Apple iPad great for photographers?

[bdbolin]

Hey guys, I just wrote an article on the new apple iPad and the benefits it may have for photographers. If you're interested, check it out! iPad - The Ultimate Photography Tool | Rule of Thirds Photography

 

[Garbz]

The iPad will be the ultimate thing to come to photography. Because already there are manufacturers all over the world looking at coming out with something better. With some bloody obvious features like USB ports, or memory card readers, may eliminating the stupid vendor lock in, and not requiring a second home loan to purchase.

Or we could just spend the earth for ... a screen since that's about all they are using this thing for.

The iPad looks like it is going to be a great flat toy and I can't wait for someone to release an actual useful device based on it. As much as I hate Microsoft and moreso HP I am looking far more hopefully towards the HP slate.

 

[usayit]

Nothing about the article relates to the iPad as a photographers' tool in the creation of a photograph. It is all about using the iPad as a presentation device at the point of sale.. which IMO, is the photo-business side of things not the photography side. Even from a point in sale role, its integration to pre-existing systems (Express Digital - The Platform on which Photography Performs is a popular one for many retail studios) will not be totally seamless and might even require cost to develop required apps. It has no full OS (which btw was main complaint of the iphone/itouch) which is a deal killer for any power user. Anyone who carries an iphone/itouch usually also carries as laptop/netbook... in my mind it signifies it as a complete failure for a productivity tool. As a toy or gadget (mp3 player) it is a complete success... the iPad is following the same path. Then again, this might be intended as it falls in line with Apple's expansion from a pure computing corporation to one that also makes consumer electronics.

There's no ability to run lightroom/photoshop
There's no ability to run a RAW processor
There's no built-in USB connector (requires a stupid dongle)
There's no built-in card reader (SD cards require dongle. I didn't see one for CF cards).

The cost of the iPad brings it close to the cost of a Mac Mini. I for one (and I am a Mac user) am very skeptical of the iPad. I've seen several businesses use PC windows based tablets for a variety of things (my doctor's office for example). Integration is easy enough... after all its running the same O/S as the back end (email exchange and client for example). For the life of me, I don't understand why Apple just doesn't put a special version of Mac OS X on the darn thing with a built-in front end to provide an iphone like UI with compatibility with Apps. That would also indirectly solve all the issues mentioned above.

 

[Melesse]

I'm planning on getting a Slate (HP's offering) probably. While the iPad will benefit from a port of Adobe's camera editing app from the iPhone version, it's the complete lack of an SD card slot or a USB port that kills it for me.

These tablets don't have powerful processors or large amounts of memory, so it's basically going to be a preview device for me. Small and light enough to bring with me, and I can pop in a card or a direct cord and preview. I know a lot of people find the LCD on the camera satisfactory for this, but I can't tell you how often a pictures looks great on the LCD and then comes out with something I don't like. Admittedly, a lot of that could likely be inexperience on my part, but I'm looking forward to a way to preview on a larger screen.

Add that to the ability to run elements or gimp or PSP, and the variants running windows 7 should be the obvious choices vs. the iPad. The iPad is highly specialized towards serving up media, and it will be good at that job. Apple has demonstrated time and again their skill at filling a wanted role. However, that role in this case is not photographers.

Mel

 

[gsgary]

I'll stick to laptop and extra flat screen and dye sub printer for events

 

[manicmike]

They could have at least come up with a better name for it. It sounds like a female hygiene product.

 

[Melesse]

I mention the HP Slate before. Linkie - The HP Slate -- Engadget

Also there's another competitor, called the WePad. Linkie - Apple iPad? How about a little German innovation instead

Now that I've looked, I think I'm actually going to be looking at the WePad. It has the same processor as my netbook, a larger screen and runs android (linux) instead of windows, which should be easier on the processor. That will mean GIMP as a photo editor though, if you wanted to do light editing on it. It does have USB and an SD card slot though.

Mel​

 

[LBPhotog]

They could have at least come up with a better name for it. It sounds like a female hygiene product.

I'm a huge mac fan and I thought the exact same thing ... kinda silly name if you ask me ... could have gone with the iTab ... nope, we get iPad, and the next release will be the iPon complete with string.

 

[usayit]

I would have preferred one of the following:

"Macbook Tablet"
"MacTablet"
"Macbook Nano"

Yes.. running full Mac OS X.. in the same size/format as the iPad with the normal connections found on netbooks. Hell... I've been seriously going this route:

Modbook - The first and only tablet Mac computer solution! - Other World Computing


But my netbook hackintosh is keeping me happy for now.

 

[Garbz]

"iSlate" The media spoke best.