A few years back, iView Media Pro became Microsoft Expression Media.  And what happened?  Um, nothing.  It was re-branded and left to languish.  Feature development was basically non-existent, and I stopped using it.  Instead, I turned to Adobe Lightroom for my database needs, and began a  (somewhat painful) transition for my older work, archived in iView/Expression Media, to Lightroom.  For new photographs, Lightroom is a snap to use.  For older work, it can be a bit of a bear.

Well, there’s hope for those who still use Expression Media (including the Pictures of the Year International and College Photographer of the Year contests run out of the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, respectively): Phase ONE just bought it from Microsoft.

Anyone curious (or serious) about the absolute highest quality digital imaging knows about Phase ONE’s medium format backs and, more recently, Mamiya-based camera bodies.  Their Capture ONE software is also a very powerful RAW converter, easily the equal of Adobe Camera RAW (both of which leave the manufacturer’s supplied software from Nikon, Canon and Olympus in the dust).

For a limited time, owners of Expression Media 2 can have a free copy of Phase ONE’s Capture ONE software (which is great), and owners of Capture ONE can get a free copy of Expression Media 2 (OK, less great).  The details are on Phase ONE’s Web site: http://www.phaseone.com/expressionmedia2.