Dear Maintainer, i'have the same problem since update to 4.1.0.1 (i am now in 4.3.0-1 in Debian Jessie/SID up to date at 2014/09/23). I'am using digikam with an external mysql db and the load of one core of my CPU is 100% when opening settings windows then digikam freeze.
Thank you for your time and good work. PS : Sorry for my english ;-)