Image management software, what's the best?

Is there a consensus? What's everyone using these days?

I have now realized I have over 10,000 images strewn across 6 hard drives. They are in folders by destiantion, sort of. Dive photos here and there, maybe a wedding on this drive, product catalogue over on that drive. I'm thinking about getting organized. Right after I re-arrange my sock drawer.

hehe

iView Media Pro is a popular one. 21 day free trial at iView

But, i think you will find you are going to get as many products as responses to your question

I'll second Mike's suggestion of iView MediaPro, even though it is now owned by the BORG.

I now use Aperture for image cataloging and management, but still use iView MediaPro for cataloging for video clips and .pdf documents.

I'm still in love with ACDSee ... which I was once told was just a browser and not a manager. But it has evolved into a manager and a pretty damn good one.

I tried iView a few times, just wasn't pretty enough for me and was slow. I liked Fotostation but too expensive.

There are some really good free / cheap ones around that get the job done and some that match up to the best. Mike was right expect many answers.

I'll be the third with Mike's suggestion but I recommended and old version of it, the 2.x.

I just tried the 3.1 version and I didn't like it, the 2.x is much better to my taste but I didn't checked it too much, I didn't love few things there so I didn't continue.

I am sure there are great image management programs out there, and everyone has their own personal favorites for various reasons, but after dropping hundreds and hundreds of dollars into acquiring Adobe Photoshop (CS2, that is), why not just use the Bridge, even if it does have a few quirks. Save the money for a teleconverter or the bar!

Even though the interface of iView Media Pro is nice, there are a few things I didnt like about it back when I was looking into software. First, I thought it was slow once you had 15000+ images in the database. Second, I was annoyed by the fact that they dont include all EXIF info.

I eventually settled on Extensis Portfolio which has everything im looking for in a management program. The only negative thing is that it's got a nasty learning curve. It's quite difficult to get into as you basically need to design your own workflow and figure out what you want out of your images. That good part is that you can design your own workflow and make it do what you want with your images

My workflow (simplified) is as follows:

• Read images using Downloader Pro (it can even distinguish between cameras and sort them out differently)
  
• Drag images into Portfolio (template keywords assigned)
  
• Keyword images
  

Look at some of the videos that you can find on the Extensis site. Reading your requirements it looks like it could fit.

Cor

I use iMatch. It's does everything I need it to do. Even some basis batch processing. My database currently holds 24000 images without any (performance) problem. I love new new in size scalable thumbnails.