Topic: iPad Pro vs Competition Question (Read 10771 times)

TJunkers · « **on:** October 30, 2015, 01:01:31 pm »

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

eronald · « **Reply #1 on:** November 03, 2015, 08:25:25 pm »

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

Telecaster · « **Reply #2 on:** November 04, 2015, 03:23:57 pm »

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-

TJunkers · « **Reply #3 on:** November 04, 2015, 03:29:13 pm »

Quote from: eronald on November 03, 2015, 08:25:25 pm

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.

HSakols · « **Reply #4 on:** November 06, 2015, 07:45:32 pm »

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.

jjj · « **Reply #5 on:** November 06, 2015, 08:10:39 pm »

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.

jrp · « **Reply #6 on:** November 07, 2015, 06:17:28 pm »

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.

jjj · « **Reply #7 on:** November 07, 2015, 06:29:07 pm »

Quote from: jrp on November 07, 2015, 06:17:28 pm

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.

Manoli · « **Reply #8 on:** November 07, 2015, 07:51:11 pm »

Quote from: jjj on November 07, 2015, 06:29:07 pm

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.

jjj · « **Reply #9 on:** November 08, 2015, 03:13:30 pm »

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.

Manoli · « **Reply #10 on:** November 08, 2015, 05:28:40 pm »

Quote from: jjj on November 08, 2015, 03:13:30 pm

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.

Telecaster · « **Reply #11 on:** November 08, 2015, 05:56:32 pm »

Quote from: Manoli on November 07, 2015, 07:51:11 pm

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-

Manoli · « **Reply #12 on:** November 08, 2015, 06:47:47 pm »

Quote from: Telecaster on November 08, 2015, 05:56:32 pm

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 ?

jjj · « **Reply #13 on:** November 09, 2015, 09:52:07 am »

Quote from: Manoli on November 08, 2015, 05:28:40 pm

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.

Telecaster · « **Reply #14 on:** November 09, 2015, 05:23:50 pm »

Quote from: Manoli on November 08, 2015, 06:47:47 pm

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-

Lundberg02 · « **Reply #15 on:** November 09, 2015, 08:04:29 pm »

It's a Lightning cable, FYI

Telecaster · « **Reply #16 on:** November 09, 2015, 10:40:55 pm »

Quote from: Lundberg02 on November 09, 2015, 08:04:29 pm

It's a Lightning cable, FYI

For SD cards, this thing (attached pic).

-Dave-

free1000 · « **Reply #17 on:** November 10, 2015, 07:40:08 am »

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.

Telecaster · « **Reply #18 on:** November 10, 2015, 04:38:08 pm »

Quote from: free1000 on November 10, 2015, 07:40:08 am

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)

Some Guy · « **Reply #19 on:** November 11, 2015, 12:33:03 pm »

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

Author Topic: iPad Pro vs Competition Question (Read 10771 times)