IPad and the camera connection kit

Just got the Apple camera connection kit, one piece of my new photo kit. The first thing I did was to connect the Sandisk All-in-one USB 2.0 card reader, a flash card I had, and the kit with my iPad.

The first try just didn't work!

Apparently, the amount of power the iPad will supply through the camera connection kit's USB port is kinda anemic. So much so that when I plugged in my photo fast 533x compact flash card into the Sandisk reader, it reported that the device required too much power.

However, a solution was found for that issue: split USB power cable for external hard drives!


So, with iPad, camera connection kit, split power USB cable, Sandisk USB reader, compact flash card, and my laptop providing extra juice, I was able to get the images transferred from card to iPad.

All images were raw images from my Sony alpha a700 dslr. Each one weighs in at about 12MB. Counting off as images were copied, about 3 seconds apiece, and showed up on the iPad, it came to around 4MB/second transfer speed.

Not awesome, since hooked up to the laptop, it can manage 22MB/second. To top it off, the need for secondary power would be a hassle. So, returned it to the store.

Currently, awaiting the Lexar USB dual slot(CF/SD) reader, which is reported to work with the kit without additional power.

The image at the top of the page is one of the images from the transfer. It was edited with Photogene on the iPad, and uploaded to Flickr via Blogpress.

Update July 22nd, 2010:

Well, after digging through my gear bin at home, I've come up with some interesting observations:

• Different compact flash cards have different levels of power draw. If the compact flash card requires more power than the iPad wants to give it, you will see the "too much power" popup.
• SanDisk Ultra II - 1GB - OK
• Photofast 533X/plus 16GB - Too much power
• Cards not formatted properly will show up as "Device not supported"

This does have me thinking about the impact to battery life, for a given flash card, in my camera. I've been wondering why the camera had been draining faster than I remembered lately. Well, apparently, I had recently upgraded all of my cards to PhotoFast 533X cards. I'll need to check to see if my RiData 233X cards suffer from this as well, or if they are more frugal power consumers. :)