iPad and Photography

Since it is launch time for the iPad, I thought it might be interesting to start a thread on how people might be thinking of integrating an iPad into their digital life and especially into your photography.

I just got done reading the most thorough review so far including a video review on the PC Magazine site:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362040,00.asp

I think it would be a great way to present a portfolio but, for me at least, I still prefer a laptop for travel, photo storage and general use. The use of a "pad" would have limits obviously and I doubt I will have any serious need or desire to get one of these since I prefer a laptop with a real keyboard and a hinged screen

As Greg says, it might be a sexy way to present a portfolio. However, as far as I know the thing has no external connectors so the only way to get stuff on there is via iTunes (or view via the web). For travel and photo storage the inability to connect an external hard drive and CF reader to dump cards makes it far less useful (so if you have to take both a laptop and iPad with you, do you really need both?).

IMO, the HP Slate or the Adam are more promising w.r.t to be able to replace a laptop for travel and photo storage. Sadly, its unlikely they'll have the same level of polish and slick user experience that all Apple products do.

As an aside, as someone who works in the software industry, I also want to say that the thing I find most troubling about the iPad is the application distribution model. I applauded what Apple did with the App Store for the iPhone, they brought a level of applications and openness to phone users that wasn't there before. However in the tablet form factor (which gets close to a real computing device), their draconian policies with the way in which they accept and reject Apps is a couple of steps back compared to the openness there currently is for general computers. Some people may find it acceptable being told what they can and can't run on their tablet, I don't.

thedigitalbean wrote:As Greg says, it might be a sexy way to present a portfolio. However, as far as I know the thing has no external connectors so the only way to get stuff on there is via iTunes (or view via the web).

This is not true - Apple offers a connection kit. Go to the bottom center of this screen and you will see that both a SD card reader and a USB jack adapter that you can connect your camera or presumably a USB card reader will be available:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

I've never connected my camera to my computer. Why would I want to connect the camera to the iPad unless it is to use the iPad as a live view screen?

I stated earlier, I thought apple missed the mark on the feature set of the iPad. I still think that's so. At least for me. If I find a need to show a portfolio without a computer, I might consider it. Until then, I'll simply wait for the next version. Maybe that one will be able to connect two devices at the same time so that it could be used as a file copier.

Well I guess I am much more positive than the tone of the conversation so far. I do think that for me, it will be a device I use every single day just in my home life and of course while traveling. In my home life, I envision this thing being on my lap whenever I watch TV (which is probably too often ). It will certainly be a much more comfortable browsing device while on the couch than a laptop is. On the road, watching movies on it for a longer flight without having to worry about battery exhaustion for 10 hours is a real plus. I also envision that this device will become my daily newspaper. Rather than sitting at a computer or viewing on the tiny iPhone screen for my fix of the NY Times or the Arizona Republic or the Wall Street Journal I will use the iPad.

For photography, I bet that this becomes my preferred way of interacting with the NatureScapes forums. On the road, it will certainly house a portfolio. The portfolio will also be useful with local businesses to show them my photos and get them interested in using or selling them.

Is the device perfect? of course not. it has some gaping holes although connecting devices is probably not one of them given the USB connector that will be available to plug into the standard iPod connector. I am certain there will be some very cool third party apps that become available through the app store that will allow you to use that to do some cool things. Probably the most glaring omissions are Java Support and the lack of a camera. The device is a natural for things like Skype or Yahoo Messenger if it had a camera. Lack of Flash support is more of a nuisance initially because you know that if this device takes off, people will use other methods to get video content to it that doesn't use Flash. Finally, the lack of multitasking in the OS. Since mail is enabled for multitasking that doesn't bother me so much but of course it would be a plus to have it.

Full Disclosure: I have a 64GB iPad 3G+WiFi on order but I waited for a while to order it while I really did a lot of homework on the devices capability and insuring I would have a good use for it.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

thedigitalbean wrote:As Greg says, it might be a sexy way to present a portfolio. However, as far as I know the thing has no external connectors so the only way to get stuff on there is via iTunes (or view via the web).

This is not true - Apple offers a connection kit. Go to the bottom center of this screen and you will see that both a SD card reader and a USB jack adapter that you can connect your camera or presumably a USB card reader are available:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

You are indeed correct. Having a connection kit is very cool. I guess you can't daisy chain it (i.e. have both a USB and card reader at the same time). if you could do that, it would be awesome because then you could have an external HD to dump images to from the CF reader.

I have to say that having something like a iPad to surf the web with while chillin' on the couch is very appealing. Having said that, I currently relax on the couch with my Macbook Pro and not once in the last couple of years have I said to myself "gee, I wish I had a tablet instead of this pesky keyboard".

I find that with the iPhone and the iPod touch, I do a lot of reading, but whenever I want to write stuff, I tend to put it off until I can use a real keyboard. This is mainly because I personally find the on screen keyboard on these devices to be major usability barriers (maybe I suck at using them, maybe my fingers are too fat ). Now, the iPad's on screen keyboard will be a lot bigger but I'd really want the chance to try it out for some time before committing.

I expect to use it quite a lot.
First, a lot of apps that run on the phone are hard to see (old eyes) so, for those that work over wifi I will use the pad.

I control my AV system using a couple of apps on the phone. These will go to the pad.

I fully expect to improve the display of my photos on the larger screen. Slide shows in a group are now feasible.

I watch movies on the plane on my phone because the seats are too close together to comfortably open the laptop. These will go to the pad.

I read books on a kindle. I am not certain if this will move to the pad due to the display technology difference but I intend to give it a try.

Web surfing, reading news, checking email, etc. all will go to the pad when traveling or not at my computer.

My wife plays Scrabble over facebook on her phone with friends and family in other towns. That will go to the pad.

Basically, the pad will replace almost all the iphone functions...except the phone.

I have a feeling it is going to be big. If not in the first iteration, for sure as it evolves.

Mike

Oh, forgot to mention, mine is hung up in customs in Kentucky. Don't know if it will be delivered tomorrow or not.
mike

So E.J., The only photography part that I read in that post is showing your portfolio. The rest of the usage sounds decidely like non-photography usage. For general browsing, reading and movie watching, I think it will be very good. For generating replies on-line or writting things, I don't think it will be as good. That will depend on how quickly you can type on a standard keyboard versus how quickly you can type on the screen. I think it will eventually be able to be used to call people though that will depend on whether the apps will be allowed or not by Apple.

It sounds like an additional device to have instead of one that replaces something I have. The question will be whether it is really worth having another device around or not.

Are you going to turn into a couch potato?

It will be interesting to hear if you really end up preferring this over a laptop. For me, prefacing this with a disclaimer that I have never tried a tablet, envision a laptop better suited for true "lap" use because of the angle of the screen. When you have a tablet isn't the screen at the wrong angle and too far away - sitting on your "lap" basically at an angle away from your face?

We'll talk about this on Tuesday night I am sure...- )

E.J. Peiker wrote:Well I guess I am much more positive than the tone of the conversation so far. I do think that for me, it will be a device I use every single day just in my home life and of course while traveling. In my home life, I envision this thing being on my lap whenever I watch TV (which is probably too often ). It will certainly be a much more comfortable browsing device while on the couch than a laptop is. On the road, watching movies on it for a longer flight without having to worry about battery exhaustion for 10 hours is a real plus. I also envision that this device will become my daily newspaper. Rather than sitting at a computer or viewing on the tiny iPhone screen for my fix of the NY Times or the Arizona Republic or the Wall Street Journal I will use the iPad.

For photography, I bet that this becomes my preferred way of interacting with the NatureScapes forums. On the road, it will certainly house a portfolio. The portfolio will also be useful with local businesses to show them my photos and get them interested in using or selling them.

