Hi, all.I feel a bit foolish for asking this, but here goes...I'm a wildlife conservationist and go into the field - often in African countries - a couple of times each year for three weeks or so at a time.  I've shot a D2x, D3, and now a D5, and my process for the past 15 years or so has been to shoot around 3,000 frames and eliminate all but 10% by the time I land back at my home airport at the end of my trip.I do this by first deleting obviously worthless stuff right in the camera, then copying my cards to my Windows laptop and using my time moving between destinations, my flights home, and other downtime to evaluate the other shots on the laptop's larger screen. Then I delete more shots from the laptop's hard drive. I keep all the originals on the xqd cards until I get home except for those I deleted in-camera, but my "keepers" are those that remain on my laptop. I shoot the RAW/JPG combination and use the jpegs for decision-making but the RAWs for final editing.Hey, it might not be everyone's choice, but it works for me.Anyway, to cut to the chase, I've been given an iPad Mini 4 (128GB). Can I use it in place of my laptop to dump my xqd cards onto, then view the shots, and store my keepers? Or will it do nasty things to the files? And will my xqd card reader just plug into the iPad Lightning to USB camera adapter?Thank you so much!

I don’t know if an iPad can handle RAW files. Definitely JPEGs but I’m not sure it has the codec to read D5 RAW files. Keep in mind the RAM on these things are low. Perhaps 1GB. If you’re looking for a tablet experience, something like a Microsoft Surface is more computer than tablet, has a USB port, can host photo editing software, has more RAM, and also fairly large internal SSD. iPads are better at browsing information vs processing information.

I used a SD card to lighting port adapter, and would download the images that way. I stopped doing it when I realized how fast the memory on an iPad fills up.

Zuman wrote:Hi, all.I feel a bit foolish for asking this, but here goes...I'm a wildlife conservationist and go into the field - often in African countries - a couple of times each year for three weeks or so at a time. I've shot a D2x, D3, and now a D5, and my process for the past 15 years or so has been to shoot around 3,000 frames and eliminate all but 10% by the time I land back at my home airport at the end of my trip.I do this by first deleting obviously worthless stuff right in the camera, then copying my cards to my Windows laptop and using my time moving between destinations, my flights home, and other downtime to evaluate the other shots on the laptop's larger screen. Then I delete more shots from the laptop's hard drive. I keep all the originals on the xqd cards until I get home except for those I deleted in-camera, but my "keepers" are those that remain on my laptop. I shoot the RAW/JPG combination and use the jpegs for decision-making but the RAWs for final editing.Hey, it might not be everyone's choice, but it works for me.Anyway, to cut to the chase, I've been given an iPad Mini 4 (128GB). Can I use it in place of my laptop to dump my xqd cards onto, then view the shots, and store my keepers? Or will it do nasty things to the files? And will my xqd card reader just plug into the iPad Lightning to USB camera adapter?Although I'm a Windows user and never even held an iPad, I'm shooting for work and I would advise *not* to offload important files to a tablet without a proper backup made first.just my €0.02.

No reason that would not work. If there is no codec to read raw files, you can shoot raw plus small JPEG.I personally don't bother carrying even a tablet, only a phone. But I use one of these to store my files and broadcast to my phone. Up to 4Tb storage as I delete nothing in the field and therefore 128gb is not enough.https://www.noelleeming.co.nz/shop/computers-tablets/accessories/storage-memory/wd-wdbsmt0040bbk-pesn-my-passport-wireless-pro-external-hard-drive-4tb/prod160239.html

I edit my D850 raw files on an iPad Pro / Lightroom when on location.  I ingest via an SD lightning adapter.  I also back up onto a WD My Passport Pro.  Works flawlessly.

Two years ago, I made the mistake to transfer the first couple of days of a trip via my D750’s wireless to my iPad Pro. I learned the hard way that only low-res copies were sent.Now, with my D850, the plan is to backup to a WD Passport Wireless Pro on an upcoming trip. I have several options here:Once the files are on the drive, I can use WD’s iOS app to preview the RAW images. I can also import them to LR on my iPad after I mount the drive wirelessly, though it’s not terribly quick.Here’s a recent DP thread on using the WD drive:https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4265335

You can also connect your XQD reader directly to the iPad Pro, though it requires a power source:

I use the D810 and D500, so like the previous posters I get the SD card slots for my Lightning to SD card reader.But out of making sure I have a plan B, I have also tried the Lightning to USB3 adapter so I can plug in my CF and XQD card readers to the iPad but you need to plug in an extra power source to power the card readers.Remember you need a power source that supports at least 2 amp charging (aka fast charging) to power your card reader. Normal 5v1a chargers/battery packs won't work.You gotta first import your photos via the default Photo app. Then it depends on which app you're going to process the photos with.For Lightroom Mobile, you gotta add them into LRM. Then if you need storage, you can delete the photos in the Photo app because the photos are now copied inside the application after you add them into your collection.One thing about LRM is that it only renders your photos at 96dpi for both the 2048 and maximum quality options. It's sufficient for most usage I guess, but it's something you might wanna be aware of if you decide to print the photos you edit out of your iPad.Another thing is to remember to turn off cloud syncing or it'll eat your adobe cloud storage and mobile data really fast.

Droster wrote:I use the D810 and D500, so like the previous posters I get the SD card slots for my Lightning to SD card reader.But out of making sure I have a plan B, I have also tried the Lightning to USB3 adapter so I can plug in my CF and XQD card readers to the iPad but you need to plug in an extra power source to power the card readers.Remember you need a power source that supports at least 2 amp charging (aka fast charging) to power your card reader. Normal 5v1a chargers/battery packs won't work.You gotta first import your photos via the default Photo app. Then it depends on which app you're going to process the photos with.For Lightroom Mobile, you gotta add them into LRM. Then if you need storage, you can delete the photos in the Photo app because the photos are now copied inside the application after you add them into your collection.One thing about LRM is that it only renders your photos at 96dpi for both the 2048 and maximum quality options. It's sufficient for most usage I guess, but it's something you might wanna be aware of if you decide to print the photos you edit out of your iPad.Another thing is to remember to turn off cloud syncing or it'll eat your adobe cloud storage and mobile data really fast.Good point about storage. LRM mobile provides the option to store locally (on the device) or in the cloud. For images stored in the Adobe cloud, you have an option for “smart preview” which displays, as you note, at 96dpi. For those images for which you want a closer look, you can download the original locally.