Apple iPad/iPhone, Canon (x0D) DSLRs, CF Cards?

[Cortian]

When we're home, or soon to be returning home, pulling the CF card and dropping it into a card reader connected to the computer is fine, but what about on extended trips?

My wife and I have iPhone 6S' and 2017 9.7" iPads. Both have Lightning connectors. Everything's running iOS 10.3.3, currently. (Until I'm convinced Apple has 11.x right.)

Apple makes a Camera Connection Kit for iPad, but that appears to be for older iPads that have Apple's other proprietary connector, as opposed to the Lightning connector our 2017 9.7" iPads have.

Is there a recommended way to either read the CF card or connect camera <-> iPad to view/transfer photos?

I've got a laptop, but I've fallen out of love with lugging that thing around. And, given the way airlines and the TSA behave, these days, the last thing I want to do is submit it to their tender mercies!

 

[TCampbell]

Apple has a CF card reader for phones & iPads with Lightning connectors.

See: Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader

I use this with my iPad Pro (running iOS 11 ... but it also worked on iOS 10, etc.) and it works great.

 

[Cortian]

Thanks, Tim!

 

[TCampbell]

One thing to keep in mind is that so far the iPad generally does NOT know how to open and process RAW files. So when I'm out on the road and I don't have a laptop, I put the camera in RAW+JPEG mode.

Part of the RAW file includes an embedded JPEG preview image (so you can quickly see what's in a RAW file without having to fully de-mosaic the data). So you may see that and say "oh hey! it's working!" Until you get the image imported and actually try to do something with it... and realize the iPad refuses to let you do anything with it.

If you normally shoot RAW ... just keep that in mind.

 

[Cortian]

I currently normally shoot just JPEG, Tim. But thanks for the add'l info.

 

[Cortian]

Apple has a CF card reader for phones & iPads with Lightning connectors.

See: Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader

I use this with my iPad Pro (running iOS 11 ... but it also worked on iOS 10, etc.) and it works great.

Wait... that link is to an SD card reader.

 

[Light Guru]

Just get more cards.

 

[Cortian]

Just get more cards.

Being as the 8GB card I have will hold more photos than I could reasonably take in a week (I think): That is not the problem. The problem is seeing the results of my work w/o having to wait several days or a week

 

[TCampbell]

Wait... that link is to an SD card reader.

I missed that you need a "CF" card reader. I am not aware of anyone who makes a CF card reader for Lightning.

The alternatives are a USB 2 to Lightning camera adapter and they also now make a USB 3 to Lightning camera adapter. I've used the USB 2 to Lightning with my 5D II (because it only used CF cards). With my 5D III and 5D IV I just save the images to the SD card and use that reader because it's faster than USB 2 speeds.

I checked your profile to see if you list equipment... it says you use a Canon 20D. So I cannot say I've tested the USB 2 adapter with the Canon 20D ... but I see no reason why it should not work.

Older cameras allow you to select between whether the camera will use "Normal" vs. "PTP" mode to transfer pictures. I *think* you have to use PTP mode. But if that doesn't work, try the other mode.