Might be traveling, and I want to come up with a lightweight solution to upload and and process keepers on the road for a photoblog I am putting together.

I currently only have a desktop at home, and I am thinking about getting either a laptop or an IPad.

There are other factors at play, but the ability edit and upload photos on the road efficiently will likely play a large part in the decision making process.

I would really like to be able to decide upon the iPad, because I like the form factor and price. But I don't want to feel like I should have gone with a laptop.

I don't need much in the way of processing, but I would like to be able to easily crop, adjust levels, and do some of the basic stuff.

does anyone here utilize an iPad for anything like this?

Which apps if any?

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I'm unsure what the iPad is capable of in this regard, but I do have knowledge of its awesome battery life (I've had an iPad 1 and 2 supplied to me at various jobs). I will ask this, have you considered a MacBook Air + Aperture or Lightroom?

I have a 13" one with a Core i7 and 4gb ram with a 256gb SSD, it is crazy fast and it has about 8 hours of battery life. Also it has advanced power saving features like the iPad where you just close the lid and it stays in standby using only a tiny amount of power. I can close my lid and stay in standby for 2 days and it only uses 2-4% of the battery, then I open the lid and bang its immediately on. It uses slightly more battery in standby than an iPad, but it can do everything a real computer can.

The 11" macbook air is very close to the size of an iPad as well and they're only going for 999usd I think. Great mobile RAW darkroom.

The iPad is an ideal travel companion in a lot of ways - every time I'm on the road I'm tempted to buy one again. However (and this is a big issue) it has limited storage space (64 gigs fills up fast when you're shooting RAW) and to the best of my knowledge, there are no apps available for processing RAW files themselves. Plenty for working with JPGs, so it's more than adequate for blogging needs.

Also, Mav, the MacBook air *is* a 'real computer', so it obviously does everything a real computer does :-p

I have a 13" Air (same spec as yours, typing on it right now) and it's a fantastic little machine. 8 hours of battery is perhaps a touch optimistic in real-world terms with screen brightness set to mid level and WiFi on. iPads do significantly better. They're also not terribly large. However, I rarely take it along when traveling, since that often means backpacking and/or travel in countries that are a little less safe in terms of theft. I generally use 'net cafes and a hard drive/card reader to back stuff up, but the iPad may well feature in my future travel plans, because it's really quite ideal for on the road kind of stuff. The 11" Air I find annoyingly small in terms of screen real estate. The iPad makes more 'effective' use of it all.

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EOS: 5DII, 30DIR, 24-105L, 35L, 135L, 15/2.8 FE, Σ 50/1.4, Σ 105/2.8 macro
Mu43: GF2, E-M5, P14/2.5, P20/1.7, O45/1.8, P7-14, O12-50, P12-35, P100-300
Legacy: Contax Zeiss 50/1.4, 35/2.8, Leica R 50/2.0, 28/2.8, Pentax 50/1.7

You'll have to shoot raw + jpeg, I did this at my brothers wedding, it doesn't display many raw properly buy it does store them for you to get off at a later date,
Do you have the camera adapter? There are some good photo processing apps, iPhoto, filterstorm & Snapseed. Photogene is another

I have done cropping resizing, basic filters like sharp etc, upload to photobucket etc

I forgot photoshop express, it used to be free but not sure if it still is

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oly e-pm1 with 14-150 (wife's now)
GX1, 14/2.5,14-45,45/1.8 ,45-175 & 7.5/3.5 soon
25/1.4 1" Pentax CCTV (for sale)
OM adapter, 50/1.8 & OM 135mm prime

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as much as i love the ipad, is not a laptop and for that reason, is not enough to create a raw-processing-workflow. ipad i think is more for tethering with clients, jpegs, portfolio showing and all that. but still not there for editing and such, not saying that it will never be, but not now. and if you say, raw images, processing and bloggin then go with a small laptop like a mac air and such. way better option for not that much more money, cause eventhough you would like to go with the ipad route then i think you would need not the 16gb but the 64gb and thats almost 1k. and for that money id go for the laptop instead.

Yes, yuo can process raw files on an iPad. There are several apps available that will process from raw data. However, the iPad doesn't have the processing power to do it efficiently. If you insist on using raw files then you're better off with a laptop. If you're prepared to shoot jpeg+raw then you can use awesome programs like Snapseed or Photogene to process files.

If the only reason for carrying a device is to process raw files then a laptop is a better solution. I prefer to travel with my iPad and a Hyperdrive. I use the Hyperdrive to backup all my files and play with only the absolute keeper on the iPad. But I also use my iPad as my book reader, video player, notebook and the odd game in an airport lounge. The iPad shares the charger with my phone which means less cables. The iPad suits *my* needs when I travel. Inly you can decide if you are prepared to make the compromises it needs.

Gordon

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Central Coast Wedding Photographer

An Introduction To Colour Management for Photographers

Flash is completely mirrorless.

If you have the new iPad, processing raw files should not be a problem, although it will be slow to import. Photoraw is a great app for this, but my favorites are Filterstorm Pro and Snapseed(yes, it can handle raw files). If you're familiar with Nik desktop software, you'll be comfortable using Snapseed with it's control points, etc. Space shouldn't be an issue, but you can upload to cloud services like Dropbox or FTP if you find you need to. Also, just took a look at that Hyperdrive flash mentioned and it seems awesome! Damn, there goes another purchase

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I can handle things I'm smart -- not like everyone says -- not dumb, smart and I want respect!

I use iPhoto on my iPad (3rd gen) a fair bit, I know it plays nice with my D700 RAW's but can't think if it does with the OM-D...

To the best of my knowledge, iPhoto for iPad does not actually process your RAW, but only uses the embedded JPG for whatever edits you're doing. See Apple's own documentation:

Using RAW images with iPhoto for iOS

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EOS: 5DII, 30DIR, 24-105L, 35L, 135L, 15/2.8 FE, Σ 50/1.4, Σ 105/2.8 macro
Mu43: GF2, E-M5, P14/2.5, P20/1.7, O45/1.8, P7-14, O12-50, P12-35, P100-300
Legacy: Contax Zeiss 50/1.4, 35/2.8, Leica R 50/2.0, 28/2.8, Pentax 50/1.7

Snapseed uses the embedded jepg within a raw file to work on. Great on an EP3. Not so hot on a Leica where the embedded jepg is only 600 pixels across or a camera that Apple doesn't support.

Gordon

Sorry. mattia beat me to it.

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Central Coast Wedding Photographer

An Introduction To Colour Management for Photographers

Flash is completely mirrorless.