The iPad And What It Means For Photographers – So was it worth the wait? Did it live up to the hype?
For me, the answer is Yes and Maybe.
David Schloss is in the unfortunate position of having to travel from the sunny and warm Hudson River Valley to Hawaii while the iPad was being announced, so he asked me to cover the impact that this device may have on photography and photographers going forward.
I was not at the event, so as of this writing all the information I have to go on comes via, blog post from folks that were at the event, and product information Apple posted on their website.
At first glance, what we see is another amazing piece of technology from Apple that took years to develop. It has been fun to read all the hype stories in advance of today’s launch, and all the comments from “Experts” and Analysts on how Microsoft has been trying to make a successful tablet for 10 years and never gone anywhere. Therefore, Apple will obviously be just as doomed. Unlike almost every company that has tried this in the past, Apple doesn’t just slap a bunch of off-the-shelf parts together and introduce a product with a standard keyboard/mouse based operating system. Apple has built a new product category from scratch, between the cell phone and laptop computer. A category that has it’s own usage model, interface and infrastructure requirements. That is why it took so long to get it right and why I feel it will be a very successful product.
So yes, it was worth the wait.
The iPad itself features a number of new and improved technological innovations. It is also consistent with Apple’s controlled closed system philosophy, which can cut both ways. It is more like an iPhone than a laptop, there are no SD Card slots or standard USB/FireWire connectors. It uses the same 30-pin proprietary iPhone/iPod USB connector so that it can interface with a computer as a USB device, but it does not look like it can serve as a USB host to connect with other 3rd party USB hardware. It will have built-in non-expandable flash memory like the iPhone and iPods, and I can already hear the critics lament that the battery can not be removed. But who cares, as long as you use it the way it was intended, I’m sure you will have lots of fun with it.
So what does this mean for photographers?
As far as I can tell it will mean as much or as little for photographers as an iPhone does. Great large screen for showing off photos. Software for organizing photos and videos in a neat way. Of course the photo related iPhone Apps will work including the new MobileMe Gallery app that was just introduced last week. Folks who were expecting to be able to download raw images from their D-SLRs from their memory cards will be disappointed “There’s No App” or connector for that, it is not designed for it. If that is what you need, then Apple will be happy to show you a couple really nice MacBook Pro laptops. In fact the iPad itself is not even able to take a photo on its own. It has no camera. This could possibly be one of the greatest omissions, or better said, the feature I would have most liked to see in the iPad. Not just for taking photos, but also for video conferencing with iChat and Skype. Guess there is a MacBook for that too. Also not clear is how it will handle printing. Since Apple is porting iLife apps to the iPad, one can hope that there is away for users to print out their spreadsheets and documents. Hopefully it will also allow for the color managed printing as well.
Perhaps David made the right call. The real upside for photographers may not be the device itself, but the new paid subscription business models for digital media content that could generate paying jobs for writers, photographers and photojournalists.
So was it worth the hype?
I have two teenaged kids that say yes. I already have an iPhone, 15″ MacBook Pro and a MacPro with a 30″ HD Cinema Display, so I am probably not the target customer for this device. Nonetheless, I can’t wait to try it out and see our MacCreate content running on one. Maybe my kids will eventually lend me theirs.
Enjoy your vacation David and don’t come back unless you have a tan…
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Author: John Omvik
John is a professional photographer, technology editor, consultant and photography educator based in Santa Cruz, California. In addition to working as a photographer, John has also held senior marketing roles in the digital imaging industry since 1996 contributing to the success of a number of innovative products that have improved the user experience for both consumers and professionals. With almost 30 years of hands-on experience and industry background, John brings a unique perspective to the latest news and product reviews featured here on The Mac Create Network.
11 Comments
Martin Perry (1 comments.)
January 27th, 2010
“Folks who were expecting to be able to download raw images from their D-SLRs from their memory cards will be disappointed “There’s No App” or connector for that, it is not designed for it”
What about the iPad Camera Connection Kit? No word on RAW support yet, but certainly JPEG support and will keep fingers crossed for RAW too
Bob
January 27th, 2010
The Apple Store now shows an SD Card Reader and a USB Interface for the iPad suggesting photos can be directly downloaded onto it and viewed in iPhoto. Useful when travelling to store/view images and then hopefully transfer them back to your main Mac when returning to base?
John Omvik (25 comments.)
January 27th, 2010
Hi Martin
Thanks for pointing out that 3rd. party accessory, I was not aware of it. My story was based on what Apple presented at the event and on-line today. With the limited internal memory, it will probably not be an optimal download and storage device for digital images. I assume that the usage model will be similar to the phone model where you sync photos you want to share via iTunes or Aperture/iPhoto to the device. I’d still like to see at least one or even two cameras built in to the device for video conferencing and photography (it is a pretty big camera LCD when you think of it). Maybe that will be in version 2.0.
-John
Stephen Wilson
January 27th, 2010
The iPad looks sleek and very portable. There is even hints on Apple’s iPad pages that camera tethering may be possible.
I was kind of hoping that there may have been some mention of Aperture 3 which they probably want to release soon to stem LR3 (beta at the moment) switchers.
Stephen Wilson
January 27th, 2010
Following up on my last comment; you can view the link below. The left hand image looks like it may accept a USB camera tethered link. There’s bound to be a Nikon/Canon “App For That”.
http://images.apple.com/ipad/specs/images/usb_connectors_20100127.jpg
John Omvik (25 comments.)
January 27th, 2010
This was a “Major” product/platform announcement event for Apple. For them it was similar in scale to the original iPhone event. I had been expecting this to be all about the new iPad and nothing else. Apple is better than any other company about staying on message. Announcing anything else today would have diluted what they were there to present.
Let’s give this one a couple days to digest before expecting other announcements. In any case you’ll get the latest news here at MacCreate.
Robert
January 27th, 2010
We can only hope that since they are releasing an SDK, that software manufacturers such as adobe will jump on board and create new, more engaging apps to utilize the Ipads features. I would think something like a watered down version of lightroom.
John Omvik (25 comments.)
January 27th, 2010
Check out the featured 3rd party presentations in video from the event (now posted on the Apple home page). At about 42min in they demo the “Brushes” app. That could be a sign of what could be possible.
-John
Einar
January 28th, 2010
The camera connector kit is from Apple and was presented at the event but I don’t think it was mentioned on stage but only showed during the hand’s on afterwards. You can find it on http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/. The USB adapter should also allow connecting a CF card reader. I’m pretty sure it will import RAW files. Should be possible to test with the SDK/emulator that’s out now.
I think iPad will be great for pro photographers and photojournalists.
One very important feature is that it fits into your photo bag and you can transfer photos from your camera or card to the iPad while on move or upload photos over 3G. 3G uploads are slow but often the only option and then it’s important that you don’t have to sit and wait for the transfers to finish.
Besides, not many laptops with 10 hour battery life and changing batteries in the middle of large uploads is a hassle. Transfers takes a long time and keeping the laptop open or closed and running isn’t exactly an easy task when on the move.
I’ve had both an HP Tablet PC and a Samsung UMPC. I loved the form factor. Most of the time I was using them standing. With a laptop you always have to find a place to sit down and that’s impossible in many situations. The reasons why I gave up using the Tablet PC and UMPC was poor battery life, very slow to boot (minutes) and hopeless interaction design both with regards to the OS and the software.
64 GB is not a lot but usually enough for a full day. CF card readers will fit into the USB adapter so I don’t see that as a big problem either. After all, you don’t have a CF card reader bult-in to most laptops either.
This is definitely not a laptop replacement but with an iPad I will only travel with a single laptop (I need full redundancy on any critical equipment when traveling) and I can leave the laptop in the hotel room most of the time.
iPad should be great for planning photo shoots, research, making sketches using Pogo Sketch etc. I think iPad will fit perfect into a pro photo workflow but primarily for planning and during the shoot where any existing computer doesn’t really work well at all.
iPad will be great for presenting photos. Of course it’s better with on an Eizo or Lacie but in a meeting outside your office then this has to be better than anything else. Just the fact that you can pass it around is great.
The resolution is not great but it’s pretty good and it’s very quick to zoom and move around in a photo. If a client inspect one of your photos on your laptop and he want to check something in full resolution, it’s not simple.
Besides lots of photos have a vertical aspect ratio and you don’t turn a laptop on the side to fit the aspect ratio of a vertical photo. In other words, when displaying photos in a vertical aspect ratio, this has a higher resolution then for example a 15″ MacBook Pro. With a LED IPS display, the color reproduction and color space should be better than perhaps any laptop on the market so far.
In a few months I think a lot of software running on OS X will let iPad be used as an input device. A bit like a mix of a drawing board and Optimus Tactus (http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-tactus/).
I just hope the USB adapter will allow tethered capture.
Too early to say for sure but I think iPad will be great for photographers.
John Omvik (25 comments.)
January 28th, 2010
Hi Einar
Great points, especially on displaying portrait and landscape modes at full screen size. Thanks for your input.
-John
james
March 17th, 2010
RAW support is official and on Apple’s website