Anyone process their images on an Android tablet ?

[NPUK]

Hi... As the title suggests, is there anyone who processes their images on an Android tablet (eg. Samsung Galaxy S7 or S8 etc) ?

I'm considering getting a tablet eg. Samsung Galaxy S8+ or S8 ultra which are supplied with a stylus.
Generally, I edit phone images on my phone using Snapseed / Lightroom mobile and camera images I edit using my computer and monitor. Sometimes if I really want to put the effort in I will process phone images on the computer using Lightroom but I much prefer the simplicity of editing photos while sat on the sofa rather than at a desk but the phone screen is way too small for my liking. These are all amateur/enthusiast photos by the way, as it's just a hobby for me.

If anyone does use this method, can I ask if you manage to "easily" transfer photos (jpeg and raw) from the camera directly to the Android tablet without having to use the computer ?


Thanks

 

[RichardC27]

For the price of a Samsung tablet just buy an iPad. You'll get way, way longer software support, a much better selection of tablet optimised apps and a better stylus in the Apple Pencil. Plus the M1 processor absolutely destroys anything Samsung or Qualcomm have in the Android space.

I use an Android phone but I'd never consider anything but an iPad as a tablet. I do use an iPad Pro as my main editing device and it's wonderful. Photos are easy to import with a USB-C card reader, no PC necessary. I would say you need the 1Tb Lightroom plan if you're going to use a tablet as your main device though.

 

[NPUK]

For the price of a Samsung tablet just buy an iPad. You'll get way, way longer software support, a much better selection of tablet optimised apps and a better stylus in the Apple Pencil. Plus the M1 processor absolutely destroys anything Samsung or Qualcomm have in the Android space.

I use an Android phone but I'd never consider anything but an iPad as a tablet. I do use an iPad Pro as my main editing device and it's wonderful. Photos are easy to import with a USB-C card reader, no PC necessary. I would say you need the 1Tb Lightroom plan if you're going to use a tablet as your main device though.

I'm not really a fan of Apple products ever since I had an iPhone4 about ten years ago and always found it difficult to transfer files onto (syncing), plus the whole software / battery fiasco of them being engineered to lose performance after a certain amount of time. I believe the latest Samsung tablet to be comparable in performance to an iPad Pro although did see one performance test running Lightroom where there was a slight delay on the Samsung in bringing up the sliders compared to the iPad having no delay.

The Samsung tablet is bigger than the iPad too but if a much more serious photographer than myself can use the iPad as a main device then it should be good enough for me. Do you find the screen big enough when you've got part of it taken up by the Lightroom panel / sliders ?

One thing I will say in favour of Apple products though.... At least there is an actual shop I can walk into to discuss and try out their products, which is a big plus to me.

 

[RichardC27]

I'm not really a fan of Apple products ever since I had an iPhone4 about ten years ago and always found it difficult to transfer files onto (syncing), plus the whole software / battery fiasco of them being engineered to lose performance after a certain amount of time. I believe the latest Samsung tablet to be comparable in performance to an iPad Pro although did see one performance test running Lightroom where there was a slight delay on the Samsung in bringing up the sliders compared to the iPad having no delay.

The Samsung tablet is bigger than the iPad too but if a much more serious photographer than myself can use the iPad as a main device then it should be good enough for me. Do you find the screen big enough when you've got part of it taken up by the Lightroom panel / sliders ?

One thing I will say in favour of Apple products though.... At least there is an actual shop I can walk into to discuss and try out their products, which is a big plus to me.

I know Geekbench is a synthetic benchmark which doesn't necessarily translate to real-world usage, but the M1 has over double the multi-core score of the Snapdragon SoC in the Samsung S8 Ultra. You're literally getting double the performance.

I only use the 11" iPad and it's fine, as you're sitting much closer to the screen. That said I wish I'd gone for the 12.9" model, and when I eventually upgrade I will do. The image size is fine for my needs, obviously everyone has personal preference with this.

The thing is, Apple will support your iPad for 7, 8 years, which is again double what Samsung will give you. The Apple device might be slightly more expensive but you can also keep it for much longer. iPad Pros have USB-C ports, and now support external hard drives and SSDs so getting files on and off them is far from the nightmare it used to be.

Understand if you don't want an Apple product, that's fine and many people don't but for the money involved I wouldn't touch an Android tablet.

 

[NPUK]

I only use the 11" iPad and it's fine, as you're sitting much closer to the screen. That said I wish I'd gone for the 12.9" model, and when I eventually upgrade I will do. The image size is fine for my needs, obviously everyone has personal preference with this.

I have done a little bit of reading up on the iPad since your first comment and apparently the 12.9" model has a slightly different display which can suffer from "light blooming" that apparently the 11" model doesn't.

 

[RichardC27]

I have done a little bit of reading up on the iPad since your first comment and apparently the 12.9" model has a slightly different display which can suffer from "light blooming" that apparently the 11" model doesn't.

The 12.9" has a Mini LED display, the 11" just has a bog standard (although extremely bright and colour accurate) LCD. To be honest I haven't used the Mini LED 12.9", but I think it only affects high contrast scenes and you have to be looking for it. For photo work it's by far the better display, with better brightness, colours and contrast. The 11" is rumoured to be getting Mini LED in this year's refresh. Mine is a 2018 model 11" Pro and the display is excellent. I don't have anything like the power or RAM of the M1 models and my iPad flies through Raw files without any problems whatsoever. I love editing on it, I couldn't go back to sitting at PC now.

 

[LG9K]

If you have a Sony camera, you can transfer the files using NFC and their Imaging Edge Mobile App to an Android device.

 

[Faldrax]

If you have a Sony camera, you can transfer the files using NFC and their Imaging Edge Mobile App to an Android device.

This only transfers a JPeg, not the RAW image, so while it's convenient for getting something to quickly share on social media, it's not the best solution to get a decent quality starting point for LR.
Note: If you shoot RAW it will still transfer an image for you, but what you get transferred is the small Jpeg preview the camera creates and embeds in the RAW.

 

[RichardC27]

This only transfers a JPeg, not the RAW image, so while it's convenient for getting something to quickly share on social media, it's not the best solution to get a decent quality starting point for LR.
Note: If you shoot RAW it will still transfer an image for you, but what you get transferred is the small Jpeg preview the camera creates and embeds in the RAW.

Same with the Fuji app. You can't transfer Raw files at all, and you have to change a setting buried in a sub-sub-sub menu on the camera to get it to transfer the full size Jpeg. It's much quicker and easier to pop the card out and use a little USB-C card reader

 

[NPUK]

Thanks guys... These are interesting points, especially as I am thinking about adding a Sony RX100 to my devices.
I'm coming round to the idea of getting an iPad rather than Samsung tablet though as it seems many professional photographers are using them for their editing.

 

[PJH99]

I have the M1 12.9 ipad and I use Snapseed, Darkroom and Affinity photo. I never touch my desktop machine for photos anymore. So quick and easy on the pad, especially with the Apple Pencil