Camera Raw Database or XMP?

[Yammer]

It has been said here many times in the past that Bridge is rubbish for managing large numbers of images. I have about 35,000 (mostly raw) images and my workflow is based around Bridge and Camera Raw, and I have certainly noticed things getting a lot slower in recent years.

Large selections (and collections) of images take an age to collate and update. Once you've got HQ thubnails and previews generated, their metadata needs to be compiled for the Filter panel, taking up to a minute. Adding or removing images from large (several thousand images) Collections similarly takes an age to execute. I recently split my collection into two distinct subject folder 'branches' in an attempt to speed up operations.

This got me thinking about a few preconceptions I've had for many years. My images are mostly Raw (NEF) with XMP settings. I like this setup because settings are stored as separate files associated with their images, and are very portable. Besides, I'm not keen on the idea of a Camera Raw *database* as any corruption could potentially ruin settings and keywords for many thousands of images. BUT, does this slow everything down??

Would I be better moving all the XMP data into a single database? Would it make things faster? Can I ensure that it is safe against corruption? Can I import existing XMP data into such a database? Has anyoe got any experience of moving from one to the other, as well as using Bridge as their front-end?

FYI, I am running Windows, with the OS, programs, caches and TEMP directories on an SSD. The photos and xmp data are on a RAID5 array.

[JP Hess]

I have never tried switching from one method to the  other, but I am skeptical as to whether you would see much of a performance difference. If anything, it seems to me that having separate XMP files would be faster. If you want to try the database method it would certainly be a good idea to make sure that the database was included in your backup procedure. I think any method of storing data is reliable until you have a crash.

[Yammer]

Thanks, Jim.

It's the eggs-in-one-basketness of the database which worries me most. I backup everything, but I know that it's simple to replace XMP files--not so sure about the database. Is it one file? Can you just overwrite with an old copy and everything works?

[JP Hess]

I have never used the database method in camera raw. I use Lightroom/Photoshop and do all of my raw processing in Lightroom. I have been using Lightroom now for several years and have always relied on the database method. Lightroom is scheduled to back up the catalog or database every week. And I have only had to turn to one of those backups once in all the time I have been using Lightroom. I think either one is reliable as far as Camera Raw is concerned. The main thing to remember is to back up frequently. If you have to restore a catalog you will obviously lose any work on your images that transpired after the last backup.

[Yammer]

Actually, all this discussion might be academic. I'm not even sure I can import all my XMP sidecar data into a Camera Raw database.

[JP Hess]

Wish I could be of more help, but I am quite a bit more familiar with Lightroom then I am camera raw. I think if you switch to the database model then everything that you do from this point forward would be in the database. But I don't know how all of your previous work would be added.

[Yammer]

I think I'll just have to wait for the new Bridge team to realise that they could code it to run faster. Maybe CC 2019.