Can the iPad pro replace my MacBook Pro completely (photo management)

[iMore Question]

My MacBook Pro 15" 2008 is currently in need for replacement. I am considering either purchasing a new MacBook or the iPad pro. My main computing needs are web browsing, word processing which I currently do on my iPad mini well. My other use for the Mac is photo management I have a DSLR & want to be able to manage all my photos which are currently on my Mac via an iPad pro. If there is a solution for that then my choice would be the iPad pro over a new Mac, if not then I will need to purchase a new Mac.
Does anyone know of a solution? Ie have all my photos on a Nas drive & mange through an iOS device?

Thank you for your help

 

[Matt-B]

I don't know of anything that will be able to manage photos on a NAS. You could do it with iCloud Photos. I've put nearly all my photos on iCloud photos (I converted all my old RAW images to JPG and archived the raws somewhere else). I've got 55,000 photos up there - using 179GB of storage.

You should be able to import photos from the DSLR, but your options for editing will be more limited than the Mac. I could see myself managing my photos from an iPad, but it's been a long time since I did pro photography and I only use my iPhone and a Fiji X-E2 these days.

It would be a great experiment to see what you can achieve on the iPad. Maybe you could use the 14 day return policy to test it out? Either way you might still need to use the mac occasionally, or at least at the start to import your photos.

 

[Rob Phillips]

My MacBook Pro 15" 2008 is currently in need for replacement. I am considering either purchasing a new MacBook or the iPad pro. My main computing needs are web browsing, word processing which I currently do on my iPad mini well. My other use for the Mac is photo management I have a DSLR & want to be able to manage all my photos which are currently on my Mac via an iPad pro. If there is a solution for that then my choice would be the iPad pro over a new Mac, if not then I will need to purchase a new Mac.
Does anyone know of a solution? Ie have all my photos on a Nas drive & mange through an iOS device?

Thank you for your help

Welcome to iMore! Give your storage needs (NAS drive) you would probably be best served with a Mac. Importing from your DSLR could prove cumbersome as well considering your DSLR uses an SD card and the iPad Pro doesn't have an SD card slot.

 

[T1w4n4]

Hi Thanks for reponses, I can get my files from my SD card onto the ipad via the adaptor which works very well. as the first reply was thinking about using icloud photos, but how would I continue to save the originals on hard drive archive.

 

[Matt-B]

Hi Thanks for reponses, I can get my files from my SD card onto the ipad via the adaptor which works very well. as the first reply was thinking about using icloud photos, but how would I continue to save the originals on hard drive archive.

If the photos are in iCloud do you need a backup? Maybe you could use your old Mac for this purpose. You could sync it with iCloud photos and use it to import and backup photos while you do everything else on the iPad. It wouldn't matter if it was a bit slow. The only problem with that is that a 2008 Mac might not be able to run future versions of OSX (does it run El Cap?).

 

[T1w4n4]

I have not updated the macbook to new operating system (El Cap) but I hear that it is more efficient then & therefore could help my Mac run.
I just dont want to go down the ipad pro route & then realise I will also need to replace the Macbook when it completely dies on me, but at the same time it seems a bit much to buy a macbook only to upload photos to the cloud,