iPad – The Ultimate Photographer’s Tool?

As most of us are aware by now, the Apple iPad has been released and you can pre-order yours for April 3rd in the U.S. and late April in Canada.  Apple has stood on the forefront of technology since they sold the iPod, so it does not come as much of a surprise when millions of users were all watching the release of the Apple iPad.  Unfortunately, with the reputation Apple has built, many are disappointed by this first generation iPad.

• No full OS X?
• No Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.
• No Mouse/Keyboard set up.
• Still No Flash-player?

What were we expecting? A full 500gig HD, 4gig RAM, 3.02ghz Processor? At half an inch thick I think those expectations are completely unreasonable!  Now this post is not an “I hate the iPad” post, but instead questioning if this is actually the ultimate photographers tool.

The iPad is going to be awesome for events, shows, conferences, and photo galleries! Think about this… you are walking around a huge show with dozens of photographers displaying their work, but then you see small crowds of people standing around one particular booth. You walk up and see them standing there with a slim, 1/2 inch piece of shiny aluminum that is displaying photo’s in amazing quality! The people around you have all picked up an iPad that had been sitting on one of the stands to the side looking at images that just could not fit into the designated “space” for your gallery. Then you recognize the photographer, recognize his shots, and decide to purchase one. Imagine him wiping out an iPad and sayingz “Just swipe your Visa card here”. I’m serious! It is already available for the iPhone, and from what I understand all the iPhone apps will work on the iPad.

The iPad is going to be great at shows while you are trying to display your image portfolio. With tons of pre-loaded slideshow settings. your iPad will be a huge hit in appearance, and the simplistic style of it will give you a very professional look. As a downfall, the iPad cannot display flash so you are limited to displaying certain websites. This may be an issue if your own website is flash based. With a max capacity of 64gig, I don’t think you will have too much of an issue in terms of space for your photo’s. Simply remember to downsize your image before uploading them just like an iPod. (And to all you users that are appalled that the iPad does not support RAW images… what the heck are you doing uploading RAW images onto a mobile device!)

The iPad could be great while dealing with a new client. You can quickly add notes, make spreadsheets, insert booking dates, display all your required information, etc, right in front of them! Right from the palm of your hand! Now if you were considering two different photographers to shoot your wedding, would you think of hiring the one that brings the ol’ plastic, overheating dell laptop – or one slim, stylish, professional iPad? Perhaps this is not going to bring you to a full decision, but it’s going to make a killer first impression – and that is what really counts! I think the first impressions people will have when you can relay all your information on one multi-touch pad will be amazing!

So I think you understand the first impressions one may get when using the iPad, but have you thought about how much more portable it is? One iPad is pretty much the same thickness as the notebook a journalist photographer would be carrying around!

We didn’t get a full OS for a reason. Why? Because your iPad is going to be sitting next to your Mac Pro photo computer; to edit photo’s on a proper machine.

Instead, Apple gave us one of the best operating systems possible! It is pretty much the simplest operating system on the planet AND over 30 million users have experience using it (17M iPhones, 13M iPod Touches). This means almost any five year old kid, or sixty five year old guy will be able to easily navigate on your iPad. Great style, easy user interface, what more can you ask for?

Ultimately, the iPad will be used more as a presentation device however, future downloadable app’s may add the iPad into our camera bag! Perhaps we may be tethering camera’s through the iPad, or using great calculation apps such as PhotoCalc on the iPhone. On another note, most people will be syncing photo’s via their computer, however there are accessories that have an SD adapter just for uploading photo’s to iPad.

So how may this be one of the ultimate photographer’s tools? Well if we utilize the iPad primarily as a presentation piece, I think we will invoke a great first impression – and that is what will drive in new clients.