Which iPad ?

justa1972

justa1972

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Going to treat myself to an iPad over the festive period - for general use but also for taking on holidays and editing/looking at photos whilst I am away.

Which iPad would be best for this ? Is the basic 2020 10.2" iPad good enough for this ? I note that you can use an Apple pencil with it ?

Or would it be wiser to spend a bit more ?

thanks in advance :)
 
Justin.,
If its of any help I personally use a 2017 vintage iPad Pro 12.9 size with the Apple Pencil & a Bluetooth Mouse and it copes with photo editing very well particularly using "Affinity". I personally wouldn't want to be editing on anything smaller. The 2020 incarnations are quite a bit more powerful than my ageing unit and can accept external drives etc where mine hasn't enough power to drive an external drive only an SD Card.

It might be worth your while hanging on for a bit (which I am doing) as there are apparently new models on the horizon offering OLED screens, newer processors and more capacity.

George.
 
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Fuji Dave said:
I treated my self to the Ipad Air about a week ago, then got the magic keyboard and the pencil. Pencil works great on it too.
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This is exactly what I did last week, well almost exactly. I haven’t got the keyboard but after a lot of research went for the latest iPad Air.
 
Are you likely to listen to music on the iPad ?

If so any iteration of the iPad Pro is well worth considering.

The iPad Pro's have 4 speakers and far superior sound/volume to other iPad's.

I have an iPad Air and a iPad Pro 9.7" (2016) and the sound quality from the iPad Pro is great and certainly superior to the iPad Air.
 
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justa1972 said:
Going to treat myself to an iPad over the festive period - for general use but also for taking on holidays and editing/looking at photos whilst I am away.

Which iPad would be best for this ? Is the basic 2020 10.2" iPad good enough for this ? I note that you can use an Apple pencil with it ?

Or would it be wiser to spend a bit more ?

thanks in advance :)
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Everybody is different, nobody have hands that are of exact same size, nobody have strength that are exactly same. And while most have similar lifestyle, not everyone do things in the exact same manner.

My advice to you: Go to a shop (subject to coronavirus rules) and pick up different sized Apple iPad tablets, and see how do you feel holding an iPad Mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro, see how you feel holding them and how you feel using them. Ask yourself questions like "Is that iPad too big or too small for me? Is it too heavy or light for me? Could I fit it in my camera bag? Can I manage holding it with one hand? Do I really need that big screen size?"

And most of all: Ask yourself "Will I really be using an Apple Pencil or not much?"

Rather than asking which is best, because people are going to suggest which is best based on technology, instead of how you cope with the machine.
 
I bought an iMac last year for the first time and am really enjoying it compared to my previous Windows PC. I am also thinking of something smaller for editing when away on holiday etc. I'd prefer to stick to Apple now and am torn between a MacBook or iPad. I would imagine a MacBook would be more expensive so am wondering if iPads are really up to the job for photo editing? I mostly use Affinity and Topaz DeNoise Al but also have Luminar 4. I don't think Luminar is available on any tablet, but I believe the other two are. So, would an iPad do the job well or am I better going for a MacBook? Thanks for any help.
 
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Yorkieand said:
I bought an iMac last year for the first time and am really enjoying it compared to my previous Windows PC. I am also thinking of something smaller for editing when away on holiday etc. I'd prefer to stick to Apple now and am torn between a MacBook or iPad. I would imagine a MacBook would be more expensive so am wondering if iPads are really up to the job for photo editing? I mostly use Affinity and Topaz DeNoise Al but also have Luminar 4. I don't think Luminar is available on any tablet, but I believe the other two are. So, would an iPad do the job well or am I better going for a MacBook? Thanks for any help.
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iPads are brilliant devices for photo editing. I've had an 11" iPad Pro for 18 months and haven't edited on a desktop or laptop since I've had it. Using the Apple Pencil is a great way to edit and having such a portable device that I can just slip into my camera backpack has changed the way I work. I'd go for a 2018 onwards iPad Pro or the new Air as they have a USB-C port which makes them much more flexible.

The only problem you might have is the apps you use. As far as I'm aware none of the Topaz stuff is available on iOS, so of the apps you mention all you would have available to you is Affinity. I've read good reviews but I'm a Lightroom user so I can't comment on using Affinity on the iPad. The Apple Pencil is a must so factor the cost of that into your buying decision.

The Magic Keyboard is something I'd love to complete my setup but I refuse to pay £300 for a rubber keyboard with no function keys, the pricing is insane. Plus I'm tempted to upgrade to a 12.9" model in a year or two so I don't want to spend all that cash on an accessory I wouldn't keep for that long.

The total price isn't that different from a MacBook once you've bought the Pencil and a keyboard, and the set of compromises you make is different between the two devices. The iPad doesn't have proper external display support, for example. But it's a more flexible device that's also great to use as an e-reader, web browser, portable Netflix machine etc.
 
Lightroom is also available on the iPad. I hardly ever use it, but I expect that it might be a cut down version compared to the PC/Mac version.

ON1 Photo Raw is also available on the iPad, and it's free. IMO, Photo Raw is one of the best post-processing and DAM programs there is, it's not that different from Lightroom, and it's only £90 as opposed to the annual Adobe subscription. You also get the option of using the free mobile version together with the Mac version, editing on one and getting synced updates on the other for £4.99 per month.

You can check out Photo Raw here.

In any case, as I said, the mobile version is free. You just import some photos (jpeg or raw) from your Photos app or from a folder on your iPad, edit them, then save them back to your Photos app (Camera Roll) or Share them, including to your Files. It's a little limited in that you can only save 3 file sizes: Medium, Large, and Max, but Max is the same as the full-sized original. Editing includes Crop, Tone, Colour, AI Auto, Details, Presets, Layered FX, Local Adjustments, and Retouching (Healing and Cloning). The one big thing that's missing from Photo Raw Mobile is Digital Asset Management, but that's pretty much the way things are with mobile apps at the moment. Only the mobile version of Lightroom seems to include it, so you could edit your photos in whichever app you like, then import them into Lightroom, tag them, etc, then export them from there. Or sync them to the Photos app and do asset management on the Mac.

And I agree with what RichardC27 says: editing on the iPad, especially with the Apple Pencil, is great for editing right down almost to the pixel level. And sliders are much easier to use when you're not covering them with a fat finger. I use Snapseed as it's very simple and does almost everything I want, and I have a shedload of other apps, including Affinity, for the more complex, once-a-year, stuff.

I hope this is all helpful. If not, feel free to ask me questions.
 
garryknight said:
Lightroom is also available on the iPad. I hardly ever use it, but I expect that it might be a cut down version compared to the PC/Mac version.
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There used to be lots missing but LR on the iPad is fine now. I've never found a tool I need missing, all of the selective editing stuff like graduated filters, radials etc is there. Presets, file versions, export settings, graphic watermarks and all that is now present.

You can colour grade and everything like that. I think some of the HDR merge stuff from the desktop version may be missing but that's it. Not something I ever use anyway so I'm not sure. But it's not a cut down version, it's just a different interface as it's been designed for a tablet not a desktop.

I'd forgotten about On1 on the iPad, I might give it a go if it's free. I pay my £9.99 a month to Adobe, but I use Portfolio to host my website too so I think a tenner a month for the photography plan is good value for what I get.
 
garryknight said:
HDR, Panorama, and Focus Stacking are missing from the mobile version of On1 Photo Raw, too.
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Had a look around LR on the iPad today just to see what's there and you can even do geometry corrections for things like architectural photography which I was surprised about. I'm sure things like HDR and Pano merge will get added eventually, the modern iPads are easily powerful enough to handle it. The one thing I wish they'd add is luminance and colour masking for selective edits. That's something that is still missing from LR and would be very advantageous to add.
 
I use a bog standard 7th Gen iPad, and it’s been perfect for editing on Lightroom and Affinity Photo. I use the Apple Pencil also, and this is by far my preferred editing solution.
 
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