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.
Related Articles:
FastPictureViewer Professional Review And Giveaway [Ghacks Christmas Giveaway]Christmas Giveaway FastPictureViewer Professional
System Mechanic Professional Review
EASEUS Partition Master 5.0.1 Professional Review
Double Anti-Spy Professional Review And Giveaway
Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ using the icons below.
nice picture viewer love it
thanks for this giveaway
I would love to get a license, so can go quickly through all the photos I collected over all these years…
Would love to own the pro version.Count me in!
I definitely want to enter this give-away. Thanks !
Thanks for this opportunity – I would love to upgrade my free license to a full Pro license.
What I really, really appreciate is the full colour management support, ie. the ability to view an image in its actual colour-space.
(many image viewers that offer “colour management” can still only work in the sRGB colour-space, and merely convert non-sRGB images to sRGB before displaying them)
Many thanks again,
Simon.
PS. I also posted a request in the “Christmas Giveaway” announcement page, as this review had not yet been posted. Hope that’s not a problem.
(The early bird catches the worm!)
I have go alot of photos in my harddisk. This would be useful.
I’ve been using the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack for a very long time now and it always served me well. I would love to also try Alex’s other tool. Undoubtedly it’s a great tool too.
Count me in… seems a fascinating image viewer!!!
I’d like to be a part of the giveaway. Thanks!
I like its’ fast RAW processing and the ability to easily view EXIF info.
I have never tried this software. I would love to try this for my photo’s. Thanks for the giveaway.
I love this program & have used it for years. I use it every day. Please leave this under my tree this year. Thank you Ghacks & Merry Christmas
Hi
Thank you.
I am still using Fast Picture Viewer v 1.0 which I got thanks to a giveaway of yours about 2 years ago.
I would be delighted to win a license.
Kind regards
Hope i can take part in the drawing!
Count me in.
Thanks!
Please, count me in.Thanks
Looks like a very nice peace of software. Please count me in.
We have thousands of pictures taken on trips to China to work at a Panda preserve, and also to the Middle East to see Jerusalem, Mt. Sinai, Petra and the Pyramids. This viewer program would be a tremendous help in culling, organizing and viewing the photos as well as putting shows up on Flickr.
Thank you.
Super software! I use de free version.
I am currently using a freeware program for viewing the pics I made. But as you’re saying it suffers of some delay during the operation!
I’ve recently bought a Canon EOS DSLR as well… and with images so big in dimension I really should need a good sw to handle in the proper way this large amount of data!
Well … what should I say. Thank you for this interesting review and I hope to win! Cheers,
Lello.Siddi.
I have used the free version and would live a full version.
FastPictureViewer is for me one of the fastest 64-bit photo viewer. Program allows ultrafast RAW previewing.
I’ve tested the trial version and I like the performance and accurate color reproduction. One of the function, important for me, is color management (in preferences you can select the profile of monitor). This is especially important in photos processing.
FastPictureViewer Codec also allows to preview Nikon RAW’s directly in Windows Explorer in the 64-bit Windows 7. Nikon Codec supports only 32-bit Windows version.
Thanks for the giveaway.
i need a fast program to use to view my Nikon D5000 photos..
count me in :)
This is awesome software – please count me in the draw! I want it to show all my friends holiday photos quickly
Thanks a lot martin , ilike its info viewer and histrogram
I’m in! Love this tool as it’s damn fast on hundreds pictures.
I’m using the free version, amazing software.
Using photos is an integral part of my duties. We use biometric photographic data for ID and Facial Recognition. The number of images is enormous and growing each day. This may be an answer for us. I would love to have a license for this app. thanks for the opportunity.
This is a nice software indeed, Thanks for the giveaway.
Regards
Thanks, this is wonderful to be able to view various photos formats that windows explorer do not support., also to be able to edit photos metadata to have better organization.
http://twitter.com/#!/ha014/status/143696687909699585
Thank you Martin & Axel, I liked this & joining today.
Cutting edge speed browsing my end on 64bit.
Great program for cameras & awesome for quickly filtering/sorting pictures.
I really like free version this software FastStone Viewer but it profesional version is better. I have many pictures on my computer and I want to editing their. And I want to browse my Pictures in profesional viewer. Great contest. Please count me in. :)