iPad photo editing for pros - can't happen!

[jeffkohn]

Criticism of the iPad is showing up in other places as well. I think the more open android platform will be a much better alternative once it starts showing up in devices with a similar form-factor. The iPad is too closed and restricted for power users (not to mention overpriced, but that's pretty typical for apple).

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by PeteQ

Yes, and I have it. That is why I know that there is no way (that I have found) to drop them into a folder on the iPad and easily transfer them to your main system like you can with something like an Epson reader. They go into the iPad photos which are sync'd via iTunes and iPhoto. Not user friendly to say the least.

That's good to know.


In general, from what I've read so far and understand about the iPad, many buyers are trying to make the iPad some more than what it was intended to be.

What is it intended to be? That's where the interpretation differs.

[swanny338]

Originally Posted by Brains

I fired up my $15 200MB iPad 3G plan the day I got it, and a month later I had used about 180MB. Worked out just perfect for me - and I use it a TON. It'll really depend on how much you're away from home, and what you're doing away from home. In my case, it was using the maps app and har.com a lot (house hunting), streaming music from Shoutcast.com while searching (if you load it via the web page, it'll play in the background while you open other apps!), and general goofing around. I figured I'd run out of 200MB within a few days, but that wasn't the case.

If you think the 200MB cap is too low, I'd honestly suggest you look at your bill and see what you actually use. It might be lower than you think.

I personally go through about 800 MB's a week. I look at a ton of photo websites everyday so I am guessing that is what adds up, streaming videos from vimeo and abc probably have something to do with it too. I have already used over 2gigs on my current billing cycle just on my iPad. My iPhone is currently at just over 500 megs. If I started tethering it to my laptop, I guarantee I would be over the 2gig limit most months.

[PeteQ]

Originally Posted by jeffkohn

Criticism of the iPad is showing up in other places as well. I think the more open android platform will be a much better alternative once it starts showing up in devices with a similar form-factor. The iPad is too closed and restricted for power users (not to mention overpriced, but that's pretty typical for apple).

Define "Power User". The iPad was not set out to be a replacement for the laptop. I will say that I had no intention of getting one until a client handed me one as a thank you for for going above and beyond with a job. It's a wifi version and I love it. I rarely break out my laptop at home anymore. I can surf and do a majority of what I had been doing away from my desk with it and its instant on is great for that quick little look-up when a thought crosses my mind while watching tv.

And for showing clients work it is outstanding. Not as a replacement for a big custom wedding album but oh what a complement to them and it is always with me. I have found a few ways to leverage what the iPad does well and every client that I have used it with has been blown away with the presentations. I use the technology it brings to the table, not the iPad itself, as a differentiator during my consultations and it's a win.

Originally Posted by Sonny

That's good to know.
In general, from what I've read so far and understand about the iPad, many buyers are trying to make the iPad some more than what it was intended to be.
What is it intended to be? That's where the interpretation differs.

If you don't try to shoe-horn it into a netbook or laptop box and find ways to use it as it is you will be surprised at what you can do with it. If you try to make it a laptop replacement you will be disappointed. But if you are doing that you aren't comparing orange to Macintosh Apples....

And let's give it a year and see what happens. Technology changes and the iPad may go away or it may get better. All I know right now is I really like what I have been able to do with mine.

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by PeteQ

And let's give it a year and see what happens. Technology changes and the iPad may go away or it may get better.

This has been my position all along. I don't have one right now, but depending on how it evolves, I might a year from now. Time will tell.

[Brains]

@Bryant: Your level of usage on a mobile device is pretty wild

I couldn't imagine waiting for that amount of data to come over 3G at a megabit or so per second. Anything that intensive, and I want the bandwidth, 24" monitor, and full-power CPU performance of my desktop. Call me impatient

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Man, I just don't agree that pro's don't want the iPad to work. I personally know of Reuters using the iPad to remotely control cameras 25 miles away and have instant access to camera controls as well as the photos taken (granted this can also be done on any laptop/netbook).

But while I do not think pro's expect a realistic RAW editor on the iPad, the power of an app like Photo Mechanic is that it can browse images while they are still on the CF card (no transfer initially needed) or in-camera. The pro can select photos, have them copied (JPG versions), captioned and sent via WIFI or 3G. The built in coverage is huge. Add an app like Photoshop for the iPhone with basic editing features and you've got all you need to work out in the field.

I know all this can be done on existing systems but the iPad offers the next great step, a small, thin form factor and a price under a grand.

The downside is that now I get to bring an iPhone/iPad/Notebook when I travel and man, I really don't need that. If something has to be left home then see ya iPad!

