Win a Samsung 22-inch LCD monitor from Joystiq!

Blazing fast image viewing with Photon 1.0.2

Photon just loaded 839 JPEG image previews for me in under 2 seconds. That's expletive worthy speed. And when it loads the full image, it's just as fast, even with RAW format images. And it loads every pixel of a RAW image. If you set the preview mode to fit-to-screen, clicking the image gives you a loupe-style zoom to full resolution. It reads photos–from folders or directly from cameras/memory cards–with a feature they call "Instant Import". I plugged in a camera and by the time I had looked back at the screen, it had recorded all of the images on the card.

Photon serves one purpose, but serves it well. It helps you do a rough cut of large batches of images before heading into Lightroom or Aperture for more advanced procedures. It lacks any form of image flagging, has limited viewing of metadata fields (the columns in the HUD aren't individually expandable or adjustable) and no search feature of any kind. It basically provides a very fast, very streamlined interface for creating collections ("stacks") of images and–once you've bought the full version–exporting them with options to convert the format to jpg, png, psd and more. It does provide histograms, which is handy for deciding on which RAW images you're planning to keep.

A demo of Photon is available for download, and costs $49 to purchase. That's shown as a markdown from $69, but I'm unsure if that's a limited-time offer.

Related Headlines

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

TUAW Features

back-to-school
Mac 101 ask-tuaw
Mac News
WWDC (251)
.Mac (66)
Accessories (654)
Airport (75)
Analysis / Opinion (1430)
Apple (1701)
Apple Corporate (583)
Apple Financial (200)
Apple History (53)
Apple Professional (54)
Apple TV (164)
Audio (452)
Bad Apple (132)
Beta Beat (155)
Blogging (87)
Bluetooth (20)
Bugs/Recalls (57)
Cult of Mac (879)
Deals (226)
Desktops (116)
Developer (282)
Education (112)
eMac (10)
Enterprise (148)
Features (415)
Freeware (401)
Gaming (403)
Graphic Design (40)
Hardware (1313)
Holidays (37)
Humor (591)
iBook (66)
iLife (240)
iMac (185)
Internet (341)
Internet Tools (1347)
iTS (985)
iTunes (825)
iWork (23)
Leopard (376)
Mac mini (112)
Mac Pro (54)
MacBook (207)
MacBook Air (83)
Macbook Pro (226)
MobileMe (47)
Multimedia (461)
Odds and ends (1498)
Open Source (283)
OS (943)
Peripherals (214)
Podcasting (183)
Podcasts (95)
Portables (198)
PowerBook (136)
PowerMac G5 (51)
Retail (615)
Retro Mac (50)
Rig of the Week (42)
Rumors (648)
Software (4483)
Software Update (429)
Steve Jobs (255)
Stocking Stuffers (50)
Surveys and Polls (98)
Switchers (115)
The Woz (35)
TUAW Business (257)
Universal Binary (281)
UNIX / BSD (61)
Video (909)
Weekend Review (84)
WIN Business (47)
Wireless (89)
Xserve (39)
iPhone/iPod News
iPhone (1814)
iPod Family (2133)
App Store (170)
SDK (30)
Mac Events
One More Thing (28)
Liveblog (2)
Other Events (228)
Macworld (489)
Mac Learning
AppleScript (4)
Ask TUAW (108)
Blogs (85)
Books (26)
Books and Blogs (62)
Cool tools (453)
Hacks (473)
How-tos (491)
Interviews (44)
Mods (191)
Productivity (592)
Reviews (114)
Security (167)
Terminal Tips (71)
Tips and tricks (577)
Troubleshooting (175)
TUAW Features
iPhone 101 (36)
TUAW Labs (4)
Blast From the Past (19)
TUAW Tips (151)
Flickr Find (39)
Found Footage (90)
Mac 101 (114)
TUAW Interview (31)
Widget Watch (198)
The Daily Best (1)
TUAW Faceoff (7)

RESOURCES

RSS NEWSFEEDS

Powered by Blogsmith

Sponsored Links

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) bloggers (30 days)

#BloggerPostsCmts
1Cory Bohon521
2Robert Palmer5037
3Steven Sande4913
4Dave Caolo330
5Mike Schramm280
6Erica Sadun251
7Michael Rose1921
8Giles Turnbull170
9Mat Lu148
10Christina Warren1326
11Brett Terpstra110
12TUAW Blogger70
13Victor Agreda, Jr.613
14Lisa Hoover32
15Joshua Ellis20
16Jason Clarke10

Featured Galleries

DNC Macs
Macworld 2008 Keynote
Macworld 2008 Build-up
Apple Vanity Plates
DiscPainter
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
Macworld Expo 2007 show floor
Apple Texas Hold 'Em
The Macworld Faithful in Line

 

    Most Commented On (7 days)

    Recent Comments

    More Apple Analysis

    More from AOL Money and Finance

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: