Android or iPad tablets have become very popular. Is it possible to actually carry out a professional workflow on a tablet (rather than a laptop)… ? Read on below to find out…
As a photographer carrying loads of gear I always want to down size and compact… it looks like an interesting option to replace the laptop in 2 ways. 1. A tablet is far lighter. 2. Battery life is generally much better. 3. The ease of getting it out, putting it away and using it handheld with touch screen would make me actually do more “work” on train journeys, in the back of a taxi etc.
Currently my workflow involves : Camera, Samsung Note 3 and Laptop. I shoot RAW, copy all the RAW files to my Note 3. I use an app called ‘RAW Droid’ to very quickly flick through the images, view at 100% and delete all the bad ones. I then copy that folder of images from Note 3 to Laptop. Convert Canon CR2 to Adobe DNG and then edit in Adobe Lightroom.
So far I have not found any good editing app on the android (I want to non destructively edit RAW DNG, keyword them and export JPGs.
I decided to a bit more research on this and it really seems no viable solution is available yet for the Android system. See this very good research report by Olivier Duong
This brought my thinking to another way. What if I can get all the capabilities of my laptop in a device the same size and usability as an Android Tablet? With the invention of Windows 8 now you can…
My conclusion came to (see following links for detailed reviews) : Why not buy either a 1. Sony Vaio Tap 11 OR 2. Microsoft Surface Pro 2.
See the comparison video here:
Both of the above are basically excellent tablets but run also the windows 8 operating system like a normal computer. Then u can install full versions Adobe Lightroom / Photoshop and edit away to your hearts content.
They also have removable keyboards which you could leave at home or bring.
Just keep all of your images on an external hard disk and plug in to edit OR make a ‘temp’ editing folder within the tablet harddrive (storage space is generally not amazing) … edit and tweak and when done move it to your external HD ready to do ur next ‘temp’ batches… 🙂
Forget about android for editing (maybe they will get some decent lightroom app out there but not at this stage).
Any thoughts from any of you other photographers out there (Pro’s and Amateurs all welcome alike!)
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