I bought the camera kit for the ipad, there is no compact flash reader with the kit,just an sd card and a usb adaptor, i plugged my multi card reader into the usb port inserted the compact flash card and lo and behold it read it instantly, so now i can load photos straight onto my ipad,the built in software instantly reads and uploads ,I then scoured around the apps markets and purchased a few items one of which was flickrstackr and the other photogene, photogene gives you some editing software and was prices at £2.60 and flickrstackr was about £1.00

flickrstackr uploads photos straight into your flickr account, and you can aslo download photos onto your ipad and stack them in folders to show people without going online,photogene gives you quite a bit of editing power , so it,s great for storage and uploading on holiday and a wee bit of editing to pass the time too, viewing photos on the ipad is amazing, these apps are so simple to use

I hope this helps somebody

Hi,
what happens if you connect your camera straight to the iPad?

you can do that via the usb adaptor in the camera kit, the reason I don,t like doing that is, I once caught the lead of my epson storage device knocking it and the camera to the floor whilst it was connected to the camera , damaged the camera and rendered the epson hard drive useless losing all my photos, so in future I like to just insert the card

Sad to know what happened with your camera/HD.

It is interesting that we have more and more tablets that support USB host functions. Archos sells a USB port that allow the same function on their tablets.

I hope we'll see USB host without any adapter soon: Sony Erickson's Experia phones are really nice... but Android only (I do like Windows Phone very much) Now we need Sony to develop a couple of apps for "that"

thanks Pako,
unfortunately most of the apps are written for the ipad and they seem to have a stranglehold on the market, I also have the Archos 701 but the ipad seems a lot easier and simpler to operate and a lot more expensive too, Apple has a license to print money

I don't think Sony will develop an App for iPhone/iPad (they don't even have the IDC for mac...) but Sony Erickson use Android (apparently they won't make phones for Windows Mobile) and they announced they are working on a (Android-based?) tablets at CES. That is why I do expect Sony to develop image-related apps for Android.

Archos is a good alternative. I got an "old" Archos 7 at work and I'm stil wandering if I'll buy an Archos 70 for myself, but I'll probably wait until Android 3 tablets arrive to the market and, regarding the price, I'll get one.

Actually, IDC 3.2 and the Lightbox 2.2 are available for the Mac (10.4 and higher). Not that I´m using them, but you could if you wish to.
You are confusing with PMB I guess.

My bad! (and good for apple users...)

I use the ipad as a wireless 'tethered' shot review device but it wasn't quite as straightforward as I'd hoped. Basically I have an Eye Fi wireless SD card in the camera (and the camera set to RAW plus JPEG shots - Only the top of the range Eye Fi allows RAW images to be transferred) and then (at my PC) set up the Eye Fi card to recognise a pocket 3G wifi device (in the UK its called a 3 MiFi). Finally I connected the original ipad to the MiFi and installed an app called Shutter Snitch. Getting all three talking to each other was a bit of a nightmare, mainly because setting up the Eye Fi card required a PC, but for the App to find the Eye Fi, the Ipad and Eye Fi must be on the same network with no other Eye Fi connected devices present WHILST THE INITIAL SEARCH happens (in the end, setting things up then shutting down the pc did the trick). Once that's done, it was all plain sailing.. make sure all 3 devices are on, boot up shuttersnitch on the ipad and take a shot.. about 30 secs later the JPEG version (not the RAW) appears on the ipad screen. So you can't use it for live view but its good for quickly reviewing a shot whilst you are still 'on location' so to speak. And dont worry about 3g charges - its just going vi the WiFi connection - you can have zero credit and it will still work.

Scott, who thinks there are a tad too many I-s, Eye-s and Fi-s in the above paragraph

Very interesting Scott. So you have to use an iPad with 3g?

No, its a 1st gen wifi only ipad. The EyeFi card I have needs to connect to a wi fi network and the receiving device needs to be on the same network. The 3 Mifi is pretty cheap in the UK (about 50 GBP) and you can use pay as you go sims from 3. One nice touch is that in the NEX and a55, sony have included a menu option specifically for EyeFi cards - a little indicator shows up on the liveview when they are inserted so you can see when they are uploading the image. Also, EyeFi announced a free firmware upgrade for the SD cards that should allow AD HOC networking to devices such as the ipad, removing the need for the (slightly cumbersome) network gadget in the middle but I'm still waiting for it to go live as it were.

However, despite the slightly cumbersome work around, its still slightly magical to take a shot with your camera then pick up the ipad and see it magically appear on the ipad screen. Another nice feature in the ipad app is you can set alerts and warnings based on received exif data.. e.g. High ISO, SHUTTER SPEED<1/10s etc. Thats quite helpful if you forget to drop the iso down when the light improves etc.

Scott

Thanks for the info Scott. I will look in to it.

Talk about timing - I've just seen a press release that came out yesterday stating that Eye Fi are adding the direct connection function to their new cards (and as a free upgrade to some cards) later this week - this should remove the need to faff around like I did, plus some free apps as well. When its available I'll download the firmware and test it out and let people know how I get on. Scott

Great news - I'll eagerly await your findings .

OK, the Eye Fi update is up but its a bit of a mess at the moment... the windows software alerted me of an update yesterday which I duly downloaded. I inserted my card and yes, there's a new tab in the windows software for setting up direct mode. I attempted to do this and the software prompted me to automatically download and upgrade the card firmware to.. the same version that's on the card! I clicked OK anyway, got an error message saying cannot update and contact support if this persists. I visited the Eyefi forum and found out that I was not alone .

An admin posted that although they had released the firmware, it was currently only available to new card registrations and that it would be available to existing registered card owners soon! However, if you UNREGISTERED your card and reregistered it as a new card, it would update fine which I duly did and it seemed to work. The card then acts as a local hotspot that your ipad (or android or laptop) can then connect to... except that compatible software to use this function has yet to be approved by apple but should be out this week if all goes well (checked a few seconds ago and not there yet) .

All in all, not a great way to launch what is in my opinion, a killer feature for the Eye Fi cards (unless you use android as that doesn't require approval and is apparently already available) - being able to 'smoothly' connect you camera to your tablet device and review shots pretty much as they happen is a great thing to have and justify the not insignificant premium that the Eye Fi commands over a standard class 6 SD card. If I were Eye Fi, I would have delayed the update a few days until all the pieces were in place.

Hopefully by the end of the week this will all be sorted and I'll be singing the praises of the Eye Fi again

Scott

Scott