Photography and the iPad

[Ms Remy M]

This thread again like my 'Locations' thread is directed more towards the professional photogs here on the forum, but any relevant information from anyone is welcome of course. Many of the DMV area photogs have pm me in the past so just looking for any advice you may have, hopefully more responses from you lot than my other thread received. :p Thanks to everyone who did reply on that thread!

Preface

I have a laptop (Dell) which for 3 years now has been doing me justice, but is starting to show it's age from the heavy use I've put it through. So I've come to the decision that it's time for a new device. I currently only use the laptop during my photoshoots, to upload my shoot from my DSLR to an external hard drive, and to play porn/music for model. While there is no rush in particular (just bought a new desktop) I do want to replace the laptop before the year is out.

I'm not an Apple lover though I do have the iPhone 3Gs, and while I initially swore I wouldn't get the first iteration of the iPad, I am somewhat open to being swayed toward the device (think it's the tech geek in me). Last night I went around to a variety of tech sites going over review after review and still can't decide. So I would like to know if any photographers have used the iPads photo functions and related experinces with such. The primary function the iPad would serve for me would be the same as stated above for my current laptop. Below are some questions I still have:

-How easy is the process of uploading pics from DSLR to iPad?

-Does the iPad force any translations of the files a la iTunes forcing some music files to be converted to the Apple format instead of the native code? Very important as all images must remain in the original format. Which means no resizing of the original images or anything else that techincally degrades the original file.

-Can an external hard drive be connected to the iPad? I don't like the idea of all my work and in turn money being stuck on one device, I like to have a backup copy. I personally prefer Western Digital external hard drives though I've used SeaGate. If there is an Apple equilavent for an external hard drive that would be acceptable as well, provided of course it can actually be connected to the iPad. Apple likes to wipe devices clean under certain situations so again connecting an external hard drive needs to be fairly smooth and not risk losing any data already stored on it.

-What process is used to get picture files from the iPad to a desktop (read not apple computer)? Again, I'm relunctant to put too much trust in iTunes, and I don't like the idea of having to upload all images (my shoots generally take up about 6 gigs of space) to an online site a la Flikr. I've never used a service like Flickr so dont' know if uploading 'porn' is even possible to these cloud networks?

-I took a gander at MobileMe which seems like the best work around concerning above issue for moving files from one Apple device to another, but the reviews for the MobileMe service wasn't too great either and at $99/yr I would like to hear some good reviews for it from an unbiased source and not the Apple elites. Furthermore; I've read a couple complaints regarding using the MobileMe service on Windows PC's which is exactly what I would be doing.

-Are there any photography specific apps worth the time? I've seen a deluge of gimicky apps for photos but nothing approaching the Photoshop CS or Lightroom abilities. I seriously doubt I would be doing any major photoshopping, as I generally don't agree in the extreme overuse that occurs in media.

-Finally, is there another device that you have personal experince with that would be able to offer similar functionality that I need? I'm sure there were some standalone picture viewing devices from Sony that might do as well provided that it's cheaper than the Wi-Fi only iPad models, but again I would like recommendations from a device you've used and not just know of.

Side note: I am not interested in the 3G models as it's useless to me, any location based services or on the road net viewing can be done from my iPhone.

Thank you in advance for your responses and information.

[thepiedpiper]

In short the iPad is not the device you need as put simply it has no usb ports and no additonal connectivity to external devices unless they are approved by apple.The iPad is essentially a large iphone as far as connectivity and only has the conventional apple iPod connector. Also to put video on the iPad for the models you'll have to convert to MP4 or use iphone streaming sites like ifap.to Also the only way I can think of when puttng photos on the phone would involve uploading to your desktop or laptop and using itunes to transfer (unless there is a jailbreak that gets released to allow you transfer over the air via wifi and winscp or similiar). you wouldnt have a problem with coversion although I have never put an image with a larger resolution than the screen on the iPad. Also for editing you are limited to a few photographt apps which ar emore for shooting image and the photoshop app which is more like photoshop elements. Plus as far as I'm aware the iPad will NOT support RAW.

Your best bet would be a macbook if you need to edit photos through photoshop too but they retail at, at least $999. If your looking for something a little cheaper then a 'netbook' or 'ultra mobile laptop' is what I would recommend. Netbooks will retaill at $300 - $500 normally but will usually have an 11 inch screen or less but will have sufficent usb ports, an sd card slot and a good battery life (usually 2 - 3 hours or more) and are designed by nature to be ultra portable. ultra mobile laptops are the same but have screens 11" - 13" also with good battery life. I'll add that netbooks tend to have windows XP where as your ultra mobile and newer laptops will now have windows 7.

Personally though, for photo editing and ease of use I would go for the macbook but, if it was the price that was an issue or familiarity if your not used to Mac OS then I would shop HP. You can get a solid mid entry laptop for about $600 and HP's are usually of solid build quality and have good spec for their price. I don't know how well your dell has served you but I would avoid Dell (in todays market) unless you spend a lot of money and buy an XPS as their systems are usually of poor build quality and break down far too often. As well as studying film at university I work in IT support in the UK dealing with major manufacturers namely HP, Dell, Acer and Sony and apart from Sony's (which dont sell much due to price) HP by far have the least amount of problems in my opinion. I would say though, if you go for a HP try to avoid the hp mini and any g60 or g70 model (that includes the g61 and 71 respectively) as these are made for the mass market so arent as well made as some of the other models.

I will add that if you do purchase a new windows laptop it will most likely have windows 7 preinstall and will probably be the 64 bit version as laptops now tend to have more than 4GB of RAM. This is important to conisder in your case. You will need to ensure you have the latest version of phtoshop as i don't think older versions will work with windows 7 and you will also need to install a 32 bit version of your preferred browser for flash support. Also you might find any specialist software you use might require windows XP or vista or a 32 bit OS. There are still some XP laptops available ut you may have to shop around. You can also purchase a copy of XP and look into dual booting but bear in mind XP isnt sold commercially anymore so you would have to find it online (amazon is good place to start)

i hope this is of help.

[Ms Remy M]

Thank you piedpiper, very informative.

Regarding the first paragraph (P1), luckily I don't have to bother with uploading vids as we shoot with mini-dv, so that can easily wait until I get home to desktop. While for Grooby related stuff I don't shoot in RAW (takes up too much space) I did take note of the limitations the iPad would have with the format.

Regarding (P2-3), I am a bit hesitant on going for a full out Macbook or any other laptop for that matter, as I don't necessarily 'need' all those features, so it's appears a HP (UML) would be most suited to the task I need. I had initially planned on seeing what the HP Slate would bring us, but that dissolved into the ether which is what brought me back to the iPad. Actually one of my models I just shot in NC had one of the older HP tablets, and she being an IT person gave it less than stellar reviews especially in the 'touch' functionaitly, which admittedly isn't a 'selling' point for me, but I feel should still be done right if at all. Very glaring point regarding her HP tablet, it overheated to such extremes that some of the casing around the touchpad area melted some. :eek:

(P4) Yep, I've already made the transition to Win 7 and overall extremely glad to be off Vista and not missing XP nearly as much as I use to. Well, except now all my 'cracked' software doesn't work, but I don't mind supporting the company and buying a copy. :)