Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => iPhone and Mobile Photography => Topic started by: TJunkers on October 30, 2015, 01:01:31 pm
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I'm interested in getting a larger tablet for photo editing on the go. I started looking at the iPad Pro with Apple pencil, and have the Lightning to SD Card cord, but is there anyway to import/edit RAW photos on the iPad or am I better off getting something like the Surface Pro 4?
Thanks, Tyson
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The S4 Pro Core i3 seems to be fanless. It can take micro-sd cards. If you can live with windows I'd go with that. I find I cannot live with windows.
Edmund
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You can import & edit RAWs on an iPad but the software is very basic compared to what's available for OS X or Windows. An iPad version of something like Aperture would be welcome…
-Dave-
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The S4 Pro Core i3 seems to be fanless. It can take micro-sd cards. If you can live with windows I'd go with that. I find I cannot live with windows.
I ended up trying out the Surface Pro 4 for 5 days. When it worked, it was incredible. Using the pen to edit photos on the screen was great, but Windows had more issues than I could ever have imagined. Wifi stopped working hourly, screen flickered often (auto brightness made it worse), screen stopped responding to touch until I restarted it at least once a day, SP4 ignored the snap on keyboard until I removed it and re-snapped it a few times, etc. I ended up returning it.
Sadly the iPad Pro doesn't seem to be the answer either. I just want an iPad Pro that runs OS X and the Modbook is way too expensive. For now I am back to my mac laptop with a wacom tablet.
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For image editing on an iPad I would look at Snapseed. I'm not too impressed with Lightroom Mobile, mostly because it was so slow. I think a better compromise would be to use a Mac Air (buy an older version for a discount) with the same software as your main editing station. I admit that I haven't personally used snapped for my own work, but I have taught some 11 year olds the basics and was impressed with what it could do.
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Snapseed is surprisingly good and uses the touch interface far better than Adobe's lackluster mobile offerings have managed.
I have exported an image or two to my iPad from LR to tweak in Snapseed before now.
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Problem is that it will take forever to import your photos from your cards or camera onto the iPad [Pro]. The system does not have the necessary horsepower, compared to an Intel system with proper USB connections and wifi readers. And that is before you get to the software, or lack of it, for content creation, rather than consumption.
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Problem is that it will take forever to import your photos from your cards or camera onto the iPad [Pro]. The system does not have the necessary horsepower, compared to an Intel system with proper USB connections and wifi readers. And that is before you get to the software, or lack of it, for content creation, rather than consumption.
Not to mention Apple do not even make a lightning connector widget a to download images off a card. You have to bodge the old fashioned camera connection kit to a lighting adaptor which will probably cost you £50 just to be able to slowly import photos.
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Not to mention Apple do not even make a lightning connector widget a to download images off a card. You have to bodge the old fashioned camera connection kit to a lighting adaptor which will probably cost you £50 just to be able to slowly import photos.
That's incorrect.
There's (a) the lightning to SD card reader and (b) lightning to USB camera adapter. No speed issues importing native 24MP jpegs to an iPad Air with either. You can't connect (b) to a card reader that draws power, it's from the cam only. One cable.
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Last time I looked, which was a couple of years after lighting connector had come out, you still had to bodge a solution. Gave up looking after so long had expired with no solution.
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Last time I looked, which was a couple of years after lighting connector had come out, you still had to bodge a solution. Gave up looking after so long had expired with no solution.
A 'thanks' would have been sufficient.
The lightning connector came out over 3 years ago (2012) and the cables shortly after that. So I don't know where or under what rock you were searching but any Apple store would have been a (successful) first thought.
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That's incorrect.
There's (a) the lightning to SD card reader and (b) lightning to USB camera adapter. No speed issues importing native 24MP jpegs to an iPad Air with either.
And with an iPad Air 2 there's no problem processing 42mp RAW files from a Sony A7r2 or even 64mp multi-shot RAWs from an Olympus E-M5ii. The weak point is with the software. What there is works fine…but something with the editing power of Lightroom or Aperture would be welcome. Might require more RAM, which the iPad Pro should provide. Throw in SSD caching, which at least one app I own does, and I see no hardware roadblocks.
-Dave-
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And with an iPad Air 2 there's no problem processing 42mp RAW files from a Sony A7r2 or even 64mp multi-shot RAWs from an Olympus E-M5ii. The weak point is with the software. What there is works fine…but something with the editing power of Lightroom or Aperture would be welcome. Might require more RAM, which the iPad Pro should provide. Throw in SSD caching, which at least one app I own does, and I see no hardware roadblocks.
Thanks, Dave - interesting feedback. I see Apple using Lr mobile in their iPad Pro ads - hopeful that there'll be a software 'boost' soon after the Pro launch. What software are you currently using to ingest and process the RAW's ?
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The lightning connector came out over 3 years ago (2012) and the cables shortly after that. So I don't know where or under what rock you were searching but any Apple store would have been a (successful) first thought.
Spent a lot of time pestering my local Apple store, which has been lacking useful lighting connectors/accessories or much help in getting things connected.
Eventually found a solution to getting my audio card working with my iPad at...PC World. A chap there thought of a way to get things working, a bit of a bodge though with a 30 pin to lightning converter needed.
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Thanks, Dave - interesting feedback. I see Apple using Lr mobile in their iPad Pro ads - hopeful that there'll be a software 'boost' soon after the Pro launch. What software are you currently using to ingest and process the RAW's ?
The Photos app to ingest pics from SD card as it's the default. Then usually PhotoRaw to process…basic but capable. I save either a JPEG or a TIFF out of PhotoRaw and edit that (mostly just sharpening & downsampling) in Photogene.
LR Mobile is a decent enough adjunct to the full-blown version, but I doubt Adobe has any interest in creating a proper standalone mobile LR. So it'll likely be up to someone else…
-Dave-
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It's a Lightning cable, FYI
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It's a Lightning cable, FYI
For SD cards, this thing (attached pic).
-Dave-
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There are quite a few challenges for a developer to create the full experience of something like LR on an iOS device. For this reason I don't expect to see LR on the iPad imminently. Here are the challenges Adobe would face.
1. No colour management in iOS. Unlike on OS X there is no uniform ColorSync equivalent.
2. Lack of support for Adobe toolset/frameworks used to build LR on Mac (this is rather big as an issue).
3. Resource limitations. Although the iPad Pro looks like it will be very powerful, it will not have the RAM of a Mac or PC, not anything like it.
4. Different set of features required on mobile, the integrations with other things means an iOS LR would have a bunch of new features needed not in the OS X version.
These problems level the playing field for a potential competitor, but they would still face problems 1 and 3.
However a competitor can probably not afford to develop such an app, simply because they would need to charge $100-$200 a unit to get a profit. It would be a big investment with an unknown payback. Tablet sales are relatively small in the market and have tailed off.
It's hard to develop any cost effective professional app on iPad for an independent or small development house because the sales are relatively low and price point very low. Much better to target OS X where people expect to pay $50 for an app or even more.
That being said, I'm ordering an iPad Pro tomorrow with the keyboard and pencil to fully evaluate it. At the minimum I am creating an iPad Pro optimised version of my portfolio app.
I have to add that although I own several iPads and develop software for them I personally prefer to use a Moleskine style notebook for all my lab notes and design work. Maybe I can be convinced by the iPad Pro and pencil, but I prefer more traditional tools for creative work that isn't photo processing.
My gut feel is that handling large numbers of raw files will still be cumbersome on iPad Pro, but I live in hope and will test it for this purpose as soon as I get my hands on one.
I also have to put in a good word for Filterstorm which I haven't used much recently but this morning I used it and discovered that it has both curves and cloning capability.
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There are quite a few challenges for a developer to create the full experience of something like LR on an iOS device. For this reason I don't expect to see LR on the iPad imminently.
The points made here are IMO all good ones. In the end Apple may have to take a Surface-like approach to their touch/stylus-based productivity gizmos. This disappoints me in one respect as I'd hoped tablets would offer a financially successful way for both hardware & software developers to provide productivity horsepower while greatly reducing OS bloat. OTOH as long as I can go keyboard-less, with SSD storage, I can put up with all the legacy stuff.
-Dave- (whose carpal tunnel surgery'd right hand twinges at the very sight of a mechanical keyboard)
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As to color management, x-rite does make their ColorTRUE available for both Apple and Android. Problem is very few software app makers have incorporated it into the tablet apps other than viewers.
I have it on both a Samsung tablet and phone. Uses their i1 Display Pro and the battery power of the device runs the x-rite spectrometer. Personally, I like the stock colors better on those devices (More vibrant reds and punchier colors, and less contrast that shows more shadow detail than the contrastier LCD screen.). However, the ColorTRUE images might look better on a large monitor device as well as a printer too.
They do provide a SDK kit for the ColorTRUE app makers so maybe this will change to run within some editor's at some point. Hopefully, Google will put it in Snapseed at some point as it is my editor of choice.
SG
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As to color management, x-rite does make their ColorTRUE available for both Apple and Android. Problem is very few software app makers have incorporated it into the tablet apps other than viewers.
I have it on both a Samsung tablet and phone. Uses their i1 Display Pro and the battery power of the device runs the x-rite spectrometer. Personally, I like the stock colors better on those devices (More vibrant reds and punchier colors, and less contrast that shows more shadow detail than the contrastier LCD screen.). However, the ColorTRUE images might look better on a large monitor device as well as a printer too.
They do provide a SDK kit for the ColorTRUE app makers so maybe this will change to run within some editor's at some point. Hopefully, Google will put it in Snapseed at some point as it is my editor of choice.
SG
There are problems with this approach which is why I didn't in the end put it in my app.
The biggest problem is that it is proprietary and works only with one manufacturers devices, then there are technical and business matters.
If enough users moan to Apple maybe we will get ColorSync in iOS, but I wouldn't hold your breath.
It's interesting your perspective on the end results, I believe most users like the punch of the images on iPad and so a little accuracy may be sacrificed for a persuasive rendering.
I got my iPad pro today and I'm very impressed. This is a wonderful device for consuming and presenting photography. Time will tell if it becomes a good way of producing it as well.
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I had a look at the iPad Pro and agree that it's fine for looking at pics, and is fast. But I am not sold on the form factor, although it is not as heavy as I had expected.
Unlike a regular iPad, you cannot hold it in one hand for any length of time, so you'll end up using the detachable keyboard. Trouble is, the Mac-like keyboard has no trackpad, so you end up tapping the screen. The stand is, however, not particularly strong, so the whole thing skitters around. Having 3D Touch on the IPhone but not on the iPad seems odd.
It's great for drawing things, but I would not use it for culling, tagging, annotating my pics on the go. Ingestion is glacial and syncing the results back to home base Lightroom a guddle.
For that task, the Laptop remains the simplest solution, even though it is heavier. The new Surface looks good, but seems to have the sort of glitches that don't seem so prevalent with the more expensive and heavier MacBook Pros.
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I had a look at the iPad Pro and agree that it's fine for looking at pics, and is fast. But I am not sold on the form factor, although it is not as heavy as I had expected.
Unlike a regular iPad, you cannot hold it in one hand for any length of time, so you'll end up using the detachable keyboard. Trouble is, the Mac-like keyboard has no trackpad, so you end up tapping the screen. The stand is, however, not particularly strong, so the whole thing skitters around. Having 3D Touch on the IPhone but not on the iPad seems odd.
It's great for drawing things, but I would not use it for culling, tagging, annotating my pics on the go. Ingestion is glacial and syncing the results back to home base Lightroom a guddle.
For that task, the Laptop remains the simplest solution, even though it is heavier. The new Surface looks good, but seems to have the sort of glitches that don't seem so prevalent with the more expensive and heavier MacBook Pros.
I have a Pro too. With 4GB of RAM, and a very fast processor, it could theoretically deal with any dSLR Raw files, if software were available.
My 60 year old eyes tell me that the Pro was a good deal. I like it a lot.
As it stands, I am really happy with the Pro as it allows me to read downloaded books, web pages and PDFs without eyestrain, scan through email, and even make written annotations and idea sketches. I don't think one should hope for more.
The iPad is like the original Mac, a machine with a special purpose OS with a complex programming model and "rules" that hobble software creation. As was the case for the Mac, the special-purpose system was commercially useful initially, but is now proving a hindrance in many cases.
As an example, it has a web browser, but it is impossible to use multitasking to run an iPython background kernel properly.
If the multitasking restriction were lifted, one might run a lot of software as faceless apps with browser display and interface.
My feeling increasingly is that someone should bring out a pocket "iPad companion" Linux computer that could be programmed easily, use standard "small format" SSDs, and do the "computer" stuff.
Edmund
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Stopped by the local Apple store and had a look at the new Ipad Pro. The size is nice for a portfolio tablet, BUT, I was disappointed in the display which only had 261 PPI and seemed bland for lack of a better description. I did not pursue the matter further as my Galaxy 8.4 has a much better display. Apple as usual stops just before being "state of the art", it teases just like a woman that leads you up to the edge and than says NO.
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I have to add that although I own several iPads and develop software for them I personally prefer to use a Moleskine style notebook for all my lab notes and design work. Maybe I can be convinced by the iPad Pro and pencil, but I prefer more traditional tools for creative work that isn't photo processing.
Sounds like you are a good candidate for Microsoft OneNote. It's simply the most brilliant of tools for keeping notes, drawings, photos and the like. And it's accessible via iOS, OS X, Android and Windows. (And, no I don't work for or have shares in Microsoft - I just think a great tool deserves praise)
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Sounds like you are a good candidate for Microsoft OneNote. It's simply the most brilliant of tools for keeping notes, drawings, photos and the like. And it's accessible via iOS, OS X, Android and Windows. (And, no I don't work for or have shares in Microsoft - I just think a great tool deserves praise)
OneNote is incredible. The problem as always is the fluidity of the surrounding system. A notebook never runs out of batteries amd never takes longer than half a second to open. Also, there is something physically engaging about the fact that words stay where they are put, and the feeling of pen in one hand and paper texture in the other.
I have had the iPad pro for a week now. As a web tool and a Pdf reader, I like it. If it had a Samsung Oled screen and full OS X it would be unbeatable. I think the single missing piece of software is now some reinvention of Hypercard.
Btw, there is a nice trick, both Safari and DropBox can save Pdf versions of any web page, but if you save to a local dropbox file you can then reopen with an editor like PDFExpert and annotate and scribble.
Edmund
Edmund
Edmund