iPad for travel photography backup?
How to backup your photos while travelling has always been a concern of mine. You hear so many horror stories of people who have lost their camera or had it damaged and lost all of their memories. When I last travelled I overcame this by burning all my photos to DVD and mailing them home as I went, but that's hardly practical.
Apple is soon to release the iPad and I'm wondering if this could perhaps solve various issues, allowing me to backup my photos, upload to the internet and also preview shots on a bigger screen while shooting. There is no doubt in my mind that the iPad will be a brilliant device for viewing photos but its usefulness for professional/enthusiast photographers will really be defined by it's ability to display the plethora of RAW formats that many cameras can now shoot in.
The iPad Technical Specs page lists a Camera Connection Kit as one of the available accessories but unfortunately no information is given on the supported formats. Apple does give very good support of RAW formats on the desktop, with updates regularly distributed on OSX, but with the limited resources of mobile devices it is yet to be seen as to whether the iPad will have the support or the necessary grunt to convert RAW images.
UPDATE
12 April 2010 - The Apple website now states:
iPad supports standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW.
Great question… As soon as I get to know that I will decide if I buy na iPad. If iPad can’t import Nikon RAW files probably I will not be interested. Do you anything new about that?
No information yet. The Apple website isn’t particularly forthcoming with information about it and aren’t even shipping the Camera Connection Kit yet. Currently Apple says they will be shipping in “late April”.
@Greg – Apple has revealed that iPad supports standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW so go for it!