Yes, it does exist and no, it doesn’t work very well.
Some time ago (around OS 10.1 if memory serves me right) ExpressDigital released Photoreflect Publisher for OS X. I got really excited at first. I had begun buying PC’s at the lab some time before this. Kodak killed KPIS and rolled out this pig called DP2 in like 1999 or 2000 so the lab had been on PC’s for a few years. I had a PC running Sports & Event 7.2 and 8.0 (or 8.2 I don’t remember all of the timing) but I was certain that this move from Express meant that the applications were coming to the Mac. No more PC’s for me.
I downloaded as soon as I found out about it. Boy, what a letdown. I installed it, left it running without touching it for an hour. Crashed. I restarted the application, created a catalog. Crashed. I restarted the application, imported images to a catalog. Crashed. Got my images added, started an upload. Crashed. Crashed. Crashed. Crashed. Crashed.
I did give up on that catalog. It was a test catalog so I decided to come back to it another day. In the meantime I had gotten in several Photoreflect orders. I thought I would open up Mac Publisher just to see how it handled orders compared to Publisher 1 or 2 on the PC. <insert cricket sound effect here>. What’s this? It doesn’t allow me to send orders to the lab? WOW! I never went back to Mac Publisher again. It was a total load and as it hadn’t been updated in some time I knew an update wasn’t coming. It was easier for me to just continue down the PC path with S&E.
Now I know that there are a number of Mac “enthusiasts” that say if it isn’t for the Mac it isn’t for me. I understand that. At one time I felt that way myself. I also understood that at the time I wanted to do on site sporting event work. There wasn’t anything (and to me there still isn’t) that would do a similar job to Express software for the Mac. As buggy as 8.0 and 8.2 were it was still a better option for me than TEPS or some hacked together, rigged solution for the Mac. For your business, that is a decision that you have to make. Do you make your computer fit your workflow or do you make your workflow fit your computer. I chose the former.
Which way will you go? With Virtual PC for PowerPC you can use Darkroom Web Edition on your Mac. It is slow at best but it does work. If you have an Intel based Mac you can dual boot with the free Apple Boot Camp. You could also get a PC substantial enough to run not only Web Edition but also Core or Professional for $400 or less. A used PC of at least 700 Mhz will run either well enough and are readily available. Regardless of all that you may have read or heard on the street Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional are both very solid operating systems. You do need to run anti virus and firewall software or you will be full of crap fast, but other than that 2000 or XP are no more prone to crash than my OS X 10.4 machines are. In fact, I haven’t had a computer related crash on either in a long, long time. I haven’t had a virus, trojan, spyware or any other ware on any one of my systems in years. Work smarter or work harder?
Donovan over at Exposure Manager sure has this one right on his checklist. ExpressDigital does not support the Mac. Period.
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[...] Then I see this press release from ExpressDigital. A Photoreflect plugin for Apple Aperture. To me, this is a huge deal. FINALLY something for the Mac side of the aisle. Yeah, I know that Mac Publisher has been available for a long time. I’ve seen it. This could be very different. The editing power of Aperture and the add-on support for Photoreflect could be the next big thing. I don’t own Aperture (yet) but I have used it a time or two and seen it any number of times being used by professional photographers as well as in the Apple Store at the Kenwood Towne Center. I have liked what I have seen of it and I think it will continue to improve as time goes by. [...]