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Picasa-Goggle's New Baby?

PerezDesignGroupPerezDesignGroup Registered Users Posts: 395 Major grins
edited July 19, 2004 in Technique
If you've searched on Google recently you've probably noticed this link to Picasa on their Homepage. A strange occurence indeed for Google since they rarely plug on their homepage.

Anyways...Has anyone tried out the Picasa software yet? I'll be installing at home later this evening to test it out. Looks pretty good. Oh and it's free :thumb but not Mac compatible :cry
Canon Digital Rebel | Canon EOS 35mm | Yashica Electro GSN | Fed5B | Holga 35 MF

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    DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited July 19, 2004
    looks interesting - stunning similarities to iPhoto??? I was sorely disappointed with the free version of iPhoto. Will be curious to hear your impressions of this new software.
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]

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    BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited July 19, 2004
    It's very interesting that Google bought them. It's packaged Windows software, not what Google is known for, that sold for $29.95 before Google bought the company. It's modeled after iPhoto on the Mac, which is very popular among the Mac faithful.

    Must be a bummer for Adobe and the guys who make Paint Shop Pro. They were selling products for $49.95, called Adobe Photo Album and Jasc Photo Album, that were competitors to Picassa. Adobe was in full-court press mode with radio ads, bundle deals with scanners, etc.

    Since iPhoto was the only really popular photo organizer before Google did this, we provide an easy way to share photos from iPhoto albums. If Google is really committed to this, maybe we should do the same for Picasa. Until recently, it was thought that Picasa was in financial trouble.
    My Smug Mug
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    DoctorItDoctorIt Administrators Posts: 11,951 moderator
    edited July 19, 2004
    well, its free, so i tried it. I've always been a DIY'er and for that reason, never really needed iphoto. And for the same reason that I didn't like the free/cheap version of iPhoto, I didn't like this Picasa. No RAW support. So photoshop's image browser is still better for me. Slideshows and mp3 "soundtracks" are all just fancy schmancy stuff I don't need.
    Erik
    moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]

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    dkappdkapp Registered Users Posts: 985 Major grins
    edited July 19, 2004
    DoctorIt wrote:
    well, its free, so i tried it. I've always been a DIY'er and for that reason, never really needed iphoto. And for the same reason that I didn't like the free/cheap version of iPhoto, I didn't like this Picasa. No RAW support. So photoshop's image browser is still better for me. Slideshows and mp3 "soundtracks" are all just fancy schmancy stuff I don't need.

    I used to use iPhoto 100% of the time for my photo management. It wasn't until recently that I started shooting RAW with my Nikon and needed something different. I believe there is a huge market for this product and that most users like the added extras.

    There are very few people with digital cameras that shoot in the RAW format. Those same people have mostly outgrown the basic photo management, correction programs and have moved on to PS CS and similar products. I for one will not use the program, but it is something the rest of my family would love to use.

    I would like to hear some feedback from other users to the actual usability of the software. I'm going to email the link to the rest of my family & friends that would love a free, basic photo program. I'll report back if they have anything to say, good or bad.

    Thanks for the link!

    Dave
    http://analog.lifekapptured.com (photoblog)
    http://www.lifekapptured.com (gallery)
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    PerezDesignGroupPerezDesignGroup Registered Users Posts: 395 Major grins
    edited July 19, 2004
    I really enjoyed this product. Here's a couple of things I noticed. By the way I don't shoot in RAW and I don't really think this software is geared in that direction.
    • Overall, the software is very fast, responsive and clean. It has a few animations that were pleasing to the eye. I haven't used the slideshow feature and I don't anticipate ever using it really. Not my cup of tea.
    • Still trying to find a pic to use the red eye on.
    • Scrolling is fun. It's speed sensitive and smooth as it rolls down the page. You have to wait until the thumbs get cached though.
    • The Enhance photo feature works a lot like PS's Auto-levels/auto-contrast and actually looked pretty good. I don't need to open Photoshop anymore for simple adjustments. You can't control the amount of adjustment though. It's just one button with one function.
    • The crop feature rocks. I like this the most.
    • Automatically scans your disk and organizes your pics by year and name. You can control where it does/doesn't scan and which folders to monitor for changes.
    • So far I like it and I'm keeping it. And for only being 3.6mb in size, I'm impressed.
    There's more but I gotta play with it some more.
    Canon Digital Rebel | Canon EOS 35mm | Yashica Electro GSN | Fed5B | Holga 35 MF

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    DJ-S1DJ-S1 Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
    edited July 19, 2004
    I'm in the process of scanning a bunch of old photos for a family function next month. Would this program be good to use for projecting a looping slideshow? I was going to use Powerpoint, but this may be easier.
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    PerezDesignGroupPerezDesignGroup Registered Users Posts: 395 Major grins
    edited July 19, 2004
    DJ-S1 wrote:
    I'm in the process of scanning a bunch of old photos for a family function next month. Would this program be good to use for projecting a looping slideshow? I was going to use Powerpoint, but this may be easier.
    Yes. Just select the folder you want to play and click Slideshow.
    To make it loop, go to Tools>Options>Slideshow and select Loop.
    Canon Digital Rebel | Canon EOS 35mm | Yashica Electro GSN | Fed5B | Holga 35 MF

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