The One, The Only Cheap Alternative To A Mac’s iPhoto

As sure as I’m a true blonde and taller than you, I’m sure you save your camera’s digital photos on your Mac. Where? iPhoto, right? No? If not iPhoto, where?

If you really care about digital photos, and can’t bear to use iPhoto, your choices range from a folder buried deep in your Mac’s Documents folder, or Apple’s Aperture, or Adobe’s Lightroom. Sure, there are a couple of other alternatives to managing a lot of photos on a Mac (or a PC), but give me a list that’s topped by a household name. And free. There’s only one.

iPhoto Phobia?

It’s possible that some Mac users do not use iPhoto, despite the price tag and feature set. It’s free. It’s stores a lot of photos. It works well. Well, for most of us.

Mac users who are serious about digital photos, workflow management, and the professional touches not found in iPhoto will gravitate upwards, toward Aperture or Lightroom. If iPhoto is just not the right place for your coveted Canon Digital Elph photos, then what’s the alternative? Take a moment. It’ll come to you. It’s easy.

A Kodak Moment

Kodak EasyShare. I know what you’re thinking. Kodak is still in business? I was surprised, too. Kodak’s EasyShare is an alternative, a free alternative to iPhoto. But EasyShare is not iPhoto.

EasyShare has a singular purpose. To help Kodak take some of your money and keep it. Sure, EasyShare organizes photos on your Mac (or PC). It comes with Tags, Ratings, and Search. Scan through all your photos with ease.

Like iPhoto, EasyShare lets you edit and retouch and crop digital photos, then turn into share mode and share them as a thank you card or an invitation or an album page or a holiday card or create a video of photos to upload to YouTube, or send photos to Facebook (but not Flickr—I wonder why?).

The Money Trail

More obvious than iPhoto, Kodak wants you to spend money so you’re never more than a click away from the opportunity to do that. Installation and start up gets you to a pop up assistant an the opportunity to create a Kodak Gallery account online.

Once online you’re treated to more opportunities to utilize Kodak services for printing, accessories, printer ink (the new Kodak line of printers focus on lower cost of printing).

EasyShare installation will give you an option to import photos from iPhoto. This is merely evidence of reality. Kodak EasyShare for Windows PC users is at version 8.x. For Mac users, it’s verions 6.x. We’re way behind on the feature list.

Easy Features

EasyShare the application is somewhat different than iPhoto. The MyCollection tab at the top of EasyShare displays all your photos. A slider lets you enlarge or minimize for easier viewing and scanning.

The left column is where you create albums. Below that are links to the Kodak Gallery online. Other tabs at the top show Kodak’s focus. Print at Home brings up a print window with layout and paper type options. The Email tab is self explanatory. Select a photo, email it.

The EasyShare Center tab is where you go to order prints online, as low as 10-cents each, so it compares favorably with iPhoto options, as well as the neighborhood discount store which prints from digital photos.

Raison d’être

Despite the simple interface and a few similar features, Kodak EasyShare has a single reason for being. To keep Kodak front of mind should you want to print your digital photos. The Windows version of EasyShare does more. iPhoto does more. So, why bother with Kodak EasyShare?

I’ll give Kodak credit for staying in the game, but that’s all. The Kodak ecosystem is just not where it’s at these days. It’s a cheap alternative to iPhoto, but not a better alternative.