rbrylawski said:
With a really good bluetooth keypad, you'd be surprised how much nicer it is to do things on an iPad......For Christmas, Santa brought me the Targus Versavue 360 Case with Bluetooth Keyboard (on sale at BestBuy for $80). The keyboard works perfectly and makes typing just as nice as on a laptop.

Very true.

I do have a stand and a bluetooth keyboard for my iPad. But to be honest, rather than set it up it's easier, quicker and better to use my 17" laptop.

If someone is thinking about an iPad INSTEAD of a laptop, such a set up is reasonable. But for serious photo work you really need at least a 15" screen, preferably somewhat bigger.

I am waiting for ( along with the D800) somthing with Windows 8 and a retina display

maybe from Samsung

I looked at tablets and ended up buying a zenbook by asus. just a little over two pounds and will run photo shop. Its a new ultrabook.

Anaxagoras said:
I have an iPad. In my experience...

It's great for -
Showing your pictures to other people,
Quickly checking your emails (from picking it up "cold" to reading your emails takes, quite literally, a few seconds!),
Browsing, just for interest,
Reading magazines and newspapers,
Playing games for 15 minutes when you want a break from the real world.

It's certainly NOT so great for -
Editing photos, etc. The screen is simply too small,
Having an in-depth email conversation about anything important,
Serious on-line stuff, e.g. banking,
Word processing, or other business-like activities.

In other words, it's a device for PASSIVELY LOOKING at things.
It's not a device for ACTIVELY DOING things

With a really good bluetooth keypad, you'd be surprised how much nicer it is to do things on an iPad......For Christmas, Santa brought me the Targus Versavue 360 Case with Bluetooth Keyboard (on sale at BestBuy for $80). The keyboard works perfectly and makes typing just as nice as on a laptop.

I have an iPad. In my experience...

It's great for -
Showing your pictures to other people,
Quickly checking your emails (from picking it up "cold" to reading your emails takes, quite literally, a few seconds!),
Browsing, just for interest,
Reading magazines and newspapers,
Playing games for 15 minutes when you want a break from the real world.

It's certainly NOT so great for -
Editing photos, etc. The screen is simply too small,
Having an in-depth email conversation about anything important,
Serious on-line stuff, e.g. banking,
Word processing, or other business-like activities.

In other words, it's a device for PASSIVELY LOOKING at things.
It's not a device for ACTIVELY DOING things

I'm an iPhone/iPad guy and am very happy with the ability to download pictures to my iPad and with iCloud, they immediately show up on my iPhone. I have some editing software on my iPad, but for me, it's just a great device to view pictures. Plus I no longer receieve any magazines in print. I get all my photo subscriptions on my iPad.

Any recommendations on tablets guys? I'm not going to be using it for photography, more like around the house browsing.

Right now I'm looking at the Samsung Galaxy Tab or Asus Transformer.

With a blown out spine, sitting more than 10 minutes on any surface in the house is excruciating. Sitting on the back porch on the brick wall next to the house where I can lean up against it is often the only place to sit. With something lightweight like the tablet I can review my photos and learn about Photoshop with the $10.00 Adobe Photoshop Touch that is only available for Android right now. I wish for something even lighter than a laptop to travel with as I've been told "no picking up anything more than 10lbs until further notice (It's already been 3 months.) Camera gear is pushing the 8.x lb. edge already. 1600x1600 is at least a start for the images that I am making available, the current limit with the above mentioned Photoshop app. Next step, stick the computer on a podium so I can stand and work on the full application on the two Cinema displays for a bit longer than 10 minutes.

Good fundamental question. That is the kind of stuff that is slipping through my fingers with such massive sleep deprivation for so darn long. Thank you!

pbull221 said:
Now to find some apps...

It's an Android device. What do you want to do with it? Store and display picture albums for clients or need a device to do serious editing in your hands?

The first is easy but the second IMHO, needs a bigger screen, which means a laptop with a calibrated screen, unless you want results that won't be reviewed and criticized... ;-)

OK. Change in direction. Now I am looking at this one:
Lenovo 64GB ThinkPad 10.1" Tablet with WiFi & Tablet Pen

3-in-1 card reader, USB, 64GB, plus.

anybody got one? More room for pictures. Display is 10.1" WXGA (1280x800) 16:10 IPS display panel with Corning Gorilla Glass. w 1080p full HD.

Now to find some apps...

Of course after waking up and actually going to *LINK REMOVED* I guess I will be patient and see what v.4 and quad core tablets show up in February. I snoozed and it may be to my benefit in this case.

Thanks shivaswrath, have not seen one yet that beats the USB, SD, HDMI combo.

thrive.....essential for any photographer, comes with a USB, SD, and HDMI input.....

iPad2's are way too annoying to manage pictures with...

Thanks a lot caitsweet94! I was curious about that one but remember all the horror stories about Asus when they started making computers as the first commodity device. That likely has changed because you are a 2nd contact who has recommended Asus. I liked the Thrive because of the full sized SD port, Android, price, and resolution. Wish it was available above 32GB though. Guess I should look at the Asus more closely, thanks.

