Slashdot Mirror

Not only that, but apparently it only supports getting images off using the very limited built-in application for doing so. Someone in another thread linked an interesting post about this by the developers of some image management and editing software. It would seem that third-party apps have no access to the SD card or USB interface whatsoever.

I was curious, so I Googled this up, and got this open letter from Camera Bits, a maker of photographic workflow software. I can't vouch whether the information there is still accurate, but the claim is that iPad applications don't have direct access to the camera's memory card's filesystem, so photos must first be imported through Apple's Photo Library application; and then, the only way for a third-party app to access those photos is to use an Apple-provided API and UI widget that is not adequate for advanced users.

Good example of why the world hates a walled garden with its feet.

Many photographers would like to use an app related to Adobe's Lightroom for immediate importing, tagging, and initial review and screening of photos from a photoshoot. But because of Apple's restrictions on direct writing of files and a few other technical issues, this is not apparently possible at this time, according to Adobe.

Do you have a link for that? Because all of that is possible currently. There is no restriction on "direct writing of files".

You do currently have to use the iPad photo app to read images from the Apple SD reader. But there's a third party SD reader which works, that someone like Adobe could leverage into a full-blown photo management/review application.

I was curious, so I Googled this up, and got this open letter from Camera Bits, a maker of photographic workflow software. I can't vouch whether the information there is still accurate, but the claim is that iPad applications don't have direct access to the camera's memory card's filesystem, so photos must first be imported through Apple's Photo Library application; and then, the only way for a third-party app to access those photos is to use an Apple-provided API and UI widget that is not adequate for advanced users.

Photo Mechanic. It's what the pros use to do exactly what you're asking for.

You should look closely at Photo Mechanic. It's not free or OSS, but it works very, very well. It is more of a metadata manager than a photo management database - it doesn't maintain its own database; it uses your existing folder structure.

It doesn't do any retouching, but it is flexible in letting you edit (select/reject), sort, and manage metadata for tons of photos. This sounds like the sort of software you're looking for.

It's practically the standard in the news/media photography industry, and it's widely used in other pro photographers' workflows.

use camerabit's photo mechanic to transfer to your computer and select photos. http://www.camerabits.com/

Use iMatch (nothing to do with apple) to store and create database for your photos http://www.photools.com/im0002.php You'd be amazed by the list of features and how powerful the program is while using very little resources.

Finally, use Photoshop for any sort of editing.

I do photojournalism ($$$K in digital equipment) and fine art photography (traditional dark room) for a living. I supposed that's "professional" level.

Aperture can kiss my ass.

This is the PJ industry standard right now for organizing and culling high-volume takes.

http://www.camerabits.com/pages/PM4.html

And it's a lot less expensive than Aperture, especially if you take the ridiculous system requirements for Aperture into account.

iPhoto is terrible for this sort of work compared to software like Photo Mechanic, Extensis Portfolio, iView Media Pro, etc.

http://www.camerabits.com/pages/PM4.html

It's way, way faster than PS for sorting and organizing RAW files.

It's not an editor--it's just for importing and organizing the take. But at that it is best I've used. I understand it's very popular with PJs.