Re: Importing photos from read-only device

[Lorenzo Milesi <lorenzo milesi yetopen it>]

Il giorno dom, 16/03/2008 alle 17.33 +0100, Sergio De Zordo ha scritto:

> 1. Can I import in F-Spot recursively all the pictures contained in a  
> read-only external drive, not having to copy them on the local drive?

Yes, sure. Just uncheck "Copy pictures to photo folder" and f-spot will
keep the files where they are.
To avoid waste of time, uncheck the option above BEFORE selecting the
folder you want to import.
And since they are on a RO filesystem, uncheck also the "write metadata"
option in F-Spot preferences, so that the program won't even try to
update exif infos (in case you make modifications).

> 2. If Answer (1) is 'yes', then: Is there any chance to retain the  
> picture tags from iPhoto? My idea is the following: Use some plug-in  
> or whatever to make iPhoto write EXIF keywords into the the files;  
> Then import them in F-Spot hoping it will recognize such EXIF tags.

I never used iphoto but I guess it will write standard xmp metadata to
file. if so, f-spot will automatically impot and attach those tags to
your pictures.

> Regarding question (1), I tried the 'Import' function, but every time  
> I select my external drive from the drop-down menu, F-Spot just stops  
> responding and I have to kill it.

F-Spot takes some times and resources at import time, and doesn't
properly display progress. When you select a folder it scans thru it and
all subdirs finding pictures to import. This can take very long and lock
the UI.
I'd suggest you to select one or two directories per import session. Try
importing a maximum of 1000 pictures per time, then 2000 and so on until
you see f-spot can handle the job in a reasonable amount of time.

ciao, and welcome!
maxxer
-- 
Lorenzo Milesi - lorenzo milesi yetopen it

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