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iPad Pro: A Possible Solution


sanyasi

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The iPad has always looked promising, but the issue for me has been storage.  128gb just isn't enough for a two week trip, particularly if you have other stuff on the device.  

 

Today, I just happened to pass an Apple store and went in to have a look.  In the past, when I asked about external storage, I was told NOPE, but today I was told that there is a WIFI enabled hard drive.  LaCie.  It has a transfer rate of 150 mb per second, which should be somewhere between 3 to 6 photographs depending on the camera.  That means you could transfer over 200 photographs in a minute.  Apparently it would be a two-step process.  First into the iPad and then into the hard drive, although the sales person mentioned some special software, so maybe you can skip the intermediate step.

 

Also the software stores the photographs in a simple file structure, which you can apparently access from your computer when you arrive home.  If all of this true, the iPad Pro is beginning to look interesting.

 

Any thoughts, or further knowledge?

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The iPad has always looked promising, but the issue for me has been storage.  128gb just isn't enough for a two week trip, particularly if you have other stuff on the device. 

 

Enlighten us. How do you exceed 128gb in two weeks?

.

Edited by pico
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I experiment throughout a 12 hour work day.  On my last outing I photographed bicyclists riding over a bridge with an interesting background.  I spent an hour or so several times looking for the right shot, usually with a slow shutter speed.  It is easy to rack up a couple hundred shots, 198 of which get tossed.  That same day, I went to a vantage point overlooking the city, and photographed storm clouds coming in as the sun was an hour or so from setting.  I used different filters, different lenses, and different compositions.  It is how I work.

 

if you have a problem with that, it is your problem.  I had fun for 10 days.

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No DNG support makes it a non-starter for "complete" solutions in iOS.

But there is (despite denial in (possibly outdated) documents from Adobe) support for DNG on iPad. See my experiences here

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/248209-workflow-with-ipad/?p=2860357

 

Although when there are ~100 files on an SD card it becomes irritatingly slow to find ones to process, it can be done.

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Since iOS9, we can no longer import pictures to iPad using the SD card reader (camera connection kit). https://discussions.apple.com/message/28980217#28980217

 

Maybe the same problem exists using wifi-transfer.

 

Hmm. I'm on iOS 9.1 now. Just tried it .. 400 raw+JPEGs from my M-P on a Sandisk 32G Extreme Pro transferred with no problems to my iPad mini 3. PhotoRAW processes the DNG files nicely too. 

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It has a transfer rate of 150 mb per second, which should be somewhere between 3 to 6 photographs depending on the camera.  That means you could transfer over 200 photographs in a minute.

 

I would have thought that the transfer rate is 150 megabits per second not megabytes. A big difference. :D

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150mb/s would be 150 millibits/sec or 0.15 bits per second which is rather slow. The proper unit appears to be Mb/s which is - as Ian points out - 150 million bits per second, not bytes. One byte consists of eight bits. This seems to be quite fast for WiFi, but I can imagine there being adapters that can work at that rate. A decent standard for a wired ethernet network would be 1Gb/s, that's 1000 Mb (that's Megabits and not Megabytes, again).

 

The crux would be whether the computer (phone, tablet, laptop or desktop) could deliver at that rate; also, many devices are not symmetrical, i.e. the reading and writing speeds may differ by a largish factor.

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The package that the hard drive came in did not list the transfer rate.  The employee at the store gave me the number and I asked OK for photographs RAW, how many are we talking about?  The most important question I asked was:  OK if I buy the setup and experiment with it, can I return it and is their a restocking fee?  

 

After continuing to research the matter, I have pretty much decided to continue to use a laptop when I travel.  The question is whether I upgrade to one of the new Airs with 512 gb, which would let me leave the hard drive at home.  Thanks all for some helpful comments.

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Hmm. I'm on iOS 9.1 now. Just tried it .. 400 raw+JPEGs from my M-P on a Sandisk 32G Extreme Pro transferred with no problems to my iPad mini 3. PhotoRAW processes the DNG files nicely too. 

 

You are right, ramarren! I just bought the PhotoRAW app, which has been updated recently, and I am able to edit full resolution raw files. Nevertheless, I don't like being forced to change my workflow and my preferred app Photogene by changes of the operation system.

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You are right, ramarren! I just bought the PhotoRAW app, which has been updated recently, and I am able to edit full resolution raw files. Nevertheless, I don't like being forced to change my workflow and my preferred app Photogene by changes of the operation system.

 

Why do you have to? Photogene4 seems to work just fine too. It reads out "decoding raw" but doesn't seem to let me do raw editing, though. I usually just edit JPEGs on the iPad mini, but PhotoRAW is useful occasionally.  

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I see little use for an iPad in general nowadays. It is too limited compared to a Macbook Air 11" and too lumpy compared to an iPhone 6 so its band of usefulness has narrowed considerably.

Least essential, but maybe favorite for some, according to recent TOP commentary...   http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2015/11/apple-ipad-pro.html

 

Jeff

Edited by Jeff S
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