Rapid Photo Downloader 0.4.0 Released, 12.5x Times Faster Than Shotwell

Rapid Photo Downloader is an application for downloading photos from digital cameras, memory cards and portable storage devices.

Features:

• configurable file/folder names
• download photos and videos from multiple devices in the same time
• backup photos/videos as they are downloaded
• very hight speed download
• supported RAW image formats: ARW, CR2, CRW, DCR, DNG, MEF, MOS, MRW, NEF, ORF, PEF, RAF, RAW, RW2, SR2, and SRW
• supported video formats: 3GP, AVI, M2T, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG, MOD, and TOD

Rapid Photo Downloader 0.4.0 was released a few days ago, getting a new, cleaner user interface. The new version is also a lot faster, making use of multi-core systems to download and backup photos and videos. Damon Lynch, the Rapid Photo Downloader developer says the Rapid Photo Downloader is about 12.5x faster than Shotwell and 2.5 times faster than F-Spot.

Whether you download thousands of photos every week, or your needs are more modest, Rapid Photo Downloader can make your photographic workflow more reliable and efficient. It is an essential tool for the discerning photographer.

- Damon Lynch

Install Rapid Photo Downloader 0.4.0 in Ubuntu

To add the Rapid Photo Downloader PPA and install the latest 0.4.0 in Ubuntu 11.10, 11.04, 10.10 or 10.04, use the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dlynch3/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rapid-photo-downloader

Download Rapid Photo Downloader for other Linux distributions.

Thanks to Damon Lynch for the tip and all the info!

Install F-Spot 0.7.0 In Ubuntu (Photo Manager)

Unless you don't like Mono, you'll probably agree that F-Spot is a good Linux photo manager / organizer. At least that's what 16% of those who voted in our best Linux photo manager poll think.

F-Spot 0.7.0 comes with a completely rewritten import feature to make it less crash-prone. Besides this, the latest F-Spot also comes with duplicate detection that actually works, fixed Facebook support, uses a lot less memory and reparenting and detaching of versions - a feature that allows you to combine multiple similar photos (e.g. bursts of photos) and many more. A complete changelog can be found here.

But these are not the only changes between the latest F-Spot 0.7.0 and the version in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (0.6.1.5). Version 0.6.2 which was released back in May introduced lots of bug fixes which are not available in Ubuntu 10.04, so if you use F-Spot, I advise you to upgrade to the latest 0.7.0.

To install F-Spot 0.7.0 (Ubuntu 10.04 only!), simply use the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:f-spot/f-spot-ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install f-spot

Download And Rename Photos/Videos From Digital Cameras Using Rapid Photo Downloader [Version 0.2.0 Released]

Rapid Photo Downloader is an application for downloading photos from digital cameras, memory cards and portable storage devices. It can download from multiple devices in the same time so for example if your camera has two card slots, Rapid Photo Downloader can transfer the photos from both of them in the same time.

Other features include: rename camera generated file names using EXIF metadata, automatically create download folders and even backup the photos and videos as they are downloaded.

Rapid Photo Downloader 0.2.0 which was just released finally enables you to the download videos. This new version also brings thumbnails for Nikon RAW files, and other manufacturers whose RAW files include multiple thumbnails (requires pyexiv2 >= 0.2.0).

To install Rapid Photo Downloader in Ubuntu, simply use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dlynch3/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rapid-photo-downloader

The PPA is available HERE in case you want to manually download the .deb files. For other Linux distributions, see the DOWNLOAD page.

Download Digikam 1.0 Final .deb For Ubuntu Karmic Koala

DigiKam 1.0 was recently released and it features lot of new features and improvements (see the full list, here).

digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application for Linux, Windows, and Mac-OSX.

DigiKam 1.0 final is currently only available in source files or pre-compiled with KDE-Windows installer, but there are some .deb files available for Ubuntu Karmic you can install if you can't wait to take the new DigiKam 1.0 final for a spin (that's right, the final DigiKam 1.0 isn't even available yet in the Kubuntu Beta PPA):

-i386:

• digikam_1.0.0-karmic~ppa1_i386.deb (12.5 MiB)
• showfoto_1.0.0-karmic~ppa1_i386.deb (532.4 KiB)

-amd64:

• digikam_1.0.0-karmic~ppa1_amd64.deb (12.5 MiB)

• showfoto_1.0.0-karmic~ppa1_amd64.deb (531.8 KiB)

Shotwell: New Open Source Photo Organizer for Gnome [Linux]

Shotwell is a relatively new open source photo organizer designed for the GNOME desktop environment. It's purpose is to allow you to easily organize your digital camera photos (basic editing included).

