Daminion 2.0

Overview

Daminion is a new software in the area of photo and media content management that includes not only the most important features but unique ones too, such as reading metadata information found in files (e.g. EXIF, IPTC, XMP ETC.). It also supports opening RAW images, video, music and PDF files and organizing them in catalogs and libraries.

Installation

This program’s installation process is just like any standard software’s installation. No need to configure any special settings. Daminion is 100% clean from malware/viruses/spyware and doesn’t contain any additional software (like toolbars).

The supported operating systems are Windows 2000, XP, 2003/2008 Server, Vista and 7. A requirement is to have .NET Framework 2.0 (or newer) installed, but even if you don’t have it Daminion will offer to download it automatically.

Interface

It has a solid interface with all of its functions ordered in panes and boxes. On the left is the Catalog Tags Panel, which you can use to browse your photo collections by several categories: Rating, Color Label, Camera Model, Camera Lens, Creation Datetime, People, Place, Event, Keywords and more. On the right side you can see the properties panel; it’s where information and details about the currently selected file is shown. In the center of the window you can see in thumbnail view the available photos in your collection and add them in the tray located in the bottom of the program if you want to separate media assets from the other files in the catalog.

Pros

For starters, Daminion has a long list of supported file formats:  JPEG, TIFF, PSD, GIF, PNG, PCX, JPEG 2000, MPO, BMP, ICO, TGA, PXM, HD Photo, DCX, DNG, CR2, NEF, NRW, MRW, ORF, PEF, CS1, IIQ, ARW, RAW, RAF MOS, MEF, 3FR, FFF, CRW, DCR, SRF, X3F, KDC, K25, SR2, RW2, BAY, BMPQ, CAM, DC2, WMF, EMF, CUR, ANI, MP3, OGG, WAV, APE, WMA, ADTS AAC, AMR, AIFF, FLAC, MusePack, MPEG, WavPack, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF, INDD, AI, PS, EPS, DWG, DXF, MOV, Windows Media, AVI, DIVX, 3GP, FLV, MPEG 1-2, MPEG 4, MKV, BDAV, DVR-MS and WTV.

As you can see, apart from images you can also open camera RAW formats, audio files, video files, documents, vector images and CAD files. The program can also read and edit tags in EXIF, XMP and IPTC metadata, allowing you to organize your files in any way you want. Image metadata, in contrast to other programs (Picasa, for example) is saved into the files and not in an external database, which means that the information will be the same regardless of where you open the photos.

You can separate your photos by creating different catalogs, which can then be opened in multiple tabs. This is a great feature that resembles a web browser’s functionality.

Cons

There is no built-in image editor; the only thing you can do is rotate the image. You do have the ability to open the image with an external editor, but nothing more than that.

Alternatives

Picasa (free) is a software very similar to Daminion, although it has more features and is more complete. For Mac, iPhone and iPad users only, iPhoto (paid) is another substitute by Apple that helps you manage your photos in a quick and convenient way.

Conclusion

Daminion is a very good product, and perhaps with a few more improvements and additions in its functionality it would be a top-choice media content management software.