Apple iPad: Camera Connection Kit

When I ordered the Apple iPad I ordered the iPad camera connection kit at the same time. It arrived today and I thought I’d share my first experiences with it.

The kit consist of two small adapters that plug into the iPad docking connector. One is an adaptor for SD memory cards and the other is an USB adaptor. The SD adapter is compatible with Standard SD and SDHC memory cards. Mini and Micro SD are supported when used with an adaptor to fit the slot. This adapter is not provided in the kit.

The Camera Connection Kit SD adapter is pretty self-explanitory for reading photos off camera SD cards, but as I normally shoot Nikon, my photo cards are CF cards. So what to do about CF?

There’s two methods. You can connect the iPad directly to your camera using the USB adaptor and a USB cable and if your camera supports Picture-Transfer-Protocal (PTP) the iPad Photo application will allow you to import the photos directly from the camera.

The iPad, and its USB connection adaptor, also supports mass storage class devices. I confirmed I was able to connect my USB multi-card reader to the iPad USB adaptor and import photos directly from my CF card via this card reader. Since I shoot in RAW, I believe only the JPG previews are viewable on the iPad.

Wanting to see what the limits were with this USB adaptor, I tried connecting the iPad via USB to my Wolverine Photo Vault and a micro WD hard drive. Neither were recognized or able to connect.

This kit gives you very basic photo import capabilities. During imports the Photo App creates “Last Imported” and “All Imported” albums automatically. Perhaps Apple will build some photo album maintenance functionality in future software updates for the iPad — hopefully sooner rather than later.