p.3 #1 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
joychris wrote:
Too many compromises. I'd get a MacBook Air and not worry about all the workarounds you need to use an iPad in comparison. I've been to 55 countries with my MBA, as good as iPads are now, I still won't move to one. It's a PITA to do the simplest of tasks - move files. For me its MBA or just take more cards.
Cheers
Chris
I guess you missed the bit about I'm hiking and need to reduce my carry weight
The MB Air M2 weighs 1.24 kg and M1 1.29 kg. The iPad Pro around 468g (WiFi and Cellular). I will use the pencil not the keyboard when hiking (keyboard is too heavy). That's a huge weight saving. Not to say that the workarounds are just a card reader and an external SSD - both of which I use with my desktop !
If I wasn't hiking then my wife's MBA does just fine as did my MBP before that - because of course you can have full scale editing software on them. We were stuck in Vienna for 9 months during the epidemic and that's all I used (I added a monitor).
But having traveled to 77 countries (and counting) requirements vary by the nature of travel, hiking and sleeping in a tent a laptop is too much weight and even for short trips (a few days to a week), now I'm retired I prefer to leave it behind.
p.3 #2 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
Some recharging times :
iPad Pro M1 at 21% using 3A Powerbank to recharge took around (I forgot to check the exact time ) 4.5 hrs to 100%. This is very cool for me because it means I'll get plenty out of my 3 powerbanks (2x10k mAh and 1x20k mAh) when off grid (and I'll have a LOT to charge).
iPad Pro M1 at 03 %, using mains to recharge, took around 4 hrs to 82% and another hour to 100%.
Sorry I can't be more accurate - but it's a guide.
p.3 #3 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
Just another update for the 3 people who may be interested in this. This is the procedure and how it worked out, of transferring RAW files from my camera SD card to the SSD via the iPad Pro M1.
I used a slow SD card to transfer (8 GB and 30 mb/s), so I assume as I was selecting them the iPad was already preparing them. This is the long version (not using a hub to connect both SD card and SSD at the same time).
3.5 GB (1.5 GB video and 2.0 GB RAW files)
1. Connect the Apple SD card dongle (C type connector) to the iPad.
2. Open the Files app on the iPad
3. Using the Files app choose 'Select' and then navigate to the SD card in the well known disk & folder bar on the left (hit the icon top left if it's not showing).
4. Select the SD card and then go to the files to move (and it's MOVE not Duplicate, it WON'T remove the files from the SD card but 'duplicate' just copies them to your SD card) it takes just a few seconds, just run your finger down the list on the left and it'll select them as you go - or hit 'Select All'.
5. Select where you want to copy them to on the iPad
6. Hit Copy in the top right corner : copying took about 6 secs in total (see the 2nd paragraph above).
7. Exchange the SD card Dongle for the SSD (I am using a Sandisk 2 TB SSD)
8. In the Files app go to the folder where you copied them to and hit 'select all'.
9. Navigate to the SSD folder where you want to paste them and hit 'Copy' in the top right.
10. Moving the 3.5 GB from the iPad onto the SSD took 3.5 secs.
Notes
1. If you haven't done so already you can create new folders in both Files and on the SSD before starting the procedure or during.
2. My iPad has 256GB space so, as I've used ca. 70GB already I'm limited to transferring ca. 180GB at any one time. Likely more than enough for any one day depending on how much video has been shot.
p.3 #4 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
This was a good thread to read through guys, lots of specifics that help people searching later, like me!
Appreciate all those who took the time to chime in with specific experiences, devices, and processes - when you give the why's behind things, it's super helpful when applying to other situations.
p.3 #5 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
Yeah, a Sandisk 2TB SSD connected to an iPad Pro would be useful for dumping and processing photos. A decent option would be the most recent iPad Pro with at least 256GB of storage. Adobe Lightroom and Affinity Photo are popular options for editing.
Anker PowerCore Essential 20000 is a dependable alternative with quick charging and numerous ports for a 20k mAh battery pack.
p.3 #6 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
Frogfish wrote:
All in the title.
I have a long trip coming up to Guizhou (3 weeks) and then to Iceland (6 weeks) in the Summer. Would an iPad Pro work well as a photo dump (with an attached Sandisk 2TB SSD) and for editing ? Which version (I do have a 'variable' budget) !
Which editing program would you recommend (I use ON1 Photo Raw 2023 at home)?
Which 20k mAh battery pack would you recommend?
Cheers !
I think it depends a bit on how you weigh the importance of the screen and color accuracy vs. portability. I had an 11" iPad Pro until about a year ago. I found that processing an individual photo was fast, but I had to keep the screen at max brightness to see the most "correct" version of the image. When working with multiple files back to back, or multiple edits to high resolution files, the display would dim quickly to dissipate heat. That dimming made it hard to judge what was the correct exposure and colors, and this was compounded because you couldn't calibrate the screen to the normal 6500K I am used to working at (I think some of the screens are closer to 7000K, but don't quote me). I did my final edits on a desktop regardless, but the screen was always further off for reference than what I was happy with. Adding to this, like others have mentioned, iPadOS can be a real pain for professional workloads and it's harder to pick back up on a laptop or desktop later.
I ended up buying the 14 inch MacBook Pro and I have been very happy. Calibrating the Mini-LED screen is also really difficult, but at least possible, and brightness is easy to set (e.g. 100 nits for editing). If it heats up it cranks its fans higher. Perhaps the biggest advantage, however, was being able to use MacOS to transfer and organize files and be able to use the full version of my software of choice (in my case, Photoshop).
Since the MacBook Pro is somewhat heavy, I think the M2 MacBook Air would be a nice compromise. It is lighter and has a regular IPS screen which I think is easier to calibrate. The only drawback is you will need to pay quite a lot to get comparable storage and RAM to the MacBook Pro. It won't be a better value, but you also can't get a MacBook Pro that is as light and portable.
p.3 #7 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
I have a M1 14 Macbook Pro and its a very nice machine - very compact for what it does, etc and having compared it to a M2 MacBook Air for a few days the Air's screen while great on it's own, was certainly inferior to the 14 MacBook Pro for most things. I thought both were adequate travel processing machines.
I have an older 11 iPad Pro (ist gen with USBC) and it's been a while since I seriously edited on it but I don't remember it diming in use. Could that be a setting?
Anyway thanks for everyone's contribution in this discussion. All very interesting.
p.3 #8 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
Just a quick update. I’m currently at a small town called Congjiang in Guizhou on my way to yet another small town (my 9th on this tour).
My workflow has been simple, back up files to my iPad Pro M1 (it won’t read the large Sony RAWs unless you import them into Apple Photos, which I don’t, I keep them in the Files app so shoot both RAW and jpg.
I then switch out the Green card reader (fast) and connect the Sandisk 2TB SSD. Transfers are fast enough but the iPad doesn’t multitask. Transferring around 30-40GB per time (I video too and have drones and Insta X2 POV on top of my A7r5 and A7r4 (IR).
I then delete the RAW files from the iPad keeping the jpgs for editing (ON1, LR, Snapseed and Darktable) for on the road social media posting.
The most important RAW files from each day I keep on the iPad. This all takes me around 30 mins each evening.
So I now have the important files in three places (SD card, SSD and iPad) stored in different places (SSD on me, SD cards in the roller bag and iPad in my camera bag.
The system works and has saved me a kg in weight over a MBP. I will however check out hubs for my next trip, so I can go direct from SD cards to the SSD.
A bonus is the 4 speaker surround on the iPad Pro (only, not on the other iPads which have just the two speakers despite appearing to have four speaker enclosures) which is excellent for watching films or YT.
p.3 #9 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
I use the 12” iPad Pro to retrieve, move, store and edit photos when away from home. It works just fine. I use a portable SSD to back up photos and a USB C hub so I can have everything all plugged in at the same time. It is significantly smaller than carrying my laptop.
I also use Adobe cloud Lightroom and Photoshop on my iPad Pro. They work great as well with one caveat. Everything gets uploaded to the cloud and if you circle back later to your edited photos you need to download them again. It’s a pain.
p.3 #10 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
When traveling I'm typically only gone 2 weeks or less and don't do a lot of editing while traveling, so I use my 11" iPad Pro to backup photo's, although with the dual memory cards on the A1 my risk is pretty low of complete failure unless I lose my camera. On flights I use my ipad with a standard cover for movies etc., and have the magic keyboard for when I want to use it more as a laptop on the trip. Keeps things simple.
p.3 #11 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
Late to the party here, but I'll +1 the iPad as a decent mobile photo editing "workstation". I'm using a simple iPad 9th generation with LR, works great. Got it open box for about $250, 64gB of ram. Plenty for me, I striped out unneeded APPS: Music, Notes, Reminders, all the "office" stuff...etc. Plenty of storage for my needs. Quick editing of JPGs and the odd RAW once & a while.
Pick one up at Amazon, Best Buy, B&H... who ever has a deal going, and offers a 30 day return. Try it out. If it doesn't work return it. If it meets your needs, keep it.
FWIW, sometime down the road, I might buy a iPad Air, Apple Silicon version, with 256Gb and use it as my main Photo Editing station, then ditch my Windows LR set up.
p.3 #12 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
Frogfish wrote:
...
A bonus is the 4 speaker surround on the iPad Pro (only, not on the other iPads which have just the two speakers despite appearing to have four speaker enclosures) which is excellent for watching films or YT.
p.3 #13 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
I'm curious if anyone has used the Cascable app? I'll download it and give it a try. It has a feature to transfer photos from the camera straight to an external storage device, using Wifi to the camera I think. Not sure how fast that would be. Has anyone tried it?
p.3 #14 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
Personal anecdote, but I had an experience with editing photos on my iPad pro that has soured me for using an iPad for anything serious.
Went to visit a friend that lives about 6 hours from me, he had an incredible Bernese Mountain Dog named Zeus that was getting up there in age for a breed notorious for living short lives.
Thinking nothing of it, I transferred all the photos I took on the trip to my iPad, I had a look at Zeus' pictures with a photo editor/viewer that I cannot remember at the moment, in the middle of transferring the photos. I think at the time, it wasn't clear if the memory card was safely removed, and since I haven't tried ever again I don't think there is a way to select "safely-remove" the SD card, so I just pulled it out. Went home to actually edit the photos from the SD card on my mac at home, and all the photos of Zeus were corrupted and that week Zeus went over the rainbow bridge, I lost the last pictures that were ever taken of Zeus. I don't remember why today, but the pictures were not on the iPad either, I may have just been viewing them not actually transferring them as the iCloud integration with photos annoys me.
I still have and use an iPad today, but I use it purely as a web navigation/media consumption/note taking device, and even on the latter it has given me headaches for lost files luckily the app I was using gave me more backup options. The file system on iPados is an after thought and it's not very good or intuitive to use. I really hope that one day they will add MacOS to the iPad pro then I will use and buy that iPad pro for serious work.
p.3 #15 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
Butterfingers wrote:
Personal anecdote, but I had an experience with editing photos on my iPad pro that has soured me for using an iPad for anything serious.
Went to visit a friend that lives about 6 hours from me, he had an incredible Bernese Mountain Dog named Zeus that was getting up there in age for a breed notorious for living short lives.
Thinking nothing of it, I transferred all the photos I took on the trip to my iPad, I had a look at Zeus' pictures with a photo editor/viewer that I cannot remember at the moment, in the middle of transferring the photos. I think at the time, it wasn't clear if the memory card was safely removed, and since I haven't tried ever again I don't think there is a way to select "safely-remove" the SD card, so I just pulled it out. Went home to actually edit the photos from the SD card on my mac at home, and all the photos of Zeus were corrupted and that week Zeus went over the rainbow bridge, I lost the last pictures that were ever taken of Zeus. I don't remember why today, but the pictures were not on the iPad either, I may have just been viewing them not actually transferring them as the iCloud integration with photos annoys me.
I still have and use an iPad today, but I use it purely as a web navigation/media consumption/note taking device, and even on the latter it has given me headaches for lost files luckily the app I was using gave me more backup options. The file system on iPados is an after thought and it's not very good or intuitive to use. I really hope that one day they will add MacOS to the iPad pro then I will use and buy that iPad pro for serious work....Show more →
In sorry but this sounds much like user error mate. I mean there are a lot of ifs buts maybes and don't remember in that recall.
In the procedure I posted above (used every day for 3 weeks in Guizhou) it was a little convoluted but worked seamlessly (and I then had 2-3 copies of each file). I'll follow that exact procedure again for my upcoming 5-6 weeks in Iceland. Using jpgs for processing on the iPad pro for social media posts whilst the RAWs remain untouched until I return home.
p.3 #16 · iPad Pro for Trips : Photo dumping and basic editing.
My iPad Pro M1 2TB with Adobe Lightroom and cloud storage has been bulletproof for me. Works great (import to LR, let it sync to cloud as backup). Have an M2 MacBook Air but I use the iPad Pro for almost everything nowadays. MacBook Air comes in handy for some work related things but I travel with just the iPad Pro and use for everything photo and video related if I’m not at home on the Mac desktop. Even better now that Final Cut Pro is coming out, I won’t have to switch between LumaFusion and Final Cut Pro.
