FastPictureViewer Professional has always been a part of the Christmas Giveaway here at Ghacks, and deservedly so. Back in 2008 when it was first released it was more of a fast but basic image viewer that was fully color managed. Today, the program is a full blown tool for professionals and enthusiasts that can “process files in batch (copy, move, rename, export, FTP upload, delete…), write IPTC metadata, write XMP rating, has histogram/EXIF gadgets, can tether digital cameras, play slideshows and supports its own RAW codecs in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.
The program uses a modular approach giving the user the option to enable or disable modules during installation. The program interface has not changed that much over the years which becomes apparent if you look at previous reviews of the program here on Ghacks. But that is not necessarily a disadvantage as it worked and works quite well for the tasks it can be used for.
FastPictureViewer Pro has three core audiences. Professional photographers, imaging professionals and photo enthusiasts. Photographers often have to quickly sift through a folder of photos that they have taken, and FastPictureViewer allows them to do just that. The application can be used to facilitate the first review pass that usually consists of culling or rating. The program uses software decoders provided by camera manufacturers to always stay on top when it comes to image format support.
Additional features worth noting are intelligent preloading of images in memory for faster loading times, full color management and profiled monitor support, as well as plug and play tethered shooting (connecting the camera via USB to a computer or screen to display them in full screen automatically), Adobe XMP rating and Microsoft photo rating support, color-managed Raw previews and metadata support.
Speed and performance are important to all users, but especially so for imaging professionals. The program supports modern technologies such as multi-processing and multiple-cpu cores, hardware accelerated display adapters and advanced memory management. It sets new limits as far as image quantities and sizes go. FastPictureViewer Professional supports very large images, the developers have for instance tested it with a 466 Megapixel images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The program can be used to go through hundreds of thousands of images without noticeable drop in performance.
The bookmark feature allows imaging professionals to save folder specific image bookmarks, for instance to mark interesting images or to save the current review location to continue going through the images at a later point in time.
FastPictureViewer Professional’s support for XMP can be put to use to quickly add rating tags to images. This way images could receive accepted, undecided and rejected ratings with a single key stroke.
What’s New in 2011
When you look at the modifications that Axel implemented in the last year, you will notice some high caliber additions. FastPictureviewer Professional now features a View Filter which can be used to restrict viewing to images of a specific rating or tag (e.g. only five-star photos or photos marked as undecided).
The program’s GPS Metadata support has been improved. A photos GPS location can now be displayed on screen, and users have options to launch Google Maps, Bing Maps, Flickr or Panoramio. Photos can be sorted by GPS timestamps and GPS data can be used in the program’s batch file processing module.
The new IPTC Metadata Editor plugin adds support to write IPTC fields within files or external XMP sidecars.
Raw format support for new camera modiles have been added, as well as support for Photoshop PSD files and CGI formats.
Useful Links
Here is a selection of links that new users and prospect buyers may find useful.
Verdict
I’m an enthusiast when it comes to photography. I recently bought a new Canon EOS DSLR and use FastPictureViewer to quickly go through the photos that I have taken. While I could do the same with other image viewers, they usually come with delays in opening new photos. I leave most of the features of the program to professionals though who will make good use of the features.
Continuous support by the program’s developer, Axel Rietschin, ensures that it stays cutting edge.
Giveaway
We have 20 FastPictureviewer Professional licenses to give away. Please leave a comment below to take part in the drawing. If you like, tell us a bit about why you’d like a license for the program.
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I’d like this program as I have thousands if not millions of images on my drive for my school work. And seeing as it’s the Porsche of image viewers, I’d like to use it for viewing my PSDs and AI as well, without always having to open Photoshop/Illustrator or the file’s respective program.
Please let me take part in the drawing. I have used codec pack from this company and now I want to win a big license.
Hey, I would really like to be a part of the drawing :) Great app
I would like to take part in the drawing!
Count me in!
Would love to own the pro version. The free version is fantastic, soooo fast because of the hardware acceleration.
I’d love a copy of this program, as I’ve been looking for a tool which is powerful, but not quite as (overly) complicated as Photoshop.
Hi,
I got a free license once, but it was on an old PC. I used it a lot to quicky browse through many snapshots.
I would definitely like a new license.
Thanks.
Thanks for the offer, I’d like to try this out.
Thank you for your great site, it’s very informative.
Hi, I have played with a trial license in the past and I liked this program. Please count me in! Thanks!
During the reorganizing of my laptop I have unstalled Picasa and are looking for an alternative for viewing pictures. And since I save all my fotos in (Olympus) RAW format, I need a _F_A_S_T program, so I would appreciate this opportunity!
Thanks to ghacks and FastPictureViewer!
Can it read image in archive(zip,rar,7z)?
I love this program because it is specialized for specific tasks , other programs offer too many options , and sometimes it is not desirable .
One of the best full screen viewers.
I’m big fan of fast picture viewer and their RAW codec. Use at the moment the free version, but would like a license for the pro version.
Cheers,
Stanislav
Today’s image viewers are complex and filled with many menus and options. This one is simple and yet powerful at the same time. That’s why I like it so much.
Need fast access to my hobby made photographs. This sounds like a handy tool for it. Thanks
The fact that this program can handle 466 Megapixel images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, so I can handle main 10MB desktop images.
Hopefully it will also handle slideshows.
Please count me in!!
I tried the demo and i love it!, but cant afford a license :(
I really appreciate if I could Get one?
Thanks
I’d love to have license! Like its namesake, FPV can load and browse through high resolution images in a split second. I have a FPV Pro license from your giveaway way back in 2009. But I installed it on my laptop and the pre-installed license is not transferable. I hope to get a license for my desktop which I upgraded a few months ago.
The free version is awesome…. fast processing because of the hardware acceleration.
Definitely would love to have a PRO version….
i would like to get this program because i never got a present for christmas..
(-: )-:
I have been using FPV free for well over two years.
I love it for no bullshit approach that we do not see in ACDSee and such – this is just a picture viewer, not a resource hog trying to substitute Photoshop…
Love it ;-)
Would love PRO version license – I shoot NEF ;-)
I want this software because i have habit of snapping photos regularly and with so many photos taken it become quie difficult to optimise and organise each of them,so this software would prove saviour to me.
Thanks for the giveaway.Please count me in.
…And this is a great program, I’m currently using its freeware version, but I’d love to have a genuine license…
I have nearly 50,000 photos that need taming!
I really liked the free version . Would be great if I get a license for the pro
Thanks for the review. Tried this on earlier versions and it appeared to be on par with Google’s Picassa or other viewers other out there. Maybe that was more operator understanding of the application than a issue/deficiency of the application. I like the batch processing, tagging and the ability to open the very large MP image. Opened one of those from NASA on my current program and it was painfully slow. Having a program that will open it would be very beneficial.
Please count me in on the draw and thanks again for the great review. I have Ghacks in my RSS feed and its one of the few that I continually keep reading. Good stuff. Keep it up :-).