GraphicConverter 8

GraphicConverter 8 has layers and fast image browsing
GraphicConverter 8 has layers and fast image browsing

You may recall that I was a longtime user and fan of GraphicConverter, but gave up on it when v7 was a paid upgrade. I haven’t even launched GC in years. Well, v8 just came out (it’s still a paid upgrade for me, but not for folks who upgraded to 7) and it addresses one of my major gripes with v7 — it supports layers. It doesn’t address other concerns (it’s torpid and bloated — over 300MB!) but it does a fantastic job of displaying directories full of RAW images and allowing them to be rated quickly (even if, strangely, ratings made in the document window can’t be saved to NEFs, but those made in the browser window can). Despite importing RAW images and providing layer support, it doesn’t allow you to directly adjust RAW import settings (the way Acorn and all serious photo editors do), provide a non-destructive RAW workflow (the way, or attempt to remove lens distortions (iPhoto, Aperture, Lightroom, and many other photography-oriented image editors do all of these things).

So, it’s awesome that it supports layers, but image adjustments are incredibly slow (and don’t appear to work at all, but I assume that’s a bug), and the lack of (non-destructive) image adjustments mean that GC remains a pretty useless program for the time being.

So, for now, my photo-management software of choice remains Pathfinder.