Photos need to be first imported into iPhoto before viewing. If one merely wants to search and view a few pictures stored in external media (like CDs and ext harddisk), iPhoto will take a long time to import the pictures merely for viewing, and the files got to be deleted thereafter. In which case, it's not an optimal application. Of course for general processing of pictures, it works well and has powerful features to help one sort/organize the photos.:thumbsup: