The original workflow application for high-throughput photo editing and processing, Photo Mechanic was widely use by photojournalists and professional photographers years before the advent of Lightroom, Aperture, and the like. The most recent release, Photo Mechanic version 4.6, shipped in January 2009. As the company celebrates its sixth anniversary and surpasses 35,000 licenses sold, Photo Mechanic v4.6.1 has now made its debut for both Windows and Mac OS platforms, with a lengthy list of updates and bug fixes

Courtesy of Camera Bits, a full list of changes made in the new release is as follows. Updates specific to one or other operating system are listed separately at the end.

Both Windows and Mac OS:

• For RAW files there are now two separate crop rectangles, one for the rendered RAW and one for the RAW preview. Currently this only affects Mac users who can use ImageIO to render their RAW format. If the RAW preview is "representative" of the RAW data then the two crops will be kept in sync. But for NEF files saved from Capture NX that have a crop applied, the cropped embedded preview doesn't represent the RAW file's full image area and so the two crops are kept separate.

• Fixed an issue where Tagging, Color Class, and Rating would not "stick" depending on the file format and IPTC/XMP preferences settings.

• Fixed an issue where the Tag, Color Class, and Rating would "stick" when editing a photo in an external editor (such as Photoshop) when the user's Files Preferences for "Add tag, color class, and rating to IPTC/XMP" was set to "Never".

• When extracting JPEGs from RAW files that have GPS coordinates, fixed the formatting of the GPS "reference" tags for latitude (N, S), longitude (E, W), altitude (above/below sea level), and speed. Some sites such as Flickr and SmugMug weren't recognizing these reference tags the way they were being written.

• GPS Exif tags are now added to TIFF files and TIFF-based RAW files when adding GPS info to photos.

• Live Ingest tasks now maintain a private copy of the IPTC Stationery Pad so it will remain consistent throughout the live ingest process.

• Fixed setting of path for Live Ingest snapshots.

• Most upload templates now support dual concurrent transfers for increased performance. This feature can be disabled by a preference (e.g. when using very low bandwidth connections).

• Moved uploader destination interface to top of dialog for a better user experience.

• For HTTP uploaders, fixed MIME multipart syntax to conform with RFC1521.'

• Upload logs now expand variables in the upload path for FTP log entries.

• The shortcut key (Option on Mac, Shift on Windows) to skip the Upload dialog is now functional for all uploaders.'

• Stalled upload transfers can now be restarted.

• Added a preference to set the time delay before an upload is considered "stalled."

• Fixed issues where the destination folder path for FTP and SFTP uploads was not properly restored from snapshots or when using a dated folder in the connection setting.

• Added code to re-import FTP connection settings from version 4.5 or earlier preferences.

• IPTC Snapshots are now Exportable/Importable.

• Fixed Import Preferences issue when trying to import exported IPTC popup menu lists.

• Added Upload template for DFStudio LINK.

• Improved usefulness and robustness of Zenfolio uploader. New galleries can be created. Collections are not listed as Galleries. Private and Locked Galleries can now be destinations for uploading. Users can now create Galleries under specific Groups. User quotas are now checked for enough space before uploading.

• Improved uploaders for Flickr, SmugMug, and Gallery2 by adding abilities (when possible) to create new "galleries" and automatically select newly created "galleries", and to provide more info on communication errors.

• Files uploaded to Exposure Manager are uploaded to the proper location instead of the "root" of the user's account. Uploads now notify the server to initiate an upload job when the transfer queue is empty instead of notifying the server after each file.

• Fixed incorrect destination file reporting in the upload log files for several uploader templates.

• Fixed file extension sometimes changing from JPG back to the file's original RAW extension when retrying stalled upload items.

• Added ability to move image (logo) to edge when applying watermarks.

• Added option to "Always update XMP Label when changing Color Class" to the Files tab of the Preferences dialog.

• Optimized Upload Status Indicator refreshing. No longer updates more often than necessary to improve performance.

• Save As and FTP As using RAW file previews as a source now crops correctly based-upon the available JPEG preview.

• Save As dialog no longer has a long delay when starting the save operation.

• JPEG size estimates are now more accurate when applying crops on RAW preview source images.