If Android figures it out, I have no problem going there. I want the solutions, I don't much care who gives it to me.

Joe

[Brains]

I would like a bit more access to external devices, specifically direct access to the filesystem of mounted storage devices. That much I'll agree with.

But.

A full-featured Photoshop on an iPad? Seriously? That doesn't make sense on so many levels. The iPad's touch screen may be pretty darned accurate, but a 1200dpi Wacom tablet it is not.

I don't believe any pro is likely to send someone a full resolution image straight off the camera/card while in the field. Just doesn't happen, as you could obviously already do this with a laptop and a 3G card. So if people aren't doing it now, there likely isn't a need to do the same thing with an iPad. Every REAL use of images in this context, the iPad does indeed already do. Import into iPhoto, scale it down, make it convenient to send as a snap to whoever, post on Facebook, etc. If you want, you can crop, rotate, apply various filters, use various other programs that can work with images from the iPhoto library, etc. So realistically, the only improvement necessary here would be direct import of images into the library while in a 3rd party app, which I can agree with. I would still make it 100% platform consistent by always storing images in the iPhoto library regardless of the application.

The suggestion about dumping all your full-res images to iPad, and continuing with the shoot. Uhh... Whut? The iPad isn't a storage device. That's what your memory card is for. Run out of space on your $30 SD card? Buy another $30 SD card, not a $700 iPad.

Now.. what WOULD the iPad be good for, in the context of a true photographer? Simple -- proofing sessions. We need a good proofing app. Make it simple and fun for the customer to flip through images, and you'll increase your sales. Theoretically, you can already do this with iPhoto quite easily if you set up your sessions like you should be (ie. Lightroom export into separate folders, and sync the parent folder to the iPad).

Then for the fun stuff - tethered shooting and stuff like that. The iPad already does some of this too! Try it! Cable up the camera, let it load iPhoto, and notice every time you snap the shutter, the new image shows up. One small improvement to iPhoto I'd like to see, is for it to simply full-screen each successive new image as they show up.

[Tom]

I don't believe any pro is likely to send someone a full resolution image straight off the camera/card while in the field.

Ummm.. .photojournalism. Many editors want a caption and it sent exactly as is. Then the slight curves adjustment and cropping will be done at the desk to make it fit the paper/web.

The guys at the Chronicle actually have a little web server in their pocket from Verizon with a SD wifi card. When they tag a picture in camera, it is transmitting via SD card to the FTP Chronicle server while they are shooting. There an editor goes over the files, captions it and throws it on the design or on the web.

[Brains]

Good point Tom, I hadn't considered that.

IMHO, they're already doing it the best way then - MiFi or similar 3G router + EyeFi card is much simpler than the current idea of jockying around cables or cards to do it with an iPad.

No news on whether tethering will be allowed on iPad yet, but once OS 4.0 hits we know you can do the same thing (as using a MiFi router) with the iPhone as well. If that's the case, no app needed - just the EyeFi card and a tethered cell phone.

[Tom]

Yeah, but you can pretty much only do that with the 1D-series bodies. All the professional Nikon bodies use CF. I don't believe there are CF eye-fi cards yet.

I really wish my 5D2 and 7D had a second card slot. I would love to write CF to one and JPEG to the other or transmit to FTP with one. Oh well.

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Well... No one said anything about "full featured" and what I was referring to already exists (for the iPhone at least).

The rest I'll just bite my tongue on and say I strongly disagee.

Joe

[PeteQ]

Joe, what we are seeing even within this thread is what define "pro" and "full featured" etc. I mean with a 1D series camera you could shoot jpg to the sd card and raw to the CF and load the jpgs to the iPad and upload via email or even to a gallery for selection or use. That is doable right now, albeit clunky at best. It's where you get into trying to crunch large files that things get sticky. So I guess it depends on what you need. A large JPG would certainly be more than enough for "most" pj work that is going straight to web for the instant updates that many sources want.

But I agree that the ability to access external storage is a bad thing. Maybe in 2.0...

I honestly just don't think Apple envisioned the multitude of the specific uses these would garner and if they tried to design it for everyone and everything nothing would get produced because just as you finish up what you need, it's obsolete. The platform (tablet) will undoubtedly evolve and a big part of the driving force is the widespread acceptance of the iPad. Just like the iPod and the iPhone were huge drivers in their respective areas.

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Yeah Pete, I understand what you're saying. I don't know that we've ever been this close to the right editing/communication device and I think people can smell it coming. I know I can and I know people will try and force it upon the Apple offerings. Only time will tell if Apple will recognize specialized markets (medical for one could benefit greatly) or leave it up to the clones.

I know I'll be watching.

Joe