Trying To Tolerate My iPad

A small rant regarding “mobile work flow”

Random 50 megapixel image imported into LR for iPad from an SD card. Yep, this works fine but using LR on iOS and the cloud just doesn’t seem productive or pleasant as I sit here hunched over this device with a sore neck. I ask my self why would I actually do this???

The original title was “Trying To Love My iPad”. I’m away visiting coastal South Carolina, a traditional gathering of extended multi-generational gathering in a large house. Lovely, relaxing, and hopefully fasting from the internet I decided not to bring a computer, a real computer. Instead I dusted off my iPad Pro with magical keyboard and magical pencil. It’s not the brand new super fast model. It’s a few years old with very little mileage. I hate this thing. I hate everything about it. The screen is kind of pretty but the keyboard is terrible, the keyboard interface is even more terrible. I’ve tried to fix it by buying a folding stand that holds the monitor at a reasonable, non-neck-breaking height and coupling it with a decent keyboard but that merely highlights the flaws in the ill conceived unworkable keyboard interface iOS and all the apps provide. The only thing that really works well is CMD-TAB to switch between apps, the rest is just a facade.

I have hated every iPad I’ve ever owned. I keep forgetting why and therefore buy a new, more expensive one with all the crappy trimmings. It’s sort of okay as a typewriter with the right keyboard, the right iPad stand, and the right app. It is a terrible content creation tool for any serious work. It’s not that you cannot make it work. It’s just unpleasant and klunky. The Lightroom cloud vs Lightroom Classic non-integration is still a mess that can only be interpreted as intentional at this point. The Capture One solution is more terrible. Yes, it can be made to work but why would you want to. My MacBook Retina from 2013 is slower with out-dated software but still works better and faster than this pretend computer. Yes, it is faster to move files around and completely deterministic using that ancient intel i5 with USB external drives than “the cloud”.

If I ever mention purchasing and iOS device for real work ever again, somebody please stop me. If there’s anyone seriously using the iPad to do work and integrating it with their desktop system for photo or video please let us know how that workflow is helping you and how it’s more productive on iOS → Mac or Windows rather than just using a small laptop.

I am not asking for details of the bits and bobs of RAW files and Smart Previews and how to make all that work, I’m asking why and how you are working that makes it better and more productive to use an iOS device rather than a real computer. Seriously, I think the community can benefit from that knowledge of when it might be better… or rather not better so avoid the wasted time and frustration. Les tried and failed to do it last year with brand new stuff. Maybe hell try again but I’ll bet he will feel the same way when he does.

Of course I brought a real camera with a tiny kit. Not including the camera, that small kit fits inside a Domke FX-5. I tested my card adapter and the ability to import files into Lightroom on the iPad thinking I’d use the “mobile workflow” and report on that experience in 2025 with a positive tone after making some pictures and exploring coast down here with no particular project in mind. As I write this I am debating between doing that or just leaving any photographs on SD cards until I am home again. We’ll see.