• Loupe mode in the Contact Sheet window now reserves enough space for 100% image and thumbnails that are on the screen (to prevent redrawing issues). This may temporarily exceed the user's requested memory cache size during the viewing of the zoomed image.

• Fixed an issue when cropping or rotating a RAW+JPEG pair when the JPEG was hard-rotated and the RAW was soft-rotated.

• The user is now prompted if they try to upload with the "Save copy of transmitted photos" option checked but the folder no longer exists on disk.

• Temporary files used in the Upload process are deleted after they are successfully uploaded.

• Fixed constrained cropping issues when dragging the crop outside of the preview area.

• Send Photos via Email with RAW photos now uses the embedded JPEG dimensions properly.

• Send Photos via Email now evaluates variables in the To:, Cc: and Bcc: fields.

• Send Photos via Email to a custom size now allows scaling to arbitrary aspect ratios.

• The IPTC Info dialog now checks for changes when moving through photos (Prev/Next) and warns the user that there are unsaved changes.

• Applying the IPTC Stationery Pad no longer changes IPTC date in XMP, and the time zone data is no longer adjusted to be the computer's local time zone.

• Setting the time in IPTC Info dialog no longer adjusts time zone to be the computer's local time zone.

• Adjusting the IPTC time in the "Adjust Capture Dates and Times" dialog no longer adjusts the time zone to be the computer's local time zone.

• Adjust Capture Dates and Times now allows IPTC dates back to the year 1753, although file system dates do not go back beyond 1971.

• The Apply checkbox for the Country Code combo box is now set to on when the Country Code field is changed in the IPTC Stationery Pad.

• Invalid filename characters are now filtered out when creating Snapshot names.

• Restoring Snapshots in the Save As dialog now handles changes in the box size units correctly.

• Using the Save As context menu in Contact Sheets with no photos selected now works with RAW files.

• Added ISO criteria to Search panel.

• Fixed a crash problem that could occur when clicking on the Auto button in the Import GPS Coordinates dialog when no GPS logs had been loaded. The Auto button is now disabled until GPS logs have been loaded.

Windows only:

• Fixed an issue where using the Uploader dialog from the Preview window would cause the Preview window to disappear until the upload started, reappearing shortly thereafter.

• Fixed hang when quitting Photo Mechanic while upload progress windows were still open.

• Resized various dialogs to fit better on "Netbook" computers with limited screen height.

• IPTC Word Lists are now imported from older versions of Photo Mechanic.

• Favorites paths that are no longer available now appear as offline and do not automatically get removed from the Favorites list.

• Fixed a bug where QuickTime was required to be installed to view Photoshop PSD files even though Photo Mechanic was using its own code for rendering PSD files.

• You can pan your zoomed images while cropping by using the space bar in the Preview window.

• Fixed a resizing issue in Structured Keywords Find Results dialog.

• Fixed launching of built-in Help files

Mac OS only:

• Most image rendering operations such as Save As, Upload (e.g. FTP), Export, Send as Email, Print, etc are now consistent with settings for choosing RAW or JPEG when in RAW+JPEG mode, and when RAW for choosing to render RAW if possible or to always use the RAW preview. This is particularly important for Nikon NEF files that have been saved from Capture NX and have an updated preview.

• Fixed an issue where performing multiple sequential Ingests to the same destination folder would open the folder multiple times in different tabs.

• Fixed an issue where a contact sheet viewing a server that was unmounted would cause the server to automatically remount.

• Fixed "move" option in Copy Photos dialog when moving photos from one drive to another; the photos were not being deleted from the source drive.

• Fixed an issue where the right side of a two-up preview would sometimes not be as sharp as the left side when scaling to fit (depending on window layout and zoom ratio).

• Fixed a memory leak when adding Finder icons during Copy, Save As, or Ingest.

• Fixed issue with Spotlight searches sometimes crashing when Spotlight returned results with empty paths.

• Fixed a crash problem that could occur when a large number of files are selected in the Finder and are dragged onto the Photo Mechanic application icon in the Dock.

• Epson ERF RAW files from cameras that didn't include a JPEG preview now render on Mac OS X when supported.

• Flash cards mounted with the same name can now be opened in Photo Mechanic via the Finder. This is a workaround for a Mac OSX bug where aliases to volumes with the same name always resolved to the first volume of the group.