
>
> > Well, there is of course much more, like support for geo-tagging,
> > or the brilliant light-table to compare images side-by-side ...
>
> yes, the light-table is brillant. I have a few ideas, but maybe others
> had them already. How about a "diff mode", where the two images are
> super-imposed?
>
>
> > ((enough advertisement I hope .. ;-))
>
> never enough advertisement, as long as it is not overbloated
> marketing-speak. Your "advertisement" is very informative to me. Keep it
> coming.
>
>
> > Gerry already explained it, see also
> > http://www.digikam.org/?q=node/219
> >
> > This problem will be solved with digikam 0.10 which uses KDE4,
> > and is under heavy development, see
> >   http://www.digikam.org/?q=about/releaseplan
>
> I understand. Given that support for network drives is a killer
> criterium for me, and that 0.10 is planned for the summer, I will not
> adopt digiKam right away. But I will have time to test it thoroughly,
> and maybe give more feedback?
>
>
> > For this situations there are two solutions proposed in the links given
> in
> >   http://www.digikam.org/?q=node/219
> > (I haven't tried them myself ...)
>
> simlyinking the sqlite database file looks good to me, but IMHO album =
> folder is bad.



??? Why ???


How about having inside the sqlite table a construct
> building the album independently of the folder? where can I see the
> table definitions?


http://www.digikam.org/?q=docs


> kfmclient is part of konqueror.
> > (Can be figured out via:
> >     apt-file search kfmclient
>
> sudo apt-get install apt-file
> sudo apt-file update
> the search returned nothing
>
> probably my mistake as a newbie.
>
>
> >   aptitude install konquerora
> > should cure the problem.
>
> it might cure a problem, but it contributes to a much larger problem:
> clutter on my desktop. There are already too many applications. I try to
> keep it as simple as possible. I have one web browser and I don't see
> why I should install konqueror.
>
>
> > but I don't know kubuntu well enough ....
>
> neither do I. I use the default Ubuntu desktop. I am a dummy user. Like
> 90% of all users, I use default settings. I am looking for an
> application to browse pictures, not to replace my desktop and my web
> browser and my workflow. I expect the applications that I add to my
> toolbox to behave and integrate nicely with other applications. If it is
> possible for Windows applications to interoperate with non-Microsoft web
> browsers and mail clients, why would KDE applications impose me the use
> of Konqueror?
>
> I took the plunge into the cold water. After installing Konqueror and
> going again to the help button, Konqueror is triggered, with a URL
> help:/digikam/index.html and all I see on the screen is that "There is
> no documentation available for "/digikam/index.html"


documentation is a huge separate package to Install...

If you prefert read it from the web :

http://docs.kde.org/kde3/en/extragear-graphics/digikam/index.html

Gilles Caulier
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