I travel back and forth to Sudan to film. I am wanting to purchase the iPad to help with this falls scouting process. I'll be visiting there scouting out locations, people, etc. for the film trip.

I wish the iPad took photos, but since it doesn't, I'll be needing to take my own photos and then transfer them onto the iPad. My questions are:

1.) Does anyone know of a way to use a stylus pen and write directly onto photos once they're installed onto the iPad? For example.... if I take a picture of a field, I'd like to write/draw the plan for where people stand, where a building will be, etc.

2.) Does anyone know of a way to capture photo/video easily onto the iPad? Is it possible short of having a camera built in?

3.) Does anyone know of a good stylus pen app where you can write notes freely and easily (very similar to writing on a paper)?

Thanks so much for your help! Let me know if you know of any apps that would be of great service!

- Coury
Nadus Films

Originally Posted by courydeeb

1.) Does anyone know of a way to use a stylus pen and write directly onto photos once they're installed onto the iPad?

2.) Does anyone know of a way to capture photo/video easily onto the iPad?

3.) Does anyone know of a good stylus pen app where you can write notes freely and easily (very similar to writing on a paper)?

1) Yes, there are several apps for photos and some allow markup. Photopad is the one I have, though I've never used this feature.

2) I can think of 2 ways: Eye-Fi and AirStash. Eye-Fi is a camera memory card with wifi transmitter built in; you can transmit photos to your iPad directly from the camera via wifi. Downside is you're limited to card capacities they sell (I think 4GB is the largest) AirStash lets you plug the memory card into a separate device that will transmit files via wifi. More cumbersome, but more versatile; works with any size card, adds USB support, lets you store any type of file.

3) Nothing offers handwriting recognition, but there are several such apps; I use Penultimate.

Originally Posted by epb

Originally Posted by courydeeb

1.) Does anyone know of a way to use a stylus pen and write directly onto photos once they're installed onto the iPad?

2.) Does anyone know of a way to capture photo/video easily onto the iPad?

3.) Does anyone know of a good stylus pen app where you can write notes freely and easily (very similar to writing on a paper)?

1) Yes, there are several apps for photos and some allow markup. Photopad is the one I have, though I've never used this feature.

2) I can think of 2 ways: Eye-Fi and AirStash. Eye-Fi is a camera memory card with wifi transmitter built in; you can transmit photos to your iPad directly from the camera via wifi. Downside is you're limited to card capacities they sell (I think 4GB is the largest) AirStash lets you plug the memory card into a separate device that will transmit files via wifi. More cumbersome, but more versatile; works with any size card, adds USB support, lets you store any type of file.

3) Nothing offers handwriting recognition, but there are several such apps; I use Penultimate.

From what I have seen, you cannot transmit photos to the ipad via wifi. Most of these products require the device being transferred to to host the network. The iPad and Eye-fi (and I assume Airstash) can only join networks that are hosted by another device. With this setup you have a bunch of clients and no host. I wish they would make a bluetooth version instead

Thanks for the quick replys.

Unfortunately, I won't have wifi since I'll be in the middle of the bush. I'm so frustrated Apple didn't include a camera in this model. Makes so much sense. I suppose I'll just have to take them with the Mark 2 and import them. It's just an extra step I was trying to avoid on the field.

Thanks for the app suggestions. I'll check them out!

Any other recommendations? Anything you can think of for scripting/story boarding, etc. would be helpful. There's so many apps out there it's so easy to miss something useful!

Originally Posted by pallentx

From what I have seen, you cannot transmit photos to the ipad via wifi. Most of these products require the device being transferred to to host the network. The iPad and Eye-fi (and I assume Airstash) can only join networks that are hosted by another device. With this setup you have a bunch of clients and no host. I wish they would make a bluetooth version instead

Sorry but that's incorrect. Both work as point-to-point wi-fi, not thru a network router. To use my AirStash, I turn it on, connect to the wi-fi access point it creates, then use my browser to log in and browse the files. The Eye-Fi works the same way, according to its documentation.

Thats good news on the airstash. This is what I was referring to Eye-Fi Forums • View topic - iPad Compatibility?

Originally Posted by pallentx

Thats good news on the airstash. This is what I was referring to Eye-Fi Forums • View topic - iPad Compatibility?

I'll defer to user experiences in that link, but from reading up on it I had the impression it worked like my AirStash - fire it up, switch the iPad to its ad hoc network, download. Weird that it doesn't.

I would use a Tablet PC with an integrated 3MP camera, such as this one:

Motion Computing F5.



It's rugged (the screen is indestructible, and they Hydis AFFS+ screen is considered the best in the biz outdoors, no glare at all), and the whole thing is spill proof (against directly splashing water, so no problems in the rain). Tested for high temp environment, and altitude, etc. And of course, runs windows 7, (core2duo, core i3/i5 newer versions) and lots of extra goodies.

You can find on ebay for 1/2 the price of a new one (around 1k, I'd hope). Edit: best handwriting recognition I know of (and multi array voice recognition too).