If you’ve ever had to cull and organize a large number of digital images, then you understand the importance of software that speeds up your workflow.  Every second counts when it comes to navigating through thousands of images.

Of the available options on the market, Photo Mechanic is one of the best tools for managing and organizing digital images, allowing users to quickly cull, tag, and apply metadata to images.  In this article, we profile the makers of Photo Mechanic, an Oregon company called Camera Bits.

This article is part of our Company Feature Series, in which we share insight into the companies who create the photography products that we know and trust. The goal of this series is to share stories that inspire our readers to innovate and create within the photo industry.

What is The Camera Bits Origin Story?

You might not know the story of Camera Bits, the makers of Photo Mechanic software, but it’s one that started around the same time as digital photography. Mick Orlosky, Director of Marketing for Photo Mechanic, shares a brief bit of history about how the software came to be:

“It all started in 1996 when our founder, Dennis Walker was supporting the photojournalists using their newfangled digital cameras at the Super Bowl for the first time. He saw the difficulty they were having viewing and organizing digital files on location, and he wrote a tool to help them get their jobs done. Since then, we continue to listen to working pro photographers tell us what they need, and we do our best to grow and develop a useful tool for getting work done quickly. We’re still a small company with under 20 employees, but our passion for helping photographers is huge.”

What is The CAMERA BITS Company Mission?

The goal, as Orlosky notes, is to handle managing and organizing photos and information “more quickly, so [photographers] can have more time to create amazing images.”

What Are CAMERA BITS’ Core Values?

“Speed. Speed, Doing things faster. Also: Speed”

How Does CAMERA BITS Stand Apart from the Competition?

We focus on what we’re good at and do not try to do everything. We don’t think we need to be a Raw editor or a social platform, for example. We let other amazing software tools do those jobs and try our best to work well with them.”

What is Your Primary Product and Key Features?

Photo Mechanic 6

  • Contact Sheet
  • Fast Raw File Previews
  • Keywords
  • Variables
  • Keywording
  • Batch Editing
  • File Moving, Copying & Renaming
  • Code Replacements
  • GPS Coordinates
  • Time & Date Adjustments
  • Galleries
  • Direct Web Uploads through FTP
  • Archive
  • And More

What is CAMERA BITS Most Proud Of?

“Photo Mechanic is the industry standard workflow software used at the biggest events in the world.  We’ve helped tell so many amazing stories, and we believe that these stories have helped make the world a better place.”

The Camera Bits team also prides itself on offering free personal tech support for all of its users. This support includes one-on-one help over the phone during business hours, which allows users to “talk directly to a real person who can assist with Photo Mechanic, give workflow tips, and help make your whole process run more smoothly.”

What’s Next for CAMERA BITS?

Photo Mechanic 6 represents the latest in digital image management software, but the Camera Bits team is always working to push what’s possible to make the most efficient tool on the market. With over 20 years in the industry, they’ve used each and every photoshoot as a learning experience for better managing digital photos. According to Orlosky, the team will continue to push what’s possible with future iterations of the Photo Mechanic:

“We have the expertise to create a powerful new image database for managing a photographer’s entire catalog of imagery that can speed up how they manage, archive, and retrieve images from their lifetime of work. Stay tuned for the next generation of Photo Mechanic!”

Would You Like to Offer Our Readers a Deal?

Photo Mechanic is offering a free 30-day trial, and you don’t have to enter credit card to try it. The best news is that the trial version of the software is fully functional includes free tech support.

If you’d like to learn more about Photo Mechanic and how it works, please visit their website or check out the links below: