Gear Review – The Canon G10 and the Apple iPad

Recently, I traveled to Tennessee to see my brother.  I took along my Canon G10 and the Apple iPad 3G along with the SD Camera Connection Kit adapter.  The package, including chargers, fit nicely in a netbook case made by Samsonite.  Small, light weight, and easily transported, the system worked very well during the trip.

Travel and photography is not always about brilliant pictures, sometimes it is about convenience and portability.  But, quality can be obtained even with small devices.

In the Clouds

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On might say that I was a typical American tourist, off to visit family.  The last thing I wanted was a heavy camera system, after all, the trip was about visiting with family, not about trying to find the perfect photograph for some illusive photo competition.

Barn at Mill Creek

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Uploading photographs to the iPad using the SD Card Adapter which came with the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit was a snap.  RAW files from the Canon G10 easily loaded and displayed on the iPad.  Upon returning home it was simple to offload the shots I had done during the trip and then process them using Adobe CS4.

During the trip the iPad was a joy to own.  While waiting for my flight I opened a book and read for a while.  I found myself showing others some of my photographs and videos.  Everyone seemed impressed with the speed of the iPad as I attached to an airport wifi hot spot and checked my email.  And, the next day, I was able to show my brother photographs I had made in Africa, Scotland, Alaska, and Florida.

While there I used the iPad to record about six hours of conversation with my brother.  A verbal history, if you will, of times past.  Altogether the adaptability of the iPad and the G10 was a hassle free experience, perfect for anyone who might make the same sort of trip.

Of course, I could not resist taking some shots along the way, to remember the visit with my brother.

Train Station, Bristol, Virginia

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During the last five years, I have traveled nearly 150,000 miles across the earth to regions sometimes less traveled.  Gosh how I wish I had the iPad for some of those trips, it would have made my experience much less of a hassle — no need for a laptop, no need to wonder about how good or bad my photographers were.  I can anticipate readily now how this new tool will be used in future trips.  I have absolutely no concerns about storing and viewing my photographs along the way.

Lanterns on the Floor

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Now home, I am editing the six hours of digital recordings I made using the iPad and the free iTalk application.  The recordings were flawless, well not totally, since I kept picking up backgrounds noises that I did not hear while recording.  But, using the free software Audacity, noise removal has been easy to do.  The result will be a five or six-hour verbal history that covers the Great Depression through World War II, a family treasure, if you will.

For those of you who are considering the iPad for photography, let me say, go for it, you won’t be disappointed.  Immensely adaptable, the iPad offers one an extraordinary range of applications for doing most anything, from reading books to checking your email to surfing the net to checking flights to making digital audio records to, well, to whatever route your interests go.

For me, the Canon G10 and the iPad form the perfect travel experience.  I can’t praises the software interface that Apple has developed more.  WOW, what a tool!