Be Excellent To Each Other

Hey guys,

Photos slowly being worked on, I had Cardiff's Swn Fest to shoot over the weekend with a nice bit of brass in it for me. Unfortunately that brass has now immediately been swallowed up owing to a drunken babyfaced student oik attempting to steal my hat whilst I was showing a friend a selection of images, which caused my tablet to be dropped in the struggle on to the hard flagstones of Womanby Street. Got the hat back but the tablet is ro-ruined.

It was a Samsung Tab S 8.4, bought back in 2015. It was beautiful and still going strong. Blub. Trying to be philosophical about it, but the fact that the drunk well-shod student looked a bit like Michael Gove makes it even harder.

So I guess this is a recommend-me-do. I loved the first Samsung S so naturally I'm rather tempted to go for a new one in the series, though they are a bit bigger at over ten inches. The S3 seems pretty good with it's handy pen thing and the S4 stupidly nice, if stupidly expensive. I use the tablet for a lot of on-the-go editing and portfolio reviews, and getting a keyboard for it eventually seems a good idea too. So I will be using it a lot. I don't think I'll expose it to drunks again though.

Well, maybe at Beex Cottage.

But I understand now that the world has moved on since the mighty first Tab S, so I was wondering if smart people now got an (ngh) Apple one now instead, or even a Windows one? Or Clive Sinclair, is he back and making tablets?

Things I'd like are...

Accurate Colour Gamut and leading class display
Keyboard support
Pen support
Reasonable storage
Sturdy design - or reassurance that a sturdy case would protect it in use. The Samsung glass backs have me a little worried.

Things I don't care about...

LTE (WiFi is fine for me)
Ability to have split screen shennanigans with desktop PC as second screen. Nice I guess, but not vital.
Camera. I have a camera already.

Any thoughts? Any you folk use?

I have a Surface, which was a bit of an experiment. It’s pretty good for Lightroom but has some drawbacks: it’s a touch sluggish, Adobe hasn’t done a good job of optimising for Windows 10 in tablet mode, stuff like rotation can be janky.

You almost certainly want an iPad, Pete. That’s the path of least resistance here.

I was going to suggest a Surface as they seem to be well thought of at the moment. But do they even do a 7" one?

Do Apple still do an iPad mini? I thought they'd been discontinued.

The smallest Surface is the Go, it’s 10” and almost certainly too weedy for Lightroom. I have the 12.3” model. Much bigger than Pete is used to carrying.

The 10” iPad non-Pro with Pencil support is what I’d suggest Pete looks at. Or the Pro, if his budget allows.

Yeah that's a good choice, just I thought he wanted something in the 7" region. Then again with smartphones being so large these days I suppose that market has shrunk down to almost nothing.

Yeah, I can live with ten inch. Nay bigger though! Shame they stopped doing the 8.4 size, as it was pretty much a perfect balance between being good to hold and having screen real-estate.

Adobe badly optimised? I am shocked, I say shocked!

My OG 13" iPad Pro is still brilliant, absolutely the perfect size for what I need. I always found 10" too small. Plus productivity-wise they have come a long way.

Yo Pete! Not got any suggestions for your tablet-y RMD because I don't keep up to date with that sort of tech, but sad to hear the news of your old tablet and would be happy to chuck a tenner in a pot should the need arise for the purchase of something shiny and new. Just a little thank you for all of the fucking awesome pictures you've taken over the years - feel like it's the least I can offer.

The Mini is long overdue for a replacement, and that might be coming very soon.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/10/23/ku ... i-refresh/

This is a good shout, if you can go that far Pete. We've got a mixture of these at work (got them in recently to replace a bunch of OG iPad minis) and they are very nice indeed, the screen is nice and vibrant, sharp, iOS 12 is good to use.

I'm personally using the pro with a Pencil to try and minimise the amount of paper notes and paper copies of forms and I feel it's working well for me (there are heaps of note taking apps as I'm sure you'll all know, but the one I'm using at the moment and really liking is Goodnotes).

As a side question, is the tablet or any of your other gear insured? Do you have a photography 'business' as such, and can the new one be a 'business expense'?

Is it easy enough to get files on and off an iPad these days from, say, an external USB drive? With Android/Windows raw file system access that stuff's trivial but I seem to remember it being more limited on iOS. Like you you had to import files into a specific application and only certain file types could be pulled from an external source or something? That alleged knowledge is years old though so I'm curious what the current state of play is.

iOS has an app called Files now. Not sure about external devices though, as you'd need something that can plug into a lightning port.

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/M ... ra-adapter

Only £30!

I use One drive for my iPad and that seems to work fine for me. It is reliant on an Internet connection however.

Files seems ok for browsing through multiple ‘cloud-depos’ like iCloud and google drive from within one app but it’s not really like a local file explorer as android users would be expecting. I still find a lot of things want to go into a specified app - not so much of a concern for me as I put pretty much everything into GoodNotes so I can scrawl over it... but I’m not dealing with photographs really so while it suits me it might not suit all. There’s a lightning-USB adapter at work somewhere that I should really pinch have a play with

So I suppose it's worth asking whether Peter ever wants/needs to take files directly from the camera/SD card into a device that he's then editing on; because iOS sounds problematic in that scenario.

Are the various WiFi SD cards worth looking at? Most have a companion app that might provide an easy way to transfer to a tablet.

IIRC he has one.

No, it’s almost fine, with one caveat.

You plug the SD card in and iOS automatically launches Photos. It’ll import JPGs and/or RAWs into there. Then you load Lightroom and do a second import of the photos into there from the Photos app. Then you have to go back and clear them out of the Photos app to free up space. It’s slightly awkward, because Lightroom can’t inport directly from the SD card. But only slightly.

No-one does that any more, cameras have WiFi built in now.

Dunno how well it does on Pete’s Fuji. On my Panasonic it’s unbelievably slow and the app you have to use is a hot mess. I rarely use it.

"Cameras have built in WiFi now"

Well, some do.

Film cameras don't.

Hi guys, useful stuff to think about, thanks!

The Ipad Pro does indeed look nice, and I'm tempted to try and stretch to it and see about getting one next month or so. Ten inches is the size of my Retrospective tablet pocket, so I'll be sticking to that. Plus should be slightly cheaper that way. If Ipad Pro is no-go, then I'll probably spring for the Samsung S3. Samsung on Amazon seem to have them a bit cheaper than the stores at £378.

Regarding getting pics over onto it. I think Fujifilm Camera Remote works with IOS which is what I used on Android to wirelessly transfer images over. I'm not sure if there's a pixel size limit to the files so I'll have to check if there's another way to transfer full JPEG. I'm less likely to use RAW on the tablet, but I'll check that too.

I'm definitely curious about how transferring files from my Windows PC to an Apple Ipad Pro would work. I guess the USB adapter would be the thing but I could also use Google Drive, or this One Drive thing. How about text documents? Is there a shared text format / file type? That's quite important for my creative writing. I'm not sure if having a Windows Desktop but an Apple Ipad cohabiting is a thing?

Regarding insurance, no I somewhat riskily don't have any and it's not a business as this is still just the odd job. Something to think about next year. However my good friend who hired me for this has just emailed me to let me know that he's asking the festival venue if it could be taken on their insurance. Fingers crossed.

Aw, thanks Jem! Big hugs!

By the way, haven't forgotten the cottage pics y'all, but naturally I've been busy getting the Swn Fest edit completed. I should be uploading them all on the weekend!

xx

Text formats are pretty universal, aside from some default encoding stuff that is highly unlikely to affect you.

I am happy to chuck in a few sheckles for a new pad.

I might see you at Oxjam on Saturday, we will be there.

You might find it's covered on your house insurance.

Just reiterating what DocG said: you don't need the Pro—the non-Pro with Pencil support would suit your needs. And it's cheaper.

Oooh, I thought it was only the Pros that supported the Pencil.

Maybe two years the new non-Pros have supported the Pencil now? When I got my Pro they didn't.

It's only this year's non-Pro that introduced it.
https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2018/ ... l-support/

Hey guys,

They're not making it easy.

It does look like the iPad Pro has a hell of a lot going for it. The speed of the processer, the apps available, the refresh rate and smoothness of display all point to something great. However there are a couple of downsides. The pen has to be bought seperate and in working with a PC things a bit fiddlier, with myself reliant on OneDrive. Also I really hope if I got one that they didn't see fit to throttle the speed a couple of years from now.

The iPad looks nice too, and is cheaper and does 80% of what the Pro does. I'm not quite convinced about the display though as far as colour range, and again, above points.

The Samsung Tab S4 is a temptation. There's a few things wrong about it. I'm not a fan of its glass back, though a case would help with that issue. Android has fewer apps and less optimised ones, the processor isn't as good as the iPad Pro's and the refresh isn't that beautiful 120hz of the Pro but a mere reasonable 60hz. It's also quite young and presumably might be a bit buggy with its desktop style option. However there are three things good going for it. First, the pen is supposed to be excellent - doesn't need charging and is included for free, quite a consideration as the Apple pen is £90! Second, like my older Samsung it should work fine with my PC files. Third and most importantly, it appears that the colour gamut is excellent. Though it doesn't have the TruVision of the Pro which adjusts light levels and white balance, it does still have more of the sRGB spectrum in colour representation and good colour accuracy. That's quite the temptation.

This is a toughy. I'm not much of a mobile gamer so I don't mind sacrificing games that I'd have on the Apple. However how is the Android world fairing with Samsung? I've no idea. Comments threads are largely a joke owing to fanboyism amongst Apple and Android fans.

A week from now I'm getting a small windfall from the sale of my gran's old house filtering down to me, don't know how much though, so let's see if that helps me decide.

What are you actually asking here?

I mean, it's not going to disappear and dry up, right? Updates still happen and new versions released, security and performance wise?

To be honest I'm not sure what I'm asking. Probably just saw too many click-bait headlines in side panels saying, "Android Tablets are dying out! Here's why!"

I knu nuthin.

Samsung are among the best for long support lifecycles for updates etc.

Well, as a sort of comparison the Tab S2 is still getting security updates as of July this year which is three years since it was released. It's an Android version behind most other stuff, but that's pretty standard with Android devices though so it doesn't make Samsung any worse than any other manufacturer. I mean, you're the one who was heavily using a Samsung tablet up until recently so you're probably more qualified than most to decide if you're happy with it in that regard. In terms of Android tablets dying, it certainly seems to be a less popular form factor than in previous years and there's a lot of chat about people moving to Chromebooks instead. Personally I'm still perfectly happy with them and have no reason to move to a Chromebook but maybe I'm not the general case here. Either way, Samsung don't show any sign of stopping catering to that market segment so it's as safe a bet as it's ever been there.

Rumour has it a new iPad mini will be announced this year. Or do I read, I don't really follow Apple, but might be worth finding out about it if size is an issue

Yeah I really hope this is true, I might get around to replacing my busted mini 2. I want to get a new one, but I don't want to pay over the odds for a 2015 model.

Hey-oh.

So I was right on the verge of buying an Ipad, I mean, really, really close. I watched lots of videos, cooed over it crisp, nuanced display in John Lewis, I was all set. Lightroom support, check. Fujifilm Remote Camera support, check. Instagram, ch - wait, what?

No Instagram? You serious?

The very app that I heavily use to search for great new photographers, follow the Magnum greats and watch projects unfold? The app that combines so well with a quick transfer of files from Fujifilm Camera Remote, fed through Lightroom with a film curve and then exported direct to Instagram. No... no support at all?

Insane.

Sigh. I guess the Samsung S3 Tab is going cheaper this Black Friday, so I'll probably do that instead.

By the way, thank you for the kind offers of financial support. To be honest I don't really need the brass at the moment thanks to a small windfall, but if you want to show appreciation for all the gurning faces I've captured in the saga of the mighty Beex, I might do some sort of print sale soon. One art print and one Beex print combo, perhaps.

the instagram app used to work on the ipad as an iphone app, which is not ideal, but it does the same job as looking at it on a phone. Just no extra features that are ipad specific. My ipad died about 5 months ago so I don't know if that's still the case.

It is indeed still the case.

The iphone app will work just fine on the ipad.

Hmm, from what I read though it basically doesn't scale the images correctly on the iPad, causing either black bars or pixilation if you magnify. Maybe I can ask if I can see it in action in an Apple store after work, and that would put my fears to rest. It is about 40% of what I do on a tablet!

Anyone here use Instagram on an iPad / iPad Pro?

I use it. It is the iphone version of the app but you can scale it to fit the screen. Here, have a couple of screen shots showing you what I mean. The first is of the app as it appears on the ipad, scaled. The second is how it would appear on the iphone.

You toggle this with that little arrow icon in the bottom right.

Does the Instagram website not work in Safari on the iPad?

I’ve never ever needed to use Instagram on a tablet so I’ve never tried it. It’s always felt like a phone app to me.

You probably can but the website is very limited in that you can only view pictures I think.

You can't post anything from it as far as I know.

iPhone apps scaled to fit an iPad are pretty horrible things to use. Any third party Instagram compatible apps?