About to buy my first ipad : confused with how photo works

[FrenchPB]

Hey all,

I'll spend a few days in the US, and that seems like a good time to pick up an ipad 3 at the san francisco apple store. Everything I've read about it sounds great, but I had a couple of questions regarding how photo works.

I take plenty of photos with my DSLR camera, and what I'd like to do is :
1. Import the photos on my ipad using the sd card connector
2. Browse through the photos full screen to delete all the bad ones
3.,Import everything on Aperture. Is that possible ?

Here are my questions :
- will the imported photos go to my photostream, and will automatically be synced with my iMac via icloud ?
- is there any way to preview pics full screen and delete them directly from the sd card, so that I'll be able to delete all the bad ones from the card then put the sd card directly into my iMac (the transfer would be much quicker this way, without having to sync via wifi)
- if I only want to preview pics full screen and delete the bad ones, will I need a specific app ? I don't want to edit pics on my ipad, I just want to use it in the early stages of my workflow

The device looks great, but I'm scared the limitations will be very bothering me. What are your user experience on that ? Does anyone here use the ipad to preview his pics after taking the shots, and delete the bad ones before working on his Mac to do the heavy stuff ?

Also, if photostream doesn't work with pics imported from a SD card, I'm scared I'll have to buy a 64 GB ipad to store all my photos while I travel...

Hope you guys can help

 

[mzjin]

Hey all,

I'll spend a few days in the US, and that seems like a good time to pick up an ipad 3 at the san francisco apple store. Everything I've read about it sounds great, but I had a couple of questions regarding how photo works.

I take plenty of photos with my DSLR camera, and what I'd like to do is :
1. Import the photos on my ipad using the sd card connector
2. Browse through the photos full screen to delete all the bad ones
3.,Import everything on Aperture. Is that possible ?

Here are my questions :
- will the imported photos go to my photostream, and will automatically be synced with my iMac via icloud ?
- is there any way to preview pics full screen and delete them directly from the sd card, so that I'll be able to delete all the bad ones from the card then put the sd card directly into my iMac (the transfer would be much quicker this way, without having to sync via wifi)
- if I only want to preview pics full screen and delete the bad ones, will I need a specific app ? I don't want to edit pics on my ipad, I just want to use it in the early stages of my workflow

The device looks great, but I'm scared the limitations will be very bothering me. What are your user experience on that ? Does anyone here use the ipad to preview his pics after taking the shots, and delete the bad ones before working on his Mac to do the heavy stuff ?

Also, if photostream doesn't work with pics imported from a SD card, I'm scared I'll have to buy a 64 GB ipad to store all my photos while I travel...

Hope you guys can help

You want a Macbook Pro or something similar to do any sort of serious photo work. Forget about it on the iPad, there are too many limitations to iPhoto, importing, photostream, etc that it's not worth your time.

Buy an iPad to enjoy for other reasons, don't expect it to do serious photo work without driving yourself crazy.

 

[FrenchPB]

You want a Macbook Pro or something similar to do any sort of serious photo work. Forget about it on the iPad, there are too many limitations to iPhoto, importing, photostream, etc that it's not worth your time.

Buy an iPad to enjoy for other reasons, don't expect it to do serious photo work without driving yourself crazy.

That's my opinion. Now if I don't use the ipad for my photo work, I'm wondering whether I should just go with the ipad 2 and not the new ipad. I'll mostly use it for internet and email, as well as apps like facebook, twitter, and mlb at-bat application.

As a consequence, a 16 GB version would be just fine, and the ipad 2 might just be perfect. I've never seen a retina screen before, so it's not like I'll have a feeling of taking a step back or anything like that.

Besides, with all those posts about bad ipad 3, I might go with the safe road.

 

[TheWheelMan]

That's my opinion. Now if I don't use the ipad for my photo work, I'm wondering whether I should just go with the ipad 2 and not the new ipad. I'll mostly use it for internet and email, as well as apps like facebook, twitter, and mlb at-bat application.

As a consequence, a 16 GB version would be just fine, and the ipad 2 might just be perfect. I've never seen a retina screen before, so it's not like I'll have a feeling of taking a step back or anything like that.

Besides, with all those posts about bad ipad 3, I might go with the safe road.

Don't make your choice based on the "bad" posts because they are the loudest and the ones more likely to post, but don't lose sight of the fact Apple sold 3 million of the new iPads the first weekend alone, so you can hardly use these people as a sign of the norm. There are problem units, but the percentage that are bad is very much questionable.

 

[djjclark]

First buy an extra SD card - they are dirt cheap and you really don't want to be deleting photos while in the field. I think everything you asked about can happen except deleting individual photos on the sd card - think it was an all or nothing choice. I imported from an sd card and I am pretty sure they went onto the cloud (didn't pay attention as not what I was interested in). Editing photos using the stock photo app is limited so you need to look at iphoto for ios or other third party apps. I don't have aperture but i was able to import photos from the ipad when tethered (didn't look at photostream).

 

[petalino]

could be problematic

I suggest your post your question amongs photographers using Apple IPAD right here:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1017

I remember reading somewhere that an Ipad changes your JPGS when importing them. That's inexcusable. I am not sure what happens to the RAW files though.

Just be careful. Your files may not be the same anymore after import into an Ipad.