Is the device perfect? of course not. it has some gaping holes although connecting devices is probably not one of them given the USB connector that will be available to plug into the standard iPod connector. I am certain there will be some very cool third party apps that become available through the app store that will allow you to use that to do some cool things. Probably the most glaring omissions are Java Support and the lack of a camera. The device is a natural for things like Skype or Yahoo Messenger if it had a camera. Lack of Flash support is more of a nuisance initially because you know that if this device takes off, people will use other methods to get video content to it that doesn't use Flash. Finally, the lack of multitasking in the OS. Since mail is enabled for multitasking that doesn't bother me so much but of course it would be a plus to have it.

Full Disclosure: I have a 64GB iPad 3G+WiFi on order but I waited for a while to order it while I really did a lot of homework on the devices capability and insuring I would have a good use for it.

Greg Downing wrote:Are you going to turn into a couch potato?

It will be interesting to hear if you really end up preferring this over a laptop. For me, prefacing this with a disclaimer that I have never tried a tablet, envision a laptop better suited for true "lap" use because of the angle of the screen. When you have a tablet isn't the screen at the wrong angle and too far away - sitting on your "lap" basically at an angle away from your face?

At night I often watch TV and am constantly getting up when the email chimes or when I want to look something up on the Internet. Yeah the screen angle thing is a concern although the Apple casse, which I have not ordered, does take care of that problem.

Tony, I think from a photo standpoint, time will tell especially as the apps get developed for this device. Part of the reason for this thread was to see what ideas people had about that but I also mentioned how they plan to incorporate it into their digital life.

I have three photo uses planed.
1. Showing portfolio images.
2. Signing Model releases etc, with Mrelease or any of the other apps that do this.
3. Mobile viewing and ordering stations where there isn't room for my full set up of iMacs.

E.J. Peiker wrote: At night I often watch TV and am constantly getting up when the email chimes

That's what a BlackBerry is for.

StephenFitzpatrick wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote: At night I often watch TV and am constantly getting up when the email chimes

That's what a BlackBerry is for.

Not the same thing at all in my book. Screen is too small, keyboard is WAY too small, no really good apps, very poor internet experience, etc, etc.

Rant=on

I've been strongly considering one of these gizmos, breezing by the documented list of "shortcomings" (e.g., no flash) with equanimity. My interest grew with the announcement that the iWork suite had been tweaked for the iPad. Wonderful, says I, that surely means that Apple has jiggered the OS to include native printing support (like every other OS in the world). Visions of sending an interesting web article from the couch to my HP wireless printer danced through my head. Wrong. Incredibly, Apple re-codes Pages, etc., to run on the iPad, then provides no direct means of printing anything. Remember the IBM PC XT? Yup, DOS supported printing way back then. April fools? Apparantly not. There may be some convenient work-around out there somewhere, but I've thus far not found it. With jets now cooled to room temperature, I await a solution. If one emerges, I'm in.

Rant=off

Curmudgeon wrote:Rant=on

I've been strongly considering one of these gizmos, breezing by the documented list of "shortcomings" (e.g., no flash) with equanimity. My interest grew with the announcement that the iWork suite had been tweaked for the iPad. Wonderful, says I, that surely means that Apple has jiggered the OS to include native printing support (like every other OS in the world). Visions of sending an interesting web article from the couch to my HP wireless printer danced through my head. Wrong. Incredibly, Apple re-codes Pages, etc., to run on the iPad, then provides no direct means of printing anything. Remember the IBM PC XT? Yup, DOS supported printing way back then. April fools? Apparantly not. There may be some convenient work-around out there somewhere, but I've thus far not found it. With jets now cooled to room temperature, I await a solution. If one emerges, I'm in.

Rant=off

The app for that already exists and has already been updated for the iPad. It lets you print to any networked printer anywhere. It's called PrinterShare and it's free.

Hopefully EJ will bring his new iPad to Canada in July so I can play with it

Greg Downing wrote:Hopefully EJ will bring his new iPad to Canada in July so I can play with it

Of course

I already have 25 apps downloaded and I don't get mine for another month