The Long Term Review for the iPad Pro 12.9" 3rd Gen

A photographer’s perspective

Spoiler alert: no, it doesn’t replace my laptop. It could. But it is not there yet.

I meant to write this article months ago. But travelling overland in a Jeep in Brazil proved itself way more of a challenge than I expected. Anyway: here’s my take on the iPad Pro 12.9” 256gb third generation: a photographer’s perspective. (So not videographer or graphic designer or anything else, really). I bought it last July (2019): it’s been over six months. I’ve been using it about 4 hours a day, minimum.

I was originally going for the second edition, as they are quite cheaper in North America on Kijiji or Amazon refurbished, until I saw the screen of the 3rd generation: game-changer. This is by far the most beautiful screen I ever saw in my life. It’s unreal. The moment I saw the difference between the two (Staples had both editions next to each other), there was no turning back: the 3rd edition is so much better. That new liquid retina display is out of this world good. And as a guy that loves the best, and nothing else, I knew that I was going to regret my decision if I’d go with the cheaper and older model.

I prefer editing my photos on a touch-screen device: I always do the first selection on a Macbook, than DropBox-it to my iPhone. I did this for these wedding pictures, using VSCO to edit them. I knew I needed something bigger. I mean, I had a iMac 27” 5k retina late 2017 with 40 gb of ram, two Macbook Pros…and I still edited my wedding photos on a stupid iPhone! Why?

Touchscreen. Intuitive.

The price is right: you get a device that actually has more horse-power than an iMac late-2017, all fitting in a tiny little package! What’s not to like?

Well, one thing: The Apple Pencil is too expensive in my opinion, about $170CAD. It’s $100 too expensive, but god is that thing ever good.

Other than that… Nothing? The battery life is ridiculously good. I get 10 hours easily, wifi and all of that.

The USB-C is brilliant! My Ronin SC gimbal, Sony Xperia phone and iPad Pro, plus my future Fuji X100V all have the same connector! Such a good move from Apple. Not only that, but I can plug my 500gb SSD external drive to my iPad Pro without any dongles. Unreal. Apple got smart. I had lost hope in them, after the Macbook Pro 2016-2019 debacle. At least they made one great device for us, photographer, in the meanwhile.

What application do I use? For photography, VSCO. That’s it. Photoshop is kinda bad. I rather use my Macbook for any heavy editing.

Here’s my workflow:

1) Import images on the Macbook Pro;

2) Do a quick selection (from 3000 images, go down to like 600 great shots). Reduce the size a little bit (don’t need 24mp for every shot. 12mp is perfect);

3) Airdrop to iPad Pro;

4) Import those I like into VSCO;

5) Color grade them and edit them;

6) Export to DropBox and deliver to clients.

It’s stupid simple and I love it. Pro don’t have time to deal with bullshit: which is why I got so mad at Fuji for the XPro3. Like, just gimme the tool man. This is the attitude. The iPad Pro is a home-run for Apple. It is blazing fast, has a battery that last forever, is a sexy device to hold and it’s screen is next level good.

Pros:

• Amazing battery life;

• The best screen ever made on any device of any kind of any size;

• Fast. Faster than an iMac 27” 5k late-2017 to render 4k video (source: myself, have both);

• Light, sexy body;

• USB-C is a huge upgrade over the Lightning cable;

• The speakers are insanely good! Cannot believe how Apple made it possible to have such deep bass in an iPad. Black magic stuff.

Cons:

• Bah, not really cons… Expensive? Not really…

A cool thing is that it is possible to transfer pictures directly from a Fuji camera (or Nikon with wifi) to the iPad: No computer required! It isn’t fast, nor slow, but it works great while travelling.

The speakers are way better on the iPad 12.9” 3rd Gen than my Macbook Pro 17”. It sounds super good. To the point that sometimes I leave my JBL bluetooth speaker in the Jeep if I’m only going to play some music on the beach. That’s how good it is.

No: it doesn’t replace a laptop. Sadly, I still need my Macbook Pro to write books and blog, edit some photos, and do some music production on Logic Pro X (last single here) But if you are looking at a terrific complement to a laptop…or don’t need Logic Pro X or Xcode or Photoshop…I would consider the iPad Pro 3rd as good enough for 99% of the case. The fact that you can plug a USB-C usbkey in the iPad is a revelation: you can share documents with a guy next to you using a simple usbkey! It took Apple 9 years to get there. But they finally got it right.

For video edition, Lumafusion is marvelous. I would feel confident in bringing only my Fuji X-H1 and the iPad Pro into a month-long vacation.

The iPad Pro is game-changer because I feel confident that I would be able to keep producing content (be on YouTube or this blog or music creation) just with this iPad: It’s finally a laptop back-up plan. I could be a wedding photographer just with an iPad Pro, a Fuji X-H1 and a X-Pro2: nothing more, nothing less. The workflow would be even simpler. I’m an old-school guy: I love my Macbook Pro and Aperture 3 software. That’s like 2012 old. I’m stuck in time. But finally, if my Macbook Pro would be to break while travelling in South America, I know that my iPad is sufficient to replace it, and that’s no small feat.

Thank you,

JP

Thanks for supporting this blog :)! Here’s our youtube channel for our overland expedition in Brazil. That’s my instagram, if you care about things, such as music, photography jeeps and camping. Maybe you don’t, and that’s okay ;)