maybe it will just take getting used to. Where is exif in Preview? I see a limited version of it in iPhoto. For some reason, Apple calls it Extended Photo Information instead of what I am really looking at (yeah that word play makes me cranky..).
If I wanted to check someone’s photo with XP, I downloaded, dragged it to irfanview, looked, then threw it away. Is it that easy with a Mac?
It's easier.
If you get it in an email... Mail already shows it to you.
If you get it on a disk, or flash memory, or download it, no dragging anything anywhere is required. Simply highlight the file and tap the spacebar. The OS will display the picture, play the video, show the PDF, play the sound file, show the MS Word file, show the Pages file, etc., all without opening any applications. If you wish, you can, with one click, display the image or movie full screen. One more click reverts to window format. Tapping the space bar again turns off the Quick Look.
You can highlight the first file in a directory, press the space bar, and use the up-down arrow keys to display all of them in order.
Complete EXIF information about the image is found in Preview under the Menu "Tools"/"Show Inspector": select the second TAB (more Info) and then click on the "Exif" button. You will have everything Exif has to offer.
The information is available in iPhoto as well. Under the Photos menu, "Show Extended Photo Info" and make sure you click all the header switches to on... They are a little hard to see. (I just sent feedback to Apple about this design element being not user friendly) They are the darker gray on dark gray background triangles to the left of the headers. Those headers say "image," "File," "Location," "Camera," and "Exposure."
iPhoto allows you to modify the Exif information in a limited fashion.