Shotwell features:

• import photos from any digital camera supported by gPhoto
• automatically organize events containing photos taken at the same time
• non-destructive editing allows altering photos without ruining originals or using disk space for each copy
• one-click auto-enhancement
• rotate, mirror, and crop photos
• reduce red-eye and adjust the exposure, saturation, tint, and temperature of your photos
• export photos as they are or by specifying dimensions and JPEG quality to reduce size
• edit any photo, even if it's not imported to the Shotwell library

Download Shotwell:

You can use the Shotwell Launchpad PPA repository, or download the deb files:

-Ubuntu Karmic

32bit:

• shotwell_0.3.0-1~karmic1_i386.deb (412.9 KiB)
• libgee2-dbg_0.5.0-1~kkvala1_i386.deb (226.3 KiB)

64bit:

• shotwell_0.3.0-1~karmic1_amd64.deb (448.4 KiB)
• libgee2-dbg_0.5.0-1~kkvala1_amd64.deb (240.4 KiB)

- Ubuntu Jaunty

32bit:

• shotwell_0.3.0-1~jaunty1_i386.deb (416.6 KiB)
• libgee2_0.5.0-1~jjvala1_i386.deb (90.0 KiB)

64bit:

• shotwell_0.3.0-1~jaunty1_amd64.deb (452.5 KiB)
• libgee2_0.5.0-1~jjvala1_amd64.deb (103.9 KiB)

Other Linux distributions: download the source files

Adobe Lightroom 3 Available for Beta Testing For Free

Adobe lets you download and use the recently released Adobe Lightroom 3 public beta, for FREE! There is however a catch. You can download the beta and use it until the product expires. The current Lightroom 3 public beta will expire on April 30, 2010.

Adobe Lightroom 3 is a digital darkroom and efficient assistant designed for serious amateur and prefessional photographers. With Lightroom, you can organize, enhance, and showcase your images all from one fast and nimble application that’s available on Macintosh and Windows platforms.

For more details on the new functionality in the Lightroom 3 beta you can watch three short videos about what's new.

New enhanced features:

- watermarking tool that helps you customize and protect your images with ease
- new performance architecture, building for the future of growing image libraries
- portable sharable slideshows with audio-designed, in order to save and export your slideshows as videos and include audio
- film grain simulation tool for enhancing your images to look as gritty as you want
- new import handling designed to make importing streamlined and easy
- more flexible online publishing options so you can post your images online to certain online photo sharing sites directly from inside Lightroom 3 beta (may require third-party plug-ins)


Download Adobe Lightroom 3 Public Beta

For a free Adobe Lightroom alternative (multi-platform), see: RAW Therapee.

[via DownloadSquad]

RAW Converter and Digital Photo Processing Software: Raw Therapee [Free, Multi-Platform]

Raw Therapee is a free, multi-platform alternative to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (RAW converter and digital photo processing software).

Key Features:

• Selectable high performance demosaicing algorithms (EAHD and HPHD and VNG-4)
• Using DCRaw 8.82/1.398 for decoding RAW images
• Image post processing in 16 bit / channel mode
• ICC based color management
• File browsing with thumbnails
  
• Localization supported (utf8 language file): already included languages are: czech, deutsch, english, espanol, italian, latvian, magyar, nederlands, polish, russian, slovak, swedish

Output options:

• Supported file formats:
  • JPEG (8 bit), PNG (8 or 16 bit), TIFF (8 or 16 bit)
• Image ouput size could be set
• EXIF data is preserved in JPEG output (except crw files)
• Output directory and automatic file naming highly customizable

And many more.

Download RAW Therapee (Windows, Linux: both 32 and 64 bit)

How to install RAW Therapee in Linux:

After downloading it, open a terminal and run the following command:

sudo mdir /opt
cd /directory_where_you_downloaded_raw_therapee
sudo tar -xvzf rawtherapee241.tgz /opt

Replace the bold text above with the appropriate value.

Now you can start RAW Therapee using the rstart file in /opt/RawTherapee241

Alternatively, you can create a shortcut to access this file, on your desktop or on a panel.

If you get an error, this might solve it:

sudo chown -R YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_USERNAME /opt/RawTherapee241

Replace YOUR_USERNAME with your username.