How Do You Use Your iPad?

[Dan]

My laptop died and I'm considering an iPad instead since I no longer need an actual laptop.

How do you guys, as photographers, use the iPad? Which size have you found the most useful?

Thanks.

 

[julio1fer]

I am happy with an iPad Mini. My glasses make good of the small screen and it is oh so portable.

Don't use it too much for photography, though, although it is very good as a portable portfolio in a pinch.

I do use a lightmeter application in the iPhone.

 

[Godfrey]

My laptop died and I'm considering an iPad instead since I no longer need an actual laptop.

How do you guys, as photographers, use the iPad? Which size have you found the most useful?

I have three: iPad mini3, iPad Pro 9.7, and iPad Pro 12.3. (I have had the mini3 for a while. The big Pro was given to me as an office perk a year ago. I like it a lot but find its size a bit daunting for a carry-around machine, so I bought myself the Pro 9.7 ... that's why I have all three. ;-)

The iPad Pro 9.7 with its case and Keyboard Cover is my standard carry-around portable machine nowadays. It has the best screen of the three and the performance between it and the bigger Pro is so close as to be almost indistinguishable. I do most everything with it that I would do with a laptop.

For photography, I have the Leica SL App installed and can use it as remote and controller for my Leica SL, and with the Lightning SD Card Adapter I can bring over images from either the SL or M-D for processing. I have PhotoRAW, SnapSeed, and Photogene 4 installed for image processing. With Keynote, iMovie, and Pages I assemble presentations of photo work. I also write with it, and illustrate my writing with photos and with drawings made with Paper by 53.

It's quite a versatile machine, and fits in most of my camera bags easily should I want to carry it that way. I generally can get about two days of fairly heavy use on a charge with it.

G

 

[AlexBG]

My 4 year old uses it to watch youtube.

My problems with an ipad are storage, they get slower and slower after every update, the touch screen is hard to edit photos compared to a mouse pad and the apps aren't as good as on a laptop.

I really wanted to use an ipad but it really is just a big iphone, so personally I will always have a mac.

Why do you not need a laptop anymore? What do you need to do with your photos?

 

[Dan]

I have three: iPad mini3, iPad Pro 9.7, and iPad Pro 12.3. (I have had the mini3 for a while. The big Pro was given to me as an office perk a year ago. I like it a lot but find its size a bit daunting for a carry-around machine, so I bought myself the Pro 9.7 ... that's why I have all three. ;-)

The iPad Pro 9.7 with its case and Keyboard Cover is my standard carry-around portable machine nowadays. It has the best screen of the three and the performance between it and the bigger Pro is so close as to be almost indistinguishable. I do most everything with it that I would do with a laptop.

For photography, I have the Leica SL App installed and can use it as remote and controller for my Leica SL, and with the Lightning SD Card Adapter I can bring over images from either the SL or M-D for processing. I have PhotoRAW, SnapSeed, and Photogene 4 installed for image processing. With Keynote, iMovie, and Pages I assemble presentations of photo work. I also write with it, and illustrate my writing with photos and with drawings made with Paper by 53.

It's quite a versatile machine, and fits in most of my camera bags easily should I want to carry it that way. I generally can get about two days of fairly heavy use on a charge with it.

G

Godfrey,

I'm leaning towards the 9.7 pro at this point, mostly for exactly what you stated.

 

[Dan]

My 4 year old uses it to watch youtube.

My problems with an ipad are storage, they get slower and slower after every update, the touch screen is hard to edit photos compared to a mouse pad and the apps aren't as good as on a laptop.

I really wanted to use an ipad but it really is just a big iphone, so personally I will always have a mac.

Why do you not need a laptop anymore? What do you need to do with your photos?

My photo processing takes place on my MacPro desktop and I no longer need much in the way of portable applications, i.e. a laptop. The iPad would be primarily to show images, get internet access when traveling, and just noodling around on the couch.

 

[Pablito]

This will be a minority opinion but i strongly dislike the iPad / tablets in general. Had the opportunity to use one for a few weeks and was happy to give it back. I have an 11" MacBook Air which is like an iPad with a keyboard. But it's a real computer. Yes, I've seen the iPads with the add on keyboards. Never made much sense to me.

 

[oldwino]

My photo processing takes place on my MacPro desktop and I no longer need much in the way of portable applications, i.e. a laptop. The iPad would be primarily to show images, get internet access when traveling, and just noodling around on the couch.

Well, it's perfect for that! I do a bit of editing jpegs sometimes, just for online use.

 

[rybolt]

I agree with oldwino. I've been using various Ipads for quite some time. I just picked up a 9.7 Inch Ipad Pro with 128gb and find that it's perfect for showing work. I use a portfolio program called Portfolio Pro and a cheap Photo Transfer program that interfaces with Flickr, Dropbox or directly to the computer via FTP.
The speed is very good. I also downloaded LR Mobile and Photoshop Fix and they both work very well on the Ipad Pro.

 

[Dogman]

My iPad is a replacement for the laptop I hardly ever used. I surf the Net, listen to music, read books, keep up with the news, send emails and all the other mundane activities of 21st Century daily living. Photographically, I do nothing with the iPad...I do that at home with the iMac.

 

[nikonhswebmaster]

I mostly read and surf the web with my iPad mini. I carry it on trips.

I am not selling any photos -- so iPhoto is really overkill for my photo editing needs. I store my photos on Apple's iCloud.

If I was actually showing work I would use my desktop.

As an aside, I don't really like edited photos very much for my personal work, I come from years of shooting chromes, so edited photos seem fussy and uninteresting to me. But for client work, I use Photoshop, which is not on the iPad.

 

[Greyscale]

As a trivet when my soup is too hot.

 

[B-9]

I have a IPad 2,

Haggled my way into it with a few beers an a favor.

Love searching the web on it over the IPhone, just enable my personal hotshot and I've got the web anywhere.

Playing with a few photo apps as well, I currently have Photo Shop Express, VSCO, and Filmborn.

I would skip PS express, VSCO offers more control, still exploring Filmborn.

 

[willie_901]

I only use my iPads for content consumption and device control. I don't use them for content creation.

• remote control for TV/home theatre audio/wireless control devices

• viewing TV and movies

• remote control for home systems (thermostats, security systems, etc.).

• my ancient iPad for streams internet radio (as I once used a FM tuner) .

• store and view PDFs of practically all my electronics, IT, photography, vehicle and other manuals. OneNote works well as do other PDF and document and organizational Apps.

• view records such as paperless invoices, and financial records stored on other devices

• occasionally I show people photography projects

• occasionally I use one to operate my Fujifilm X-T1

I tried using them with a Bluetooth keyboard, but switched back to my 13" MacBook Air.

I use a basic Kindle for reading (no distractions). My reading consumption increased dramatically compare to reading on an iPad.

The advent of robust access to iCloud and numerous other Cloud storage solutions renders internal storage limitations moot.

I live where fiber optic internet access is inexpensive and reliable which makes most of the above possible. Three basic 5 GHz wireless routers cover my home. New WiFi routers such as Google Mesh make whole-house coverage even more robust.

 

[Bill Clark]

For photography processing of RAW files I use an iMac that I bought in 2006. It has Photoshop installed and works for me. I have external USB hard drives I use rather than the hard drive on the computer to store stuff.

For spreadsheet tasks, used for analysis and accounting, I have a Dell computer that I bought in 2002 and it still works for me.

I spend most of my time, now that I'm retired, on my iPad mini. It provides me with my connection to the internet. I rarely use it for photography.

It depends what you want to do with your photography. The iPad, any if them, can make nice photographs as well as video. You can do things, like instantly send them via email, store them on some outside server (cloud), send photos to web sites like here, send them to be printed and do many other tasks.

This technology stuff is a moving target and changes, mostly for the better, fairly often. The decision you make today probably will need to re-examined sooner rather than later.

 

[Timmyjoe]

My photo processing takes place on my MacPro desktop and I no longer need much in the way of portable applications, i.e. a laptop. The iPad would be primarily to show images, get internet access when traveling, and just noodling around on the couch.

If that's what you're planning on using it for, I think it will do fine. I tried to use one to replace my laptop for work, and it didn't pan out. Dumping large quantities of RAW images to the iPad took forever, compared to my MacBook Air. Also, sorting and processing, without programs like PhotoMechanic, just was way too slow. Then having a folder of images that I upload to an FTP server really didn't work on the iPad.

I now use it for pretty much what you describe. The biggest advantage I've always found with the iPad, other than its smaller size, is its battery life. Would love to have a MacBook Air that got even half the battery life that the iPads get.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

The wide color gamut on the iPad Pro models is absolutely stunning—it's the nicest way to look at my photos I've yet found. I like it better than prints, even. I'd initially bought the 9.7-inch Pro through, and for, work (I use the Apple Pencil for editing my students' writing) but the display is spectacular for photos.

I don't edit on it, though—I've got a 15" laptop for that. I really ought to try it.

 

[Godfrey]

My 4 year old uses it to watch youtube.

My problems with an ipad are storage, they get slower and slower after every update, the touch screen is hard to edit photos compared to a mouse pad and the apps aren't as good as on a laptop.

I really wanted to use an ipad but it really is just a big iphone, so personally I will always have a mac.

Why do you not need a laptop anymore? What do you need to do with your photos?

Hm. Your experience and mine are quite different.

My iPads have become more responsive after every update. The touch screen proves easier to do some editing with than a mouse or track pad; I have a superb stylus for the iPad Pro models when I need extreme detail and precision. Some of the apps are faster and allow more sophisticated editing with less work than on my laptop.

I have a laptop too. I use it when I need hardware tethering and/or full Lightroom capabilities with me in the field. I don't use it very often.

G

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

The early, non-retina-display iPads did get slower with updates, but in the past few years, my experience is similar to Godfrey's—OS updates have focused more on speed and efficiency. Current products really are blazing fast, and apps are improving for sure.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

For photography, the iPad is an superb way to show photos. Just great. Only thing better is a 4k screen in a light controlled room.

For photo editing and preparation, I use a 5k iMac or a MacBook Pro.