In case you’ve been living under a rock, or perhaps haven’t checked your social media this morning – Apple have announced updates to a few of their products, including the Apple TV, the iPad and the iPhone. While both the new iPhone and Apple TV look like quality products, the big announcement for me as a photographer was the announcement of the new iPad Pro. Here’s five reasons why I think photographers should be lining up to buy the iPad Pro.
1. Screen Size
The iPad Pro has a 12.9″ (diagonal) LED backlit display with a resolution of 2732 x 2048. Yes, this iPad packs in more pixels than the latest 13.3″ Retina MacBook Pro. Viewing photos on this device is going to be an absolute delight, and will be perfect for showing off your portfolio to prospective clients, or for showing clients images while out in the field.
2. Editing on Location
While you have been able to edit images on location since the very first iPad, with the new A9x chip running ‘Metal’ the new iPad Pro has more graphics power than 90% of all portable PC’s sold within the last year. Along with it’s portability and thousands of image editing apps in the App Store, this makes the iPad Pro the perfect on location editing tool.
3. Apple Pencil
If you’re serious about image editing as a photographer, then you will probably be using some sort of Wacom tablet. Now, alongside the new Apple Pencil (also announced today) you can use the iPad Pro as an alternative to the Wacom Cintiq Touch, but at a much cheaper price. Unlike competitors that use a regular stylus, the Apple Pencil is filled with all sorts of sensors creating a precise instrument that will enable you to modify down to single pixel level – making this an absolutely perfect tool for retouching.
4. Travel Use
While the original iPad line has always been pretty good for international use, the wifi+cellular version of the iPad Pro has hands down the most international connectivity of any device. Team this up with the Apple Sim, and you will be able to stay connected in over 90 countries and territories. The Apple Sim will let you pick and choose which carrier’s data plan you wish to use in each country, all from your iPad Pro. This sim is currently only offered in the United States, but expect this to roll over to other countries soon.
5. Adobe
I don’t actually know any serious photographers that don’t use Adobe products! With the announcement of the iPad Pro also came a whole host of new Adobe iPad software (sorry, Apps) including Adobe Photoshop Fix, which supports up to 50 megapixel files. This will enable you to retouch, edit or manipulate your images from most professional DSLR’s. Of course, you can also run Adobe Lightroom Mobile and Adobe Photoshop Mix on the iPad Pro – and at a much greater speed than ever before!
The Apple iPad Pro will be available in New Zealand, the United States and selected other countries from November 2015, with pricing to be confirmed.
For more information on the Apple iPad Pro you can visit the Apple website, or view the keynote presentation.
All images kindly provided by Apple.