If you want to get your feet wet in tablets and don't want to spend a lot of money, Pandigital makes a 7 inch tablet that costs about $80 that can download books, do the internet and e-mail. I bought mine at Ollies Outlet, but they also sell them at Big Lots. Big Lots will get a shipment of them or Android brand on Sunday and sell them out by Tuesday. They both use the Android system of apps. You may want to get one for a year and wait for the products to get better and cheaper. The Pandigital also takes SD card up to 32 GB . I assume the Android does too.

DaveO

Hi there pbull221 :-)
My dad's right up on all this computer stuff and he decided upon the Asus Eee Pad Transformer about a year ago. He's really enjoyed it, and when I get the chance to use it, I find it fantastic too - the honeycomb software blows Apple iOS out of the water that's for sure!! Having used a mixture of both Apple and Android products, I would say buy Android, you can usually find it a bit cheaper, because Apple overprices a bit as it has such strong brand loyalty.
If you travel a lot I'd definitely look into a tablet, since they're so light travelling with tablets is a breeze! Load up great apps such as TripIt and TripAdvisor and you're set! A lot of apps are now cross-platform too, so don't let that factor into your decision too much.

Best of luck on your tablet hunt!!
Cait

I use the iPad2 and a have a bunch of photo edit software, but really don't do too much with them when I'm at home. They are great when traveling. I put the Eye-Fi in the D7000 and download the jpg versions to the iPad each day, edit them with FilterStorm and then throw the ones I really like up on (InYour)Facebook ;) for all those people who are still at home.

I will say I also have the iPhone, so it is like having a larger and smaller of the same device. When the iPad isn't around, the iPhone can do pretty much the same stuff, albeit on a much smaller screen. Definitely go with a tablet that sports the same operating system as your phone. Way easier to move back and forth that way.

Ipads are just oversized ipods, I have an Iphone already so I went with a win7 tablet. The Asus eee2 had a wacom digitizer so I use lightroom and photoshop on it with no problems. it connects to my server at home and allows me to take it to do some sketching or editing on the road or sitting on the couch being lazy.

I always felt apple turned their back on artist when they released the ipad. The asus eee2 is not perfect but I got to say having the wacom digitizer and 4 gigs of ram really makes this the only tablet i thought worth buying.

I have an ipad2, but dont use it for photography. Its more than just a big phone, though. I use it as my email device, to keep up on the internet, and to do things when im on the bus.

But for photography? nope.

adamz said:
@bernard - tablet and laptop are two different things, for photo editing I also prefer my MBP/iMac, but for showing pictures to clients iPad is unbeatable

Yes I know :) I have many friends who bought a tablet, and I even bought an Ipad2 for my daughter two weeks ago. I was just saying that a tablet doesn't fulfill my needs: I run an Association which restores and maintains old airplanes in flying condition, and to make some money, our gift shop sells photos that I take and print. I tried selling CD's but aviation fans do not fancy that too much. They prefer nice prints. Don't ask me why… They must have many albums of standard size airplane photos, or they frame the largest ones.
I tried to display these photos on a computer or TV during air shows but they don't look at them. They do prefer to flip through stacks of prints, and they do sell, believe me ! The money we make from those prints, over the years, helped us a lot keeping those old planes in the air. :)

@bernard - tablet and laptop are two different things, for photo editing I also prefer my MBP/iMac, but for showing pictures to clients iPad is unbeatable

No tablet for me. I do prefer my MacBook Pro, even if it's heavier. For not much difference in price, it does a lot more than a tablet !

I would go for Apple iPad, although that's just a solution for You only if You have a regular computer at home. As for using iPad for picture storage, well... unless You have the biggest version it doesn't work. In my case, when I travel I'm usually ending with app. 40gb of images per week, so for me even the biggest iPad will not do the work as a backup machine. It works, however, as a perfect platform for sharing pictures on the road with my friends and family. Together with Snapseed I was able to do on-the-road basic editing and uploading snaps to both Facebook and flickr.
If You don't care about picture editing nor sharing them with online media, and want to occasionally check internet and have access to Your mail, than get amazon kindle 3g - especially if You want to be in touch while traveling to remote areas where regular internet connections are expensive and where gsm coverage is present.

mm Looked into that Asus Slate, but it seems not to be available here anymore , so its of my list again.... to bad, looked prommissing...

We've finally started supporting Apple at my job. Then the upper management got iPads and they were followed by the nursing school. The 1024x768 does not impress me on the iPad2. That said, they are simple and light weight.

I've been looking into the Toshiba Thrive. The reasons seem many in favor of this and the applications manager is a big fan of Android and likewise does not like Apple because of their lack of philanthropy. I like the res on the Thrive and plan to try some hands on during this Thanksgiving break.

Hope the rest of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. My oldest friend is in the hospital after having major surgery so I am especially thankful for my friends and relative good health at this time (11 Rxs/day and I am "only" 51.)

Well you might call it a tablet but for me its a computer. I am using an Asus Eee Slate (EP121). It runs windows 7 64-bit, has 4 GB of Ram and has somewhere around a 12 inch screen. It does weigh more and is thicker than an ipad or similar devices but can do so much more. It is a total touch screen device and has 2 USB ports. The cost is probably double an ipad as well but it depends on how your going to use it if its worth it for you.

I built my own desktop computer a few years ago and not only does this tablet smoke my desktop its running more applications at the same time as well. I am sure in a few years it will be outdated, but that is pretty much the case with all electronic items in this day and age.