Need help with my tablet choice

I've decided I want something ultra-portable that's more convenient than my laptop (which is a bit of a beast) and more powerful/versatile than a smart phone. The three I'm looking at most seriously are the IPad (of course), Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7. Most of my primary uses will be very simple and honestly, most any tablet is going to satisfy them. But obviously, I'm also a photographer, so I'd like something that is going to bring something to that endeavor as well. I have no desire to use a tablet to do any significant image editing (I'll just bring my laptop if I need that), but I would like to do some very basic editing (global contrast, brightness, saturation, etc.) and most importantly be able to display raw format as opposed to just jpeg (worst case scenario, I could shoot raw+jpeg). Lastly, a capability to shoot tethered would be a huge bonus.

That said, I'm guessing the IPad would fit all my needs, and if it doesn't, I'm probably out of luck anyway. I think I'm having a hard time getting past my aversion to Apple products, however. . .that, and although I can certainly afford one, I'd rather not spend extra money for more than what I need. So my primary question is, would either the Kindle or Nexus even begin to fulfill my needs, or is the IPad really the only practical game in town when it comes to a tablet that lends itself well to a photographer?

Hopefully, this hasn't been discussed to death already, because I couldn't find anything through my searches.

Have you considered/looked into a Surface Pro? It runs the full version of Windows and has decent specs. The price is a bit higher than say a 16 GB iPad, but the gap is a lot smaller at the high end (64 GB/128 GB).

EDIT: I hadn't seen this before I commented, but there's a Surface Pro/tablet thread open in the 'RAW, Post Processing and Printing' forum: https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1281306

Don't do windows Surface. while it's a nice idea, the space you actually have available is typically only 45% of the advertised space...the OS is that heavy.

I love my Samsung Galaxy Tab2 10.1. Why not consider the Android platform if you don't like Apple...they're equal to each other regardless of what apple fans tell you.

If you're willing to spend a bit more you could look at at ultrabook/chromebook laptop.

+1 for the surface pro as well for the reasons Bishop listed.

You know, I may need to look into the Galaxy a bit more. I think the relatively wide color gamut of the IPad, Kindle and Nexus really caught my eye as a photographer, but since I'm not planning on using this as an editing platform, the differences may not be an actual issue. I have looked into the Surface, but it hasn't been getting very good reviews on the tech websites. . .mainly along the lines of underpowered to run a Windows OS. I always like to hear personal accounts, though. Sometimes these reviews get so caught up in the technology side, they miss the big picture of overall usability for the average consumer.

I didn't quite want to go ultrabook, though I have considered it. The money isn't really an issue, but I think the size of a tablet is really what I'm wanting for that stopgap. The easier it is to grab and go, the more likely I am to use it.

images look great on the Galaxy.

I would stay away from the Kindle lineup of tablets. Amazon locks you down to their own app store and browser.

With the Nexus you can install the Kindle app and also the Amazon marketplace and still have the Google Play store. Plus the Nexus tablets are typically going to be the first to get updates to the operating system.

For shooting tethered on Android, DSLR Controller is $8.99 or so and works incredibly well. There are also some RAW image viewers but I can't remember what they're called. The ones I have tried all worked and were free as well.

I haven't used an iPad or Surface tablet so I can't comment on any pluses or negatives about them, nor do I know if they have any tethered shooting options available.

DagoImaging wrote in post #15732732
Don't do windows Surface. while it's a nice idea, the space you actually have available is typically only 45% of the advertised space...the OS is that heavy.

I'd love to see your data on this. In the Surface thread that Bishop13 linked to, someone wrote:

"I purchased the Surface Pro with 128gb. Installed CS6 and Lightroom 4.3, office 365 home app, and couple more apps and about 119 apps(windows 8 apps), and still have about 75gb available space."

So there's a pretty significant difference in available space between what you're claiming and what this Surface Pro owner is saying. Also keep in mind that about 7GB of space is dedicated to the recovery partition, which you can easily move to a USB thumbdrive by using a tool built into Windows 8 and then get that 7GB of space back. I've personally done it on my Windows 8 tablet (Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2).

IslandCrow wrote in post #15733189
I have looked into the Surface, but it hasn't been getting very good reviews on the tech websites. . .mainly along the lines of underpowered to run a Windows OS.

Are you sure you're reading Surface Pro reviews? Surface RT hasn't gotten great reviews and has been labeled as being underpowered, but Surface Pro reviews are overwhelmingly positive and I've never once heard it called underpowered. In fact it's somewhat of a beast in the processing department, that's why battery life is relatively poor.

Here's a good YouTube video from a POTN photographer that switched from iPad to Surface Pro. http://www.youtube.com …er_embedded&v=Z​gatjX49i4o

Full disclosure that I have the 128GB surface pro and I do recommend it. I got it for exactly the reasons you stated.. I wanted something ultraportable for photography when I'm traveling. I thought about a ultrabook (and there are some very nice ones out there) but the idea of having my computer and tablet in one package drew me in (and I am a bit of a tech geek so playing with new tech is always a plus).

I have lightroom installed and it handles RAW files just fine. A 10" screen is a bit small I have to admit but for the things you are doing while traveling it is just fine.

If anyone has any questions about the pro feel free to shoot.. I'd be glad to answer anything I can.

CincyTriGuy wrote in post #15735602
Are you sure you're reading Surface Pro reviews? Surface RT hasn't gotten great reviews and has been labeled as being underpowered, but Surface Pro reviews are overwhelmingly positive and I've never once heard it called underpowered. In fact it's somewhat of a beast in the processing department, that's why battery life is relatively poor.

Here's a good YouTube video from a POTN photographer that switched from iPad to Surface Pro. http://www.youtube.com …er_embedded&v=Z​gatjX49i4o

You know, I'll have to find the couple reviews I was thinking of. They may indeed have been for the RT and not the Pro. I definitely like the overall concept of the Surface.

IslandCrow wrote in post #15736588
You know, I'll have to find the couple reviews I was thinking of. They may indeed have been for the RT and not the Pro. I definitely like the overall concept of the Surface.

In the thread that Trent Gillespie started (linked in the second post of this thread), he said that his Surface Pro's performance is on par with that of his core i7 editing workstation.

I played with it and it was pretty sweet. The stylus is pretty good and works great when I was playing with it. The screen is also a big plus. The one thing I didn't like was the price and the HD size. 256GB HD would of made me buy it right then and there. Battery life is also mediocre but then again its an Intel i5.

The Lenovo Yoga is an alternative as it becomes a tablet then folds to be a laptop.

If not Windows then the Asus infinity pad tf700 or Nexus10 would be good tablets with HD screen.

If not windows/android then iPad.

Or wait until end of this year to see what Ubuntu brings to the tablet with Ubuntu touch.

Since you said you would rather not spend the extra money, I would choose either an iPad or the Nexus 7. While the Surface Pro has gotten good reviews, the cheapest model is $900, then you need to add the keyboard, which is another $120. For the amount of money just for those two, with no other accessories added, you could buy a very nice, portable laptop to do the editing on instead. The iPad is half the price of the surface and I believe it would fulfill your editing needs. I have an iPad myself, and am very pleased with it. I'm not quite as familiar with the Nexus 7, but if you could do your editing on it, that would also save you some money.

As far as disk space goes, if you purchase the 64GB model, you will only have 29GB left of space after Windows, Office, and the other built-in apps are installed. So yes, that is only 45% of the advertised space. Now the 128GB version gives you 89GB of free space after Windows and office are installed, so that is about 70% of the advertised space. Personally I would rather have an actual laptop with a 128GB or bigger SSD than a $1000 128GB surface plus $120 for the keyboard.

Here's where I got those storage numbers from:
http://www.microsoft.c​om …rs/surface-disk-space-FAQ