RAW photo viewer/editor

[bundenz]

Haha good to know. It's especially useful on location shoots... sometimes I bring my laptop but it's just way too heavy and cumbersome despite being a 13.3inch. A tablet would be much more suitable.

Regarding the eye-fi cards, just be careful because apparently not all versions are compatible with the 5D mkII. I think the latest one is one of those that don't work with it.
Let's hope they work out that little problem or come out with a CF version of the card... They're basically neglecting all professional photographers.

 

[Bootstrap Bill]

Well, you'd still have to transfer your images over to your laptop.

That's easy. There are lots of file transfer utilities, or you could email them to yourself.

The hard part will be manipulating all those menus on a 7" screen with your fingers. Windows wasn't made with touch in mind.

 

[bundenz]

That's easy. There are lots of file transfer utilities, or you could email them to yourself.

The hard part will be manipulating all those menus on a 7" screen with your fingers. Windows wasn't made with touch in mind.

Easier said than done. When you're dealing with 25MB RAW files like those of the Canon 5D mk II, emailing or transfering over the internet dozens/hundreds of those files isn't really an option...

Next year, things will be much easier. Windows 8 will be supporting ARM and, from what I gathered, they figured out how to keep compatibility without the need for software rewrites, which means tablets of this kind should be able to run the usual software we use on our computers (e.g. Lightroom).

 

[Bootstrap Bill]

Easier said than done. When you're dealing with 25MB RAW files like those of the Canon 5D mk II, emailing or transfering over the internet dozens/hundreds of those files isn't really an option...

We need to upgrade our third world wireless networks. 5g will supposedly go up to one gigabit. That should be fast enough for the largest RAW files.

Next year, things will be much easier. Windows 8 will be supporting ARM and, from what I gathered, they figured out how to keep compatibility without the need for software rewrites, which means tablets of this kind should be able to run the usual software we use on our computers (e.g. Lightroom).

Problem - most Windows software today is written in x86 code (except for a small amount of .net stuff). It will probably be several years until all your favorite applications are ported over to the new architecture. Emulation is SLOW. Don't expect CS5 (or CS6) any time soon.

 

[bundenz]

We need to upgrade our third world wireless networks. 5g will supposedly go up to one gigabit. That should be fast enough for the largest RAW files.

Yeah, but 4G is just taking off - and pretty much only in the US - so talking about 5G at the moment is kind of futile.
Also, knowing our generous telecoms, the limit they'll still impose us won't suffice for weekly transfers of that volume (let's say 10GB per shoot), unless of course you pay out of your ass for an unlimited plan.
Transferring over the internet isn't presently and in the foreseeable future an option.
I believe when that happens, our tablets with Android 6.0 will be more than capable of editing our RAW files haha

Problem - most Windows software today is written in x86 code (except for a small amount of .net stuff). It will probably be several years until all your favorite applications are ported over to the new architecture. Emulation is SLOW. Don't expect CS5 (or CS6) any time soon.

I'm aware of that but seeing the demo of Windows running on tegra 2 with software that wasn't ported (granted it wasn't heavy, just Chrome and Firefox) that smoothly, gives me hope. Microsoft might have come up with some magic sauce haha... you never know. We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.
Head over to Engadget to see it yourself, if you haven't already.

 

[zennit]

Hows it looking? would love to get something before my euro road trip in june

 

[rcketscientist]

Despite endless effort, minimal progress this weekend. The way Java and Android handle importing native code is brutal. I'm sure there's a reason for the chaos, but coming from a native coder, this is excruciating.

My goal was to have a simple no-frills viewer in place by the end of this month for my own vacation, but that's starting to look grim. A few weeks after that I'll be moving across country, so if I can't pull it off by the end of this month it will probably be put on hold till July, sorry. I'll keep you guys posted.

As for Win8 tablets. If Win8 were out for desktops we'd have something to talk about, but since their schedule puts it out for 1-2 years and they never hit their schedules, and mobile always shows up second. I'll take android for the time being (2-3 years).

 

[Quantumcat]

Add my support for this app as well. Being able to just view my RAW photos on a tablet would be great. I shoot on a 7D, so all my photos are on a CF card as well. To me, being able to read the photos off a CF card plugged in via a USB reader is the preferred option. While the Eye-fi option is ok, I have a lot of $ in the cf cards I have now. Replacing them with SD cards is a ways down the road.

 

[rcketscientist]

I've dumped a thumbnail! Excuse me while a dance around the room a bit. I don't even want to admit how many hours this took ;-). I should have something this weekend.

 

[npompei]

I too just registered for this thread!!! I am planning on purchasing the Transformer on Tuesday. I own a Canon 7d and as someone mentioned above would love to shoot and upload to my tab.

Now, I did not read through the entire thread, BUT will it be possible to shoot tethered to the tab? I know Canon has their utility software that when plugged in via USB you can shoot and the pics show up right onto your monitor. That would be an absolute godsend with this new tab! Any ideas here?

Thanks to all you guys diving into this. There could seriously be a lot of money involved for you guys developing this. Jeeez, charge $.99 an app and bam, you are a millionaire! Thanks guys,

 

[rcketscientist]

I too just registered for this thread!!! I am planning on purchasing the Transformer on Tuesday. I own a Canon 7d and as someone mentioned above would love to shoot and upload to my tab.

Now, I did not read through the entire thread, BUT will it be possible to shoot tethered to the tab? I know Canon has their utility software that when plugged in via USB you can shoot and the pics show up right onto your monitor. That would be an absolute godsend with this new tab! Any ideas here?

Thanks to all you guys diving into this. There could seriously be a lot of money involved for you guys developing this. Jeeez, charge $.99 an app and bam, you are a millionaire! Thanks guys,

I would like to tether at some point, but it may require writing a driver to recognize the camera since it doesn't register as a simple reader unfortunately. Drivers are beyond me (and probably brutal on android anyway). However the eye-fi idea sounds like a possibility, and while it's not instantaneous feedback, a card reader to slap in your finished card is a good enough solution for a lot of us.

$0.99 for a niche item like this won't be making millionaires anytime soon ;-). I should have a ghetto viewer in place sometime tomorrow and I'll post it for some testing.

 

[npompei]

Thanks Rckt. I totally agree going wireless would be even nicer even if it takes a few seconds, that is worth it IMO. Let's just hope that the eye-fi cards will work/and or be able to get the older cards still?!

I actually have a BIG feeling that this will certainly not be a niche item. The amount of tabs being sold this year and into the next few years is huge. Couple that with the fact that NONE can really successfully wireless transfer pics from professional cams is big. The ipads can do it but it requires jailbraking, etc. At least it used to be. So I really think for the explosion of android tabs this would be a MASSIVE bonus.

Keep up the good work man! I am really pumped to see if this turns out. Thanks,

 

[rcketscientist]

Couple unexpected bumps this weekend. I have the ability to decode all raw images in a folder, but I'm still working on getting them to load into a gallery on the fly. I hope to have that in place tomorrow then release version 0.0000000000001. Keep you guys posted.

 

[bundenz]

That's great. Happy to see you've made progress!
I agree with npompei, you can make serious money out of this if you price it right (maybe 2 versions? lite and pro)
It may be kind of a niche right now but, as he said, tablets are becoming more and more common and so are DSLRs.
I'm just holding out til an app like this comes out... since I can do everything else I need on my Desire.

 

[npompei]

Nice stuff Rcket! To my futile brain, it would seem decoding the RAW files would be the most challenging aspect? Even though RAW is all binary data, its a crapload of it!

Keep up the great work man. I am literally checking into this post every few hours! haha, can you tell I am excited?!