Digital Asset Management

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, iBaloo42 said:

Announced plans to potential customers are always interpreted by them as a promise of future value that they will obtain if they buy NOW the product, especially for free-upgrades products.

Nonsense! While it may be true that some people interpret plans as promises, plenty of them understand quite well that there is a big difference between the two, particularly regarding software product development.

[Ron P.]

2 hours ago, JoJu said:

Really? Maybe you have rather low standards about Digital Asset Management but so far I haven't seen the combination of a good RAW developer plus DAM and I guess you never learnt nor used Aperture, so you still think a DAM is a kind of a Windows explorer with keywords...

2 hours ago, JoJu said:

firstdfefence, don't feel offended. Picture browsers are also kind of DAM, but what I miss is another combination of RAW-developer and sophisticated picture management. And that goes way beyond of only keywording, no matter how fast it is.

@firstdefence is not suppose to be offended? That was a personal insult to him. What do you know about firstdefence? Thinking he must have low standards because he does something different than you. Then you go on to further your insult by offering an explanation that paints him as some child.

Just from reading the thousands of posts by firstdefence, I'd say he's way above your league.

 

[JoJu]

18 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

@firstdefence is not suppose to be offended? That was a personal insult to him. What do you know about firstdefence? Thinking he must have low standards because he does something different than you. Then you go on to further your insult by offering an explanation that paints him as some child.

Just from reading the thousands of posts by firstdefence, I'd say he's way above your league.

 

Please use your own scale on me, too. Just because I don't post thousands of posts in Affinity forum, doesn't tell you anything about my league - this is your prejudice, nothing else. How do you dare and estimate who's above whose league? That's a bit pointless as you don't me, don't you agree? 

Instead of further personal attacks: how about making a list of DAMs which are coming close to what Aperture was? I agree on "not needing another picture browser", but looking afterwards at firstdefence's list of hard- and software, I haven't seen no single DAM and he's talking as if tons of others available - without naming a few to look into. Rather poor statement...

He also said "it's no big deal to use one of those instead, nobody is going to die because of it, people really need to get a handle on this and check themselves..." and this I see as an ignorant and arrogant comment, so don't wonder about my reaction. So far I have no reason to believe any of you two high league guys really works with a DAM. But it's far easier to post a comment like his or yours, of course.

And in case no one of you adds some useful information about alternative DAMs, I prefer not to reply any more here. Oh, an btw. have you also seen how old this thread is and how simply nothing happened in terms of DAM ever since? Not even a simple picture browser for AP? AP is cool, but in terms of picture organisation an app abandoned by Apple 4 years ago still sets the standards.

Cool down, @Ron P. 

[Patrick Connor]

To all participants in this thread

This to and fro stops now.

You come here to express your own opinions to Serif, about Serif (software). Criticising other people's opinions will not change Serif's view and may get you banned.

[iBaloo42]

21 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

To all participants in this thread

This to and fro stops now.

You come here to express your own opinions to Serif, about Serif (software). Criticising other people's opinions will not change Serif's view and may get you banned.

@Patrick Connor, thank you for maintaining civility in this forum; people should not attack each other on a personal level. For the completeness of Serif forum’s reason for existence, I would also add that Serif’s forums are also vehicles for people to get some help from Serif’s staff and other forum members.

 

I think that Sherif’s customers have currently two main options related to their DAM needs:

1.       Wait (indefinitely) until Serif implements a DAM product/component.

2.       Use an existing non-Serif solution that satisfies your needs.

 

If you don’t need a good DAM right now, wait (indefinitely) until Serif delivers one (I think that they will eventually implement a serious DAM). However, expect to pay for it if/when Sherif will do a real DAM; doing a serious DAM, which is not a simple library like the one that Skylum did for their Luminar, will require serious efforts and costs for Sherif...

 

If you need now a DAM, use XnView if your needs can be addressed with file/folder-based structures; otherwise, buy an existing mature and capable DAM product that satisfies your more complex needs.

Based on my experience and after trying many of them, if you need a complex and mature DAM on Windows, I strongly recommend iMatch (I’ve used it for about two years).

[tnargs]

19 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

To all participants in this thread

This to and fro stops now.

You come here to express your own opinions to Serif, about Serif (software). Criticizing other people's opinions will not change Serif's view and may get you banned.

As deeply as I sympathize with this (firm) request, and welcome it, I cannot help but think that it would never have happened if only Serif were a little more forthcoming.

At the start of this thread, Serif staff said that the DAM is "planned". A mealy word that invites misunderstanding. An invitation that was accepted.

20 months later Serif staff said, again in this thread, that the DAM is on a long list of to-do's and in front of it lie "Affinity Designer for iPad, Affinity Publisher and next betas/updates to Affinity Designer and Photo for desktop (1.7)." This looked like a substantial setback for eager followers.

Another 15 months have passed, and it looks to me like all those prior projects are done. So, what are we to think? Does that mean it is at the top of the to-do list? Or have another four major projects arisen and pushed it back again?

How about giving us a crumb, please? Preferably something not agonizingly vague. I respect your need not to over-commit. But it has been a long wait, with mixed signals. Don't we deserve some news? Something that is fair to both Serif and us?

regards

[joykafka]

9 hours ago, tnargs said:

20 months later Serif staff said, ...

Another 15 months have passed, ...

How about giving us a crumb, please? Preferably something not agonizingly vague. I respect your need not to over-commit. But it has been a long wait, with mixed signals. Don't we deserve some news? Something that is fair to both Serif and us?

regards

I have also been waiting, for years. Sadly APhoto is still without DAM, ADesign without basic text editing features, and APublisher without fillable form & interactive buttons etc etc... I tried all that I could to make Affinity solutions work for me but felt so crippled in a sense that none would really work standalone, and even the suite cannot work by the trinity altogether without resorting to other apps. There are indeed more other core features and advanced features to develop, for always, but really I could never get why these basic necessities are just missing.

Every time I wanted to make the purchase, I had to step back.

[iBaloo42]

6 minutes ago, joykafka said:

I have also been waiting, for years. Sadly APhoto is still without DAM, ADesign without basic text editing features, and APublisher without fillable form & interactive buttons etc etc... I tried all that I could to make Affinity solutions work for me but felt so crippled in a sense that none would really work standalone, and even the suite cannot work by the trinity altogether without resorting to other apps. There are indeed more other core features and advanced features to develop, for always, but really I could never get why these basic necessities are just missing.

Every time I wanted to make the purchase, I had to step back.

Serif is a for-profit business; they have to generate revenue.

Low pricing and free upgrades for products that are very good are attracting new buyers. However, followup releases delivered as free upgrades are marginally generating new revenue. So, for them in order to create new sources of revenue, it is paramount to create new products; creating new products requires substantial effort in this process, they are sacrificing resources towards already released products. Of course, with this business approach, many core/common-sense features or assumed promises for their already released products are being sacrificed.

 

Topaz is also selling their products with perpetually free upgrades, but I never felt being shortchanged by them; Sherif should take some effort to understand why they are failing where Topaz is succeeding...

[TheUs3R]

On 10/6/2016 at 9:58 PM, MEB said:

Hi amazme1,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

Lightroom is not a photo editor but a RAW developer. It's editing tools are not up to what Photoshop offers. Affinity Photo is both a RAW developer and photo editor.

We already announced plans for an Affinity DAM software which will work seamlessly with Affinity Photo.

when??????????????????

[laurentsj]

Hello to all ! 

We definitely need an intelligent and powerful DAM, both for photo and video. I'M currently using Lightroom and it's crap, dead slow on Mac-mojave. Bridge is also useless. We need a smart dam that handles all media formats, including even pdf, under one roof. who can sort/tag metadata, create smart collection, and open files in our favourite photo-video editors. 

There is a NEED for this. Not sure how Serif isn't seeing this opportunity??? 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, laurentsj said:

There is a NEED for this. Not sure how Serif isn't seeing this opportunity??? 

I am sure they can see the opportunity as well as anyone else can, but as they have mentioned many times they currently feel they NEED to focus on improving the existing products before committing a lot of their finite development time & resources to bringing their own DAM to market.

[iBaloo42]

 

 

 

1

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

I am sure they can see the opportunity as well as anyone else can, but as they have mentioned many times they currently feel they NEED to focus on improving the existing products before committing a lot of their finite development time & resources to bringing their own DAM to market.

I totally agree. Until now, they moved to deliver new products, while pseudo-abandoning the ones that they released; for example, I don't see any new innovation in the Photo application, which is still missing some ridiculous simple features that are practically expected from any application (e.g., exporting folder should be by default the one where the affinity file resides, multi-file based projects should allow drag and drop from a file browser.

Based on Sherif's business practices, they would deliver a DAM that is pretty good as a minimum sealable product, with a lot of missing features, then they would throw it on the back burner like they did until now with the existing products. 

 

[Spuddiebear]

On 10/6/2016 at 8:58 PM, MEB said:

Hi amazme1,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

Lightroom is not a photo editor but a RAW developer. It's editing tools are not up to what Photoshop offers. Affinity Photo is both a RAW developer and photo editor.

We already announced plans for an Affinity DAM software which will work seamlessly with Affinity Photo.

Hello, 

Any updates on when an Affinity DAM will be available please? 

[JoJu]

Now I will stop receiving notifications from this thread. In 5 months it will celebrate it's 4th birthday. That once "planned" DAM appears to "not happening". I like using Affinity apps, I don't like to be reminded from time to time that they have the right to let customers down, just like any other software manufacturer as well. And the more I think about, the more it appears unlikely to program a DAM that would be working on Apple OS and Windows. "Intelligent folders, albums, slide shows" simply can't be done with Windows own file structures.

 

I never thought I would use Apple "Photos", but during 3 years it matured a bit, unlikely Serif's planned DAM. Bye-bye, thread.

[tnargs]

I know how you feel. I think we deserve a little more feedback from the software team.

[Phil_rose]

On 10/7/2016 at 3:48 AM, Chris_K said:

I'm not able to give any definitive timeline as they are details I am not privy to. Personally I would not expect to see it in 2017, but that does not mean things might not change. 

Here we are in 2020. Is there any sign of a DAM? I'd love to see this.

[iBaloo42]

 

@Phil_rose

Just move on. I see that you like Windows 10. Buy iMatch and forget about Serif's DAM, which will never happen, or if it will, it would cost money anyway.

[tnargs]

5 hours ago, iBaloo42 said:

 

@Phil_rose

Just move on. I see that you like Windows 10. Buy iMatch and forget about Serif's DAM, which will never happen, or if it will, it would cost money anyway.

If one is going third party, might as well go digiKam (free, multiplatform) and save $129 up front.

I thought the point here is an Affinity DAM that integrates with AP. cheers

[Phil_rose]

18 hours ago, iBaloo42 said:

 

@Phil_rose

Just move on. I see that you like Windows 10. Buy iMatch and forget about Serif's DAM, which will never happen, or if it will, it would cost money anyway.

Thanks for your instructions but, as mentioned below, I want Serif to make one that integrates AF files. I currently use XNView which works well but cannot export JPGs from AF Photo. 

Feel free to 'move on' yourself but I'd still like to see this happen. Oh, and don't worry about my finances. I bet Serif's version would be less than $129. Thanks! 

[iBaloo42]

@Phil_rose Why this aggressive tone? Anyway, you don't have to answer.

[Phil_rose]

1 minute ago, iBaloo42 said:

@Phil_rose Why this aggressive tone? Anyway, you don't have to answer.

Because I felt your response was aggressive and commanding. 'Move on' is a pretty belittling and dismissive thing to say to someone who just asked a question. There is an actual reason that I would love to see Serif produce a DAM rather than just using other options.

Anyway, perhaps you didn't mean it that way but that's how it came across. Sorry if I got you wrong. 

[Phil_rose]

Having said that I am now checking out iMatch and DigiKal and iMatch does look really good and I may go with that for now since it seems way more able than XNView so thanks for that.

[iBaloo42]

@Phil_rose: my "move on" represents my own loss of hope in Serif to do anything that EXISTING customers are asking (they are doing only things that are bringing in new customers, as they don't have a "renewal" revenue stream). I moved on. I simply assumed that you've read through this thread and that you've got your own flavor of bad taste; I didn't mean to be patronizing, but I was genuinely trying to help you by pointing towards iMatch. I'll follow @JoJu, and unsubscribe from this thread.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, iBaloo42 said:

loss of hope in Serif to do anything that EXISTING customers are asking (they are doing only things that are bringing in new customers,

First, providing a DAM would bring in new customers: (a) for the DAM product itself, and (b) for those who would buy Affinity Photo except that there is no DAM available that understands .afphoto files.

Next, they are doing things that existing customers ask for. For example, they have implemented IDML import for Affinity Publisher, which has been frequently requested. For another, they have made some significant changes to their RAW processing (cameras supported, RAW file type supported) requested by existing Photo users who have those cameras.

That does not mean that they will do everything that is frequently requested, nor that they will do things as fast as we might like nor in the order we might like. They have their own vision and priorities.

[Phil_rose]

Oh, absolutely. Serif can do what they like but I think it's worth noting that I still would like it so that that is a +1 for DAM.