Camera Connectors for iPad

We received the camera connection kit we ordered for the iPad.  The kit consists of two connectors or adapters, one that allows you to connect a camera (via the USB cable that generally comes with your digital camera) and one that allows you to insert a SD card.

The connectors are easy to use and allow the user to transfer selected photos from camera or SD card.   The connector is inserted into the larger connection on the iPad that is below the home button on the iPad.  The 'Photos' app on iPad,  appears on the iPad screen displaying thumbnail views of all the images stored on your SD card or camera.   An option to import all of the pictures by pressing the IMPORT ALL button in the upper right corner is available.  Or you can selectively click on the individual photos you wish to import from the batch.  A blue check mark will indicate which photos you wish to import.   You can also abort the import by pressing the red 'Stop Import' button in the upper right corner.  Once the import is finished, an option to delete the photos from the SD card or camera is given.

The process of importing photos from a SD card or camera is fast.  Import of both jpg and raw photo formats is supported. 

One thing that is pretty cool is the ability to hook one of the connectors to other devices, such as an iPhone allowing you to import photos (just your saved album photos) from your iPhone to your iPad directly via the USB cable that comes with the iPhone.  You can also use this same method to hook two iPads as well and to transfer the saved photos from one iPad to another.

As most persons will be taking their iPads along with them when traveling, I would recommend buying this camera kit to carry along as well.  The iPad can then be used to backup photos from your digital camera while on trips.    However, our current method of saving photos from our digital camera using a 160GB Photo iPod (which also has its own special camera cable), does allow for more storage than our 64 GB iPad.  But in a pinch, the iPad would serve for a good backup as well.

Note:  If you wish to move your imported photos (from camera and other devices) to your Mac, you can connect your iPad using the USB cable to your Mac, click on iPhoto or Image Capture apps to import all the saved and/or imported photos to your Mac.

There is also a program called PhoneView by eCamm http://ecamm.com/ which allows you to copy photos, music, notes, SMS messages, contacts from your iPhone/iPad to your computer for a backup.  I haven't tried this particular product yet, but considering purchasing it.  I have used other products that they offer that interfaced with cameras I used with iChat on my Mac, that worked well.  They offer a demo version of this product and might be worth checking out.

Another product that eCamm offers is PadSync which handles syncing other types of files without using iTunes.  It is available as a demo and may be of interest to those of you that want a quick way to sync files both ways for apps like Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and GoodReader on your iPad.