iPhoto is cr*p. Can I delete it?

[Tinpusher]

It is with some remorse that I must admit that if there's one thing that my PC does better than my G4, it's handle my Fujifilm Finepix S5500.

Importing using the Fuji supplied software- forget it. So I tried iPhoto, which is... WORSE!!!

What I want to be able to do is plug the camera in, press a few buttons and have all the images transferred to the hard disk, sorted into folders retaining the original file name from the camera (DSCF.....). One folder per day.

I do not want to go through the rigmorole of navigating to 2005, then 12, then 11 to find my photos. Neither do I want to have to think of a name for the "album". Not unless the "album" will automatically create itself and name itself for the day that the photo was taken. Like the PC version of Fuji's software does for me.

I also don't like the endless copies that iPhoto stores for me. One thumbnail and one original, if I rotate the image. No thank you!

It seems the only way I can use my Fuji camera with my mac, the way I want it to work is to do the transfer process manually. In which case I want to delete iPhoto.

Can I do this? Is there anything I have to watch for when I'm deleting this infernal waste of HD space?

[Fluk3]

If you want to use photos in your imovie or idvd programs then dont delete it.

[Lt Major Burns]

first of all, you seem to be missing the point of iphoto - why are you going into the folder tree system? the point of iphoto is to do what itunes did for music, to photos. i cannot remember the last time i looked in folders for photos or music. hard drive space now is big enough for a photo to take up an insignificant amount of space, so the multiple files iphoto creates to run efficiently are therefore insignificant. don't worry about this, seriously, it's not 1993. MacOSX will keep your hard drive clean.

if you need a reel of photos in a folder, highlight the ones you want in iphoto, and drag and drop them to the desktop, or a folder. once you have finished with them, delete the duplicates.

each time you plug your camera in, a new 'reel' is created in the iphoto library, you can name these how you want. to split them up, go to view, and tick film rolls. if you don't name your reel, it will revert to xx/xx/xxxx, Roll xxx. (the date and roll number)

iPhoto is the best thing to happen to photography since the digital camera - it's completely solved the ball-ache i first had to contend with for years after getting my first digital. since utilising iphoto a year ago i have taken 6,000 photos. in the three years before that, i took 1400. it's the ease it offers that has done that.

if you still aren't convinced, there is always image capture, in the applications folder, which will simply interact with your camera, and dump the photos in a folder of your choice. but you will be losing out on a piece of software people switch to mac for in the first place.

[mosx86]

Originally Posted by Tinpusher

It is with some remorse that I must admit that if there's one thing that my PC does better than my G4, it's handle my Fujifilm Finepix S5500.

Importing using the Fuji supplied software- forget it. So I tried iPhoto, which is... WORSE!!!

What I want to be able to do is plug the camera in, press a few buttons and have all the images transferred to the hard disk, sorted into folders retaining the original file name from the camera (DSCF.....). One folder per day.

I do not want to go through the rigmorole of navigating to 2005, then 12, then 11 to find my photos. Neither do I want to have to think of a name for the "album". Not unless the "album" will automatically create itself and name itself for the day that the photo was taken. Like the PC version of Fuji's software does for me.

I also don't like the endless copies that iPhoto stores for me. One thumbnail and one original, if I rotate the image. No thank you!

It seems the only way I can use my Fuji camera with my mac, the way I want it to work is to do the transfer process manually. In which case I want to delete iPhoto.

Can I do this? Is there anything I have to watch for when I'm deleting this infernal waste of HD space?

Personally, I love the way iPhoto works... but to each his own.

Why not just manually drag the files off the camera into your own directory structure? From what you're describing, it seems like you might gain only a few seconds having an application do it for you. I'm sure you could even write a fairly simple applescript to automate it.

Also have you used ImageCapture? It's in /Applications.

It also looks like Automator could possibly assist. Unfortunately, I don't have a camera to test it with.

[Tinpusher]

Hmmm. Maybe I should give it another chance.

But let's say I do give it another chance, and still decide it's a pants, what's the process for removing it and all of it's cretinous sub-folders?

[mosx86]

Originally Posted by Tinpusher

Hmmm. Maybe I should give it another chance.

But let's say I do give it another chance, and still decide it's a pants, what's the process for removing it and all of it's cretinous sub-folders?

I'd back up any photos you want to keep and then delete the following directories/files.

~/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library/
~/Library/Cache/iPhoto
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPhoto.plist
/Applications/iPhoto

That should get rid of most everything.

You can then use Image Capture's "general" preferences panel to tell the computer what to do when a camera is connected.

[Giaguara]

If after the second chance you won't like it still, just drag it to trash. And it's done.

[symphonix]

The folder structure issue is a non-issue for iPhoto users, since we really don't care how iPhoto stores the image, just so long as we can find it quickly. I use keywords, comments and smart-albums to easily find anything I want, and I never have to worry or care about where in the folder structure it actually is.