Digital Camera....I want to be able to put pictures on my Ipad from my Canon camera when on vacation with no computer. Is that possible?

You can buy a Camera Connection Kit if your camera is compatible. Some older cameras don't work, for instance. The CCKs are available via Apple and many other retailers, including Best Buy, Target, etc. Knockoffs also are available via eBay and such, but it can be hit or miss with knockoffs.

Bought one....Thanks!!!

If you are going to be on vacation for long, I recommend you choose a method to occasionally upload the photos to an online storage site. We get a fair number of posts about people who lost their vacation photos, either because the iPad failed, or a syncing error when they got home, or. . .

There are a lot of options: Photo sharing sites like Flickr, Picasa, and Photobucket; or cloud services like DropBox and Box.com.

I'm not saying it's common, but better safe than sorry.

Originally Posted by twerppoet

If you are going to be on vacation for long, I recommend you choose a method to occasionally upload the photos to an online storage site. We get a fair number of posts about people who lost their vacation photos, either because the iPad failed, or a syncing error when they got home, or. . .

There are a lot of options: Photo sharing sites like Flickr, Picasa, and Photobucket; or cloud services like DropBox and Box.com.

I'm not saying it's common, but better safe than sorry.

The iPad just isn't a complete solution for photography particularly for backing up photos while travelling.

I have found two viable alternatives to DropBox et al recently.

1. A Linux device called DreamPlug to which I can connect an SD card (mounted in a mini card reader) and USB drive. I connect the iPad to it via WiFi/SSH and copy files from SD to HDD using the iPad as a console via XWindows and Perl script.

2. My Samsung Galaxy S II phone enables me to copy files from SD card to 32 GB micro SD card on the phone using an Android file manager.

A simpler, more compact option to the DreamPlug is the Tonido Plug which has a built-in browser based file manager, HDD bay and USB port. Unfortunately I have found the performance of this device to be questionable so far.

Originally Posted by RAC

The iPad just isn't a complete solution for photography particularly for backing up photos while travelling.

I have found two viable alternatives to DropBox et al recently. . .

You've always got to make things more complicated. Thank you.

Originally Posted by twerppoet

You've always got to make things more complicated. Thank you.

I'll take the smiley in the spirit that was intended. To be honest, it's Apple that makes what should be simple, complicated, with the sandboxed file system in iOS .

I AM looking for the simplest solution that will meet my requirements by the way.

I have found a simpler solution, provided that you have JPEG files only (and not RAW files) to save from your camera.

One of my favourite apps is FileBrowser, it allows the iPad to access and copy files to/from any file server or NAS. I have just noticed that one of the recent upgrades exposes the Camera Roll so I can see the following workflow being quite acceptable for JPEG files.

1. Use the Camera Connection Kit to upload files from your SD card to the Camera Roll. The iPad is great for reviewing your photos.
2. When you "get back to base", use FileBrowser to copy the files to your computer, file server or NAS, no iTunes.
3. Take a portable WiFi NAS with you when travelling if you think that you might fill up the iPad (less likely if saving JPEGs only) and offload files to it to make room if you run out of space on the iPad. The TonidoPlug would do quite nicely here.

Originally Posted by RAC

3. Take a portable WiFi NAS with you when travelling if you think that you might fill up the iPad (less likely if saving JPEGs only) and offload files to it to make room if you run out of space on the iPad. The TonidoPlug would do quite nicely here.

I tested this (with the Tonido Plug), it works quite well and is simple to do. The only possible issue is that file copying is slow over WiFi. For 100 x 12 MP files, the copying time was about 8 minutes.

FileBrowser can be used to view photos stored on the NAS, that may have been removed from the iPad.

One basic problem with Camera Connection Kit, as far as backups are concerned, is that it only copies the JPEG files onto the iPad in the first place. The RAW files are typically 3 times the size of the JPEGs potentially quadrupling an already slow WiFi copying time. This is not a problem if you don't bother with RAW fikes of course.