5 Responses to “Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit – iPad accessory kit – Apple iPad”

1. RBB on July 29th, 2010 10:39 am

   While I agree on the outrageousness of the opportunistic pricing by marketplace vendors here at the moment, it does NOT mean this product should get a one star rating.

   That being said, the connection kit (if you can get ahold of one) works as described. I’ve tested it with Nikon RAW NEF files and it works beautifully. It maintains the original untouched NEF through the camera -> iPad -> iPhoto on Mac path without compromising the RAW image – this was a major concern for me.

   A friend has a DSLR that takes Compact Flash and after a great deal of research was able to find a USB card reader that was compatible with the USB connection adapter so she could view/transfer the images without having to tether the camera over USB! The biggest issue was finding a CF card reader that did not draw too much power from the iPad.

   My only gripe, and the reason for the deduction of a star is the performance / ease of quickly reviewing images. I find the highest utility of this device is to quickly review a photo on a much larger screen while on location. When you first put the card in, the Photo app generates thumbnails of the images on the card. These are of a fixed size and to view the image any larger you must fully import the image into the Photo library on-device then view it. There is no way to view a larger image directly from the memory card. This makes the process of reviewing a few images amongst many pretty cumbersome.

   For fun, I tried hooking up a USB keyboard to the USB adaptor and can confirm it works like reports elsewhere have said. 3rd party apps don’t have access to all of the function keys/control key combinations yet but built in Apple apps do. Maybe in a future OS release?

2. Max Kelly on July 29th, 2010 12:52 pm

   This does just what you need it to do, and it does it well. A gizmo that allows me to almost instantly review my photos (jpeg and RAW!) and videos while in the field is just what the doctor ordered. The fact that I can then EMAIL them via the field (with 3G models) is miraculous! If I had to be picky, I might agree with reviews which are critical of the fact that you cannot enlarge and inspect the previews before deciding whether or not to import. But like I say, that is being pretty picky. The connection kit is killer.

3. MiRSD on July 29th, 2010 1:33 pm

   The first thing that came to mind with the iPad was “perfect photo device!” so a big selling point of it was the ability to download my photos to the iPad on-location, edit them and upload them – something I usually can’t do while out taking photos or on vacation.

   In order to do that, you need the iPad Camera Kit (a currently very-hard-to-find item (I waited 4 weeks to receive mine as all the local stores sold out instantly after receiving shipments).

   Right off the bat, I love that they give you 2 adapters (1 for SD cards, 1 for USB). I had no use for the SD adapter as all my cameras are compact flash. I would have happily bought a separate CF card reader if one were available, but no luck on that. If your camera uses something other than SD, you need to “tether” it to the iPad (meaning you plug the USB piece from the camera kit into the iPads dock port, plug your USB cable from your camera into your camera and the other end into the USB piece on the iPad). Not the most convenient method, especially when on-the-go, but its workable.

   Plugging in my camera (a Canon 40D), the previews started to appear on the iPad. It took 36 seconds to load the first 35 previews (this is using a short USB cable and a high speed CF card (30MB/Sec). A big downside here is that you cant view the photos larger than a thumbnail without importing them, going to your photo albums, finding the folder it went to and then scrolling to find it. Importing photos (10MP RAW Files) took 6 seconds each. After importing you get the option to “Keep” or “Delete” them from the camera – this is a bit scary as if you’re click-happy on the popup, you can end up deleting the photos from your camera (not a huge deal as theyre on the iPad, but definitely a bit of a scare). You can either select individual photos or choose to import everything from the card.

   Imported photos go into a new folder in you Photos app – “All Imported” – it also creates a secondary folder: “Last Import” – I would have really liked a way to create a specific folder for each import rather than lumping it all into 1 folder.

   The USB adapter is a bit picky as far as what it will accept, I hear some USB Card Readers will work with it (eliminating the need to tether your camera), but it’s all a matter of trial and error. USB Keyboards work (again, not all – ones with USB ports on them will not work). You can also not import video files if you have something like a Flip HD camera. This was disappointing as the iPad would make a GREAT video playback screen (especially 720p video like the flip) – especially compared to the 1″ screen most of these cameras have.

   A big plus to apple for including RAW support on imports (instead of just JPEG).

   With the many photo editing apps out there, you can easily take some photos on your camera, import them into the iPad, edit them however you’d like and upload them your photo sharing sites from just about anywhere. For that, it’s worth it. It has all sorts of problems (no CF, requires tethering, slow import, no video, etc..) but it’s the only option you have, and for that I have to recommend it.

4. D. Waugh on July 29th, 2010 4:02 pm

   I found out that the camera connection kit has more uses than just to attach my camera. I use my flash drive to swap files, my USB audio interface to record straight to the iPad, my USB keyboard to type, my sd card to backup files when I am traveling. Money well spent. I live in Jamaica so I can’t get access to the apple store so I am subjected to these high prices(Fail). Other than that exellent product to make iPad an even more useful gadget.

5. prb1 on July 29th, 2010 4:32 pm

   This device is GREAT – works exactly as promised, is extremely intuitive (in Apple’s usual fashion), and does a great job of effortlessly getting photos from your camera to your iPad. From there they can be saved, edited, forwarded, etc….

   I particularly like the SD card reader device, in which you simply load your camera’s SD card and the entire card-contents are displayed on your iPad. From there you can import all the photos on the card, or any subset you choose (e.g., the newest photos). Extremely fast, easy, effortless. Typical Apple.

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