 

[nickn]

Hey all,
Here are my questions :
- will the imported photos go to my photostream, and will automatically be synced with my iMac via icloud ?

The device looks great, but I'm scared the limitations will be very bothering me. What are your user experience on that ? Does anyone here use the ipad to preview his pics after taking the shots, and delete the bad ones before working on his Mac to do the heavy stuff ?

Also, if photostream doesn't work with pics imported from a SD card, I'm scared I'll have to buy a 64 GB ipad to store all my photos while I travel...

Hope you guys can help

1. You don't need to sync them with iCloud, which is good, since iCloud is extremely useless for this purpose. What upload bandwidth do you have? Here in the US, most of us have extremely low upload bandwidth, like 1-5mbps at best. It would be faster to fly home and connect via USB then to upload over the net! For example, on my home connection, it would take over 25 hours to upload 16GB of photos. I doubt really anyone has uploads speeds that rival USB 2's 480MBPS.
2. User experience is not good in my opinion due to a severe bug I have encountered on several devices. initially, all pics put on my iPad are slightly blurry. Zooming in even 1% will make the photos sharp, so it is not the photos. I was at the apple store a few days ago, and saw the same thing on two iPad 3 demo units as well. iPhoto on the iPad is extremely frustrating for even the most basic uses IMO, and if you use any pro tools, like Photoshop or aperture, you will likely be disappointed. You can try that app out on the iPad at the store though, so you can see for yourself if you can deal with it.
3. I would suggest just buying several cards and doing it on the computer. What kind of memory do you use? SD cards are dirt cheap now. I have several 16GB Transcend SDHC cards that work well, even for RAW bursts. A 32GB version is selling for $30USD on Amazon.
EDIT
I have a few question of my own. Does anyone know if the iPad will read RAW files? No one seems to have a definitive answer. According to some, it appears that the iPad is either reading the embedded jpg files contained in some RAW files, or converting the RAW into JPG's for display. Is that the case? That would be pretty useless to anyone looking for quality.
X2
That second to last post doesn't sound too good...
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3286055?start=0&tstart=0

 

[TyroneShoes2]

I love my iPads (1 and 3) but if you are serious regarding photography, abandon altogether any ideas of using the iPad. The camera is OK, but not great. Importing is a pain, and I have seen photos derezzed on import. That seems to be unpredictable, but still enough to make it not worth while. I also have seen sporadic troubles with importing; import 30 photos, and only 22 make the trip. It's just not ready for prime time.

But if you are casual about photography, the iPad is great. The camera is good enough, and there are a lot of apps that you will like. The iPhoto app is terrific (certainly no replacement for iPhoto or Aperture on a Mac, however). The ability to apply selective filters by gesture is very intuitive; well worth the $4.99.

Since you have Aperture and a DSLR, you are a serious photographer or hobbyist. Here is how I would approach this; if you are using your interest in photography and the fact that the iPad has photographic capabilities or display capabilities as as excuse to buy an iPad, you will be disappointed (find a different excuse to buy the iPad ). It will not make your workflow better, just like buying that toaster-oven will not make your serious cooking and baking workflow any better.

I'm not saying that the iPad is just a toy, but if you are a serious photographer it will seem like a toy.

 

[Getitdone]

I agree with those above. I transfer lots of pictures using the camera connection kit to the iPad, but Photostream/iCloud is totally unreliable. I have had many photos lost somewhere along the streaming process. iPhoto, while it has many great features and is easy to use on the iPad, also has issues.

The option for deleting pictures from your card is all or nothing. I always keep all of the pictures on my cards after transferring onto the iPad and then transfer them directly to my computer for serious editing, storage, etc.

So, yes, there are some great, fun things to do with photos on the iPad...but it is not for important or serious photo work. Buy many of the now very affordable memory cards for your camera and you'll have the best of both worlds.

 

[FrenchPB]

ALright, that answer a lot of questions. No need for me to go to 32 GB or 64 GB for my ipad then, a 16 GB version will be enough if I don't use it for my photo work.

However, I'm wondering if I really need a retina display of I don't use the ipad for photos. For internet browsing / email writing / book reading, does the retina display justify its $100 price tag (difference with an ipad 2) ?

 

[jojoba]

ALright, that answer a lot of questions. No need for me to go to 32 GB or 64 GB for my ipad then, a 16 GB version will be enough if I don't use it for my photo work.

However, I'm wondering if I really need a retina display of I don't use the ipad for photos. For internet browsing / email writing / book reading, does the retina display justify its $100 price tag (difference with an ipad 2) ?

The iPad2 is a pretty good device. I upgraded from a 2 to a 3gen primarily because I use it extensively to read pdf files, and the retina screen provided much crisper text when the font is small. So I think it depends a bit on how much book reading you are planning to do. If it's several hours a day, I would consider 3gen. If it's half an hour every week, I say the iPad2 is a very good deal.

 

[spiderman0616]

On our last vacation, all of our photos were in Photo Stream automatically, and my imported photos ended up there too. I was able to edit everything in iPhoto and share out a "journal" to our friends/family. It was 100% seamless, even using the camera connection kit to grab all the photos from my wife's camera.

Say what you will about iPhoto (it does things way beyond my ability, but your mileage may vary), but I don't find Photo Stream to be useless at all. I love it.