I aim looking for an Apple computer to take to Alaska to use to a) back up my images each day; b) to view the images; and c) do some minimal editing with iPhoto. Can anyone offer pros/cons of the iPad vs. Macbook Air?
That's a tricky one. For starters, there is a $300 difference between the two 64 gb models. Also, I don't know if you have a lead finger with the shutter, but you could potentially fill up 64 gbs. Some Compact Flash cards have more storage. You could at least attach an external drive to the MBA and have an extra TB for pretty cheap.
For doing post processing, MBA would probably be better. I like using a mouse when doing PP, and you can't do that with an iPad.
For sheer convenience and ease of use, iPad. It's great for laying in bed or kicking back in a chair. I just use the Ipads for cruising the web and playing the with apps, nothing too fancy.
Or you can get a refurbished MB Pro from apple for less than the Air and get more built in storage space.
as much as I love my ipad , I would have to say the Mac Air.
Cons to the ipad:
Upto 64gig only . and even then if you have anything else on it your storage is much reduced.
My 64 gig nomally runs with less than 18gig free
Editing is not its forte . Iphoto is good (could be better) but its still only good for a bit of viewing, maybe a bit of cropping and setting up journals and slideshows.
Ipad Photoshop is OK but still not that great. (oh and a proper RAW converter is very very slow so your basicly be using the RAW's embedded jpeg, which is what Iphoto etc use)
another con to the ipad which is often overlooked is its much harder to do multiple file choices (to cut/paste etc) . if you have loads of images in your imported folder it takes alot longer to select lots of them than it does on any other computer ive ever used.
Now I have found a god solution to the storage thing. but its still not a good alt for a Computer with the ability to send stuff to a backup drive. Its called Airstash and lets you send files to it . all other media devices ive ever seen (like the colorspace etc) only send stuff TO the ipad , not the other way).
Again I love my ipad . but its no image backup device
Owning both I would have to say the Mac Air, the IPad is fairly useless for storage, if you have wireless Internet then one of the wifi Hd is a solution for the pad.
I have looked at both options for travel purposes and have come to the same conclusion as others here.
There is an external hard drive for the iPad by Sanho, but it's expensive and the transfers aren't very fast due to the slow Apple connector. They used to have an even better product with memory card readers built into the hard drive unit and with the iPad connector, but have discontinued it for some reason.
I found that it would be more expensive and much slower to have an iPad and two of these drives (I'd get the 750GB version) than to get a Mac Airbook and use my current portable drives. Two drives are usually recommended for travel backup so you have redundancy protecting you from a hard drive failure.
And of course, the Airbook is a much better tool for working on images in the field.
Surf:
I didnt know the hyperdrive colorspace had been discontinued. thats a shame as it probably offered one of the better options for the ipad. you could save all you images to the device on a large drive and send/veiw images a set at a time to the ipad.
the one you linked to has the disadvantes of needing a PC/Mac to save data to it and not being able to send data to the device from the ipad (which you also cant do to the colorspace)
As I mentioned above I have found a device marketed by Maxcell called AIRSTASH which allows you to view/send images to the ipad via its own wireless network (same as many other media servers do) but with the airstash you just inser the SD card from you camera (I have stopped using CF cards in my 7D unless i really need the buffer, and now use a CF to SD adapter) . the added bonus is you can export files to the device as well , thus clearing valuable space off of the ipad . Ive not seen much else that offers that ability.
its not a replacement for a notbook or macbook air type computer as there are a couple drawbacks.
its not as quick as just sticking a card into the PC/Mac . it will allow transfer of RAW (which as I said is not the ipads Forte) but raw transfer is slow. you can get it to create jpegs from the raw files on import (leaving the raw on the card) but thats really slow, but is handy if you only have a few files.
But it is handy to have , and after a few emails with their support guys there seems to be a few additions comming in the next few months which will make it even better.
All that said , If i was going on a long trip that i was going to shoot loads of photos I would want some form of backup (and probably a backup for that)
so a mac air (not that i use mac) with an external drive of some sort , Plus if possible enough cards to cover the trip so I didnt have to delete any images while away.
MacBook Air. I have both an iPad and a MacBook Air, and find my iPad to be almost useless for real productive work. I am waiting for a pressure sensitive stylus to ship, in the hopes that it will breathe some usefulness into the product for me. If not, I'll probably sell it.
A colorspace drive along with an ipad is going to be the lightest. Also keep in mind you may want to limit yourself to shooting in JPG with the ipad. RAW's are going to be cumbersome. But you can charge an ipad anywhere there is an outlet rather quickly. Where the air will require a bulky AC adapter as well.
You have to look at the devices for what they are. The iPad is NOT an laptop replacement. It cannot install regular programs. You cannot therefore do major editing.
The iPad is brilliant at being a lightweight machine for viewing the Web, email, watching Movies and podcasts, and Viewing images. Yes there are apps that allow you to do editing in a minor way. You cannot import images directly to a folder structure as you would normally do. I would not use it to store images directly. It is very portable and the battery life is great. I take mine with me all the time.
The MacBook Air is a lightweight laptop. All the current ones are very fast. They will also run all the normal applications such as Aperture, Lightroom and Photoshop and will handle RAW files. Processing times are not that bad. In my opinion, if you want to store files then get the Air along with an external drive.
rcm123 wrote:
Brit, thanks for the input and advice. I'm going with the MacBook Air. By tthe way, any advice on an external drive to go with it? Thanks, Rich
I use a 500 GB 7200 rpm OWC Mercury "On-the-Go" drive with my MBP when I'm traveling, and it's really fast... Because I use OWC drives in my home configuration, it was a no brainer for me to get one of them. At $135, it may be pricier than others but it has a triple interface (FW800/400 & USB 3.0), and is bus powered...
why not get both? you can get a late model macbook air that should more than handle what you're looking to do and you can get a current gen ipad with 16 or 32gb or get an ipad 2 and have both. imo that'd be the best route to go if you're on a budget. ipad is great for transferring images while on the go and mba is good for when you get back to your hotel room. btw, you can get an eye-fi card and use it to wirelessly transfer pics to your ipad while on the go for backup. that's what i do just in case something happens to your card or camera while out taking pics. then when you get back you can transfer from your ipad or eye-fi card.
rcm123 wrote:
Thank you all for the input. Very helpful - the iPad is clearly not the way to go.
that is an understatement. i have owned one (the newest iteration which i won) for 2 weeks and found it to be pretty much slot machine. a dollar here five dollars there just to make it fairly useful. at least with IOS 6 it has a neat alarm clock feature now. though they do have to answer to the Swiss National Railway for ripping off their clock design which i do believe is trademarked.
i see light at the end of the tunnel soon enough. i see a Surface with a real USB port coming my way soon enough and my daughter gets the ipad to play games on.
in addition its definitive need to be "connected" to do many of its functions. it has Bluetooth 4 but only connects up with specific (some what more pricey) products.
Brit-007 wrote:
You have to look at the devices for what they are. The iPad is NOT an laptop replacement. It cannot install regular programs. You cannot therefore do major editing.
The iPad is brilliant at being a lightweight machine for viewing the Web, email, watching Movies and podcasts, and Viewing images. Yes there are apps that allow you to do editing in a minor way. You cannot import images directly to a folder structure as you would normally do. I would not use it to store images directly. It is very portable and the battery life is great. I take mine with me all the time.
The MacBook Air is a lightweight laptop. All the current ones are very fast. They will also run all the normal applications such as Aperture, Lightroom and Photoshop and will handle RAW files. Processing times are not that bad. In my opinion, if you want to store files then get the Air along with an external drive....Show more →
I'm coming from a late 2008 MBP, planning to get a 13" 2012 MacBook Air as my primary computer. I'll be mating it with a Thunderbolt display at home. I do the vast majority of my editing in LR4. It seems that going with the i7 and 8GB of RAM is the way to go if I want to get the most life out of this machine, which I'd plan to use for the next 3-4 years. I have a question regarding the SSD option. Does the 512GB version offer any performance advantage over the 256GB version presuming I keep the drives as empty as possible? I like to import RAWs to the laptop, work on them, and then move them to external drives for the long-term.
As to the original topic, I agree with everyone. I have the original iPad and new iPad, and they're really only good for jpeg uploads and some modifications in Snapseed if I want to post something to Facebook or something. It's also a fun way to view photos while travelling if you don't have a laptop.
