Photographers iPad review after 30 days

I’ve had the iPad for about a month. I picked up a Wi-Fi 32g the day it was released in Canada. I can say I’ve put it through it’s paces for both business and pleasure since the unboxing. Here’s my review.

As a laptop replacement, I’ve been very pleased. My previous lappy was an old PowerBook G4, from 2004. In it’s heyday, it was the fastest laptop available. It was with me on every shoot, and as my desktop. 4 hard drives, 2 power cords and $4500 later, it’s a paperweight. Unless of course I jump in and buy yet another power cord. The processor can’t run the creative suite, or any version of OSX higher than 10.4.1. So all it really did lately was act as a web surfing / email solution. Enter iPad.

There has been no missing the old PowerBook since this iPad came info my life. (I’m creating this blog post on my iPad). It’s light. Light enough to have to check to see if it is still in your bag, light enough for it to be with you absolutely everywhere you go. I haven’t gone far without it. It’s just too light to not tote along.

It doesn’t come with much so you’ll want to get a case and a screen protector. The Apple iPad case is terrible. I did buy it, only to return it 3 days later for a refund. The great thing about the apple case is how it acts as a stand and keeps the iPad at a nice angle for typing horizontally. The deal breaker points for me was the terrible construction using cheap materials confirmed by the fact that mine started to come apart after just 3 days. This case no doubt costs $3 to make overseas and should come free with iPad purchase or should be $19.99 tops. Stay away from the apple iPad case until they make improvements.

I did replace the case I returned to apple with an amazing case from Macally. This case fits the iPad snug, it’s injection molded high density rubber and it fits perfectly. It actually takes a minute to get on. The speakers, headphone jack and microphone, as well as the dock connector are cut away for easy access, while the sleep button and the volume switch are molded to stay protected and can be used through the case. It doesn’t come with a screen protector so I picked up a matt screen protector which does wonders to reduce glare and fingerprints although it does reduce the sharpness of the iPad screen slightly.

The Macally case is great for when you are using your iPad, but for transport, it offers little protection for when it’s in your bag. For this task, I picked up a neoprene sleeve from Incase designed for iPad. It’s simple, sleek, and comes with a cool laser cut piece of plastic that you can use as a stand.

Back to the review.

For browsing the web, I haven’t found a better experience. The iPad version of mobile safari is wicked quick. It seems almost faster than safari on my iMac. I downloaded the free Speedtest app and while on Wi-Fi, my connection speed consistently is as fast as any desktop I’ve tried. It seems although there is a limited amount of ram on the iPad, it seems as though the OS is streamlined and has speed in mind. It will be interesting to see how the ipad works with the new OS4. We’ ll have to wait until fall when Apple releases that update. As for the missing flash? I haven’t come across too many sites that I frequent that I can’t see. Any sites that haven’t jumped the flash ship for HTML5 video are missing the boat. I never remember to go back on my desktop.

For typing, it takes a bit of getting used to. If you have an iphone already, you will appreciate the larger keyboard. You can’t use the thumb type method, the buttons are laid out like a full size keyboard. But you can’t feel the keys. So again, it takes some getting used to. The auto correct is also improved, I can literally just jam on the keyboard and hit spacebar after each word and watch in marvel as it corrects my errors. It’s not perfect, but works well enough for emails and blog posts. Serious wordsmiths should invest in the keyboard dock or the wireless keyboard.

As a photographer, I needed to hear some info about the camera connector kit. There are 2 pieces in the box. One for SD cards and one USB conector for camera direct connection. It accepts both raw and jpgs as file types as well as movie files. I shoot CF cards so the SD card slot is not needed, I also use a USB card reader which accepts any card so it would be nice to be able to buy these 2 connectors separately. Why force us to buy both? Also keep in mind that you will need to shoot RAW+JPG on your camera. Although the iPad will recognize raw files, you cant see them. If you want to see your images on your iPad, shoot both raw and jpg. It doesn’t playback movies imported from memory cards either. At least not from the Canon 7D. It shows a white box with a movie icon and .mov text. No playback, so you know.

When you shoot RAW+JPG, you see the images as soon as you plug in your camera or card. You can import all or select which images to bring in. The images come in from the 7D fast. 1 every other second. Once you have finished your import you have the option to delete the imported card right from the iPad or keep the files on the card for import elsewhere.

I use aperture for importing files so when I dock my ipad to my iMac, aperture opens and the import dialogue pops up. It sees my iPad and allows me to import as if I’m using CF cards or plugging my camera directly. After import you can eject the iPad from your computer and begin working on your images. All your raw files, movie files and jpgs are now in full resolution. The iPad for me now acts as a tool to show images instantly to my clients as its passed around the room. I need not import to my machine until the clients have left. I can delete blinks and blank frames on the iPad and then import to my desktop.

A huge irritation is no ability to batch delete images off your iPad. You can’t delete them through iTunes. iTunes will allow you to delete photos you sync to your iPad but won’t delete images imported onto your iPad. And there is no select all, delete. This leaves deleting them one at a time. I import sometimes up to a thousand images after a session. And yes I’ve had to delete them one by one. Tap, tap, tap, tap… It’s like a game. Takes too much time, and its a stupid oversight. I hope it gets fixed in an update. Hint, hint Apple. Select all, delete after importing photos. Get on it.

That huge guff aside, it’s really nice viewing images on the iPad. For a photographer, its dreamy. I have physical books, which i still bring. But it is nice giving people the option. Would you like to see my book or look on my iPad? Most choose the latter. Zooming and thumbnails. Gestures everyone knows how to use the instant they handle it. It’s just cool.

I’ve grown to be a bit of an Apple fan boy over the last 6 years when I completely turned my back on anything PC, but I’m not the guy that will buy anything shiny with an Apple logo on it. I do research, I investigate. I hated the look of the iPad when I first saw it. But then I touched it. Then I had to have one. After 30 days with this thing, I’m very pleased with how it’s worked into my business workflow and into my personal life. It’s a pleasure to own and use. My design teacher said, “Always write with your favorite pen”, then proceeded to school me on industrial design and how it benefits us artists in our daily tasks. The iPad is a wonder of design and function. No, it doesn’t do everything a desktop does, but it’s a dream to use, fast easy and light to carry. It’s my portfolio, it’s my mobile business center, it’s the place I import my images after every shoot. You couldn’t live with just this as a machine, but it is a start of a new computing revolution. There are over a dozen tablets about to be released to try to compete with the iPad, but with the thousands of iPad apps already available and the iTunes store, it may be hard to compete.

I’m sure the second generation iPad will be something else to talk about.