Last year I waxed a little nