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NEED HELP Chosing I pad Pro or mini Air2 or other

rollsman44

Well-known member
This will be my FIRST time buying one. My Main Purpose is to be able to use LR 5 when I am out away from mu home computer ( apple IMAC ) I think 64 GB is enough as I don't do much of PP anymore so NOT Many images to save.
Any suggestions are Greatly appreciated. I am also open to ideas to go to Verizon, my cell service or ATT or Besy Buy to buy vs Verizon. I also Don't want to spend anymore money on Data plan. I have 6GB now for 3 of us. We only reach 3-4 GB month. I will use Wi Fi more often. Thank you
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Re: NEED HELP Chosing iPad Pro or iPad mini, iPad Air 2 or other

This will be my FIRST time buying one. My Main Purpose is to be able to use LR 5 when I am out away from my home computer ( Apple IMAC ) I think 64 GB is enough as I don't do much of PP anymore so NOT Many images to save.
Any suggestions are Greatly appreciated. I am also open to ideas to go to Verizon, my cell service or ATT or Besy Buy to buy vs Verizon. I also Don't want to spend anymore money on Data plan. I have 6GB now for 3 of us. We only reach 3-4 GB month. I will use Wi Fi more often. Thank you
First:
  • No desktop version of Lightroom runs on any iPad.
  • Lightroom Mobile runs on iPads and iPhones. It has less functionality than the Lightroom desktop app but is portable. It also requires that you have an Adobe Creative Cloud account/subscription.
  • The space in an iPad is storage space. You can't see or work on any images until you transfer them into the iPad, so the doesn't matter how much editing you do—it's how many photo files you want to import in addition to everything else you might want to have available in the iPad that should determine how much storage to buy.
  • The iPad mini 4 has 512M RAM, the iPad Air 2 has 1G, the iPad Pro 9.7 and 12.3 have 2G (assuming the data I have is correct; I'm not entirely sure). More RAM is a better environment for any kind of image processing.
  • The iPad mini 4 has the oldest and slowest CPU, the iPad Air 2 has a slightly later one, the iPad Pro models have the most recent and are the most powerful. More cpu power is always a plus for image processing.

With those things in mind, I have iPad mini 3, iPad Pro 12.3, and iPad Pro 9.7. All three were bought with their maximum storage configuration (128, 128, and 256G respectively) and cellular. The mini shares its account (ATT) with my iPhone for cellular data, the Pros each have a 3 month/1G prepaid data plan (ATT) which nets about $10/month for each of them. That suits my primarily WiFi use, but means that I have cellular data available when needed out of a WiFi zone.

  • If I load 30 24Mpixel raw files from my camera and process them with the PhotoRAW app, the iPad Pro 9.7 is done in less than six minutes and is about five times faster than the mini.
  • The Pro models' cover with integrated keyboard is very very handy for more versatile use when traveling without access to a regular laptop for whenever you might want to edit more than just a bit of text.
  • The Pro models' screens are excellent quality; the 9.7 model screen is the best of all (although the 12.3 model screen is wonderful for displaying movies and nice big renderings of photos).


The iPad Pro 9.7 inch is now my daily use computer for personal stuff whether on the go or at home. My home Mac mini is what I do my image processing with, the other iPads are used for more specialized purposes. I would strongly recommend the iPad Pro 9.7 inch with 128 or 256 G storage, cellular, and the keyboard cover.

I use a combination of Photos, Snapseed, Photogene, and PhotoRaw to deal with processing on the iPad, along with the Lightning to SD Card Camera Adapter. It works quite well.
 
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