The ACDSee 7 photo manager has just been updated to version seven and they are touting it as fast, extremely fast. If my desktop is any indication, they are not fibbing either. For those of us that are digital photo buffs, this $ 49.99 program may be of interest to many. According to the ACD website, the program is "Favored by photographers, used by organizations like Associated Press, Boeing and Harvard, ACDSee is your best choice in photo management software."
Yeah, but can a dummy like me use it? That's the real test!
I sure can! How is that possible you ask? For one reason, ACDSee 7 features a context sensitive toolbar, which dynamically adapts to a user's task at hand. The selection of tools or options varies as you shift from browsing to editing etc., therefore you are only presented with the logical set of components that would be required at that moment. It really stops you from having to dig around a menu system or tediously search for the appropriate drop down box. This is a welcome concept for me, as you can pretty much use the program without reading the instructions. Which is important, as I never read instructions!
The software handles RAW formats from all major camera manufacturers including Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, Olympus, Kodak and Minolta. ACDSee 7 also supports burning your images and media files to CD-R/DVD-R. Anyone with a digital camera knows how quickly backing up to optical becomes a necessity. You will have thousands of images in short order and with the large image sizes from the newer, 5 plus mega pixel cameras, you can fill a DVD easily. In my humble opinion, this is one of the most cost effective and efficient means of storage and good justification for a fast SL DVD burner.
The interface has some other slick features. For instance, in the main browsing window, you can change the size of thumbnails by simply pulling a convenient slider in the top right corner. It's important to note, that while in this mode, the program is smooth and responsive on my 2.4 P4 system. Invoking the browse window in Photoshop Elements 2, is a real drain on resources and brings my system to a crawl, even with a gigabyte of DDR RAM. So much so that I can't use the feature, as the mouse lag is way too annoying. In addition, if you are familiar with Photoshop Elements, or Photoshop for that matter, then you know how powerful a tool "levels" is for salvaging an otherwise incorrectly exposed picture, this is included in ACDsee 7. The other annoyance we often have to contend with in flash photography is the dreaded red eye. Once again, they have a nice easy to use tool for this.
I am very much a fan of Elements, but always on the lookout for something better and easier. Having tried dozens of different solutions over the past few years, none last long on my hard drive. But I have to hand it to ACD Systems, this is a very nice program, I like it! No, I won't dump Elements, but I just might make this a permanent addition to my arsenal of photo editing and archiving tools.
If you would like to snag the 14 meg trial download, then you should visit here. You may also read more about the program here , see an overview and find out what's new in this version seven. It has many other features not mentioned here.
Source: ACD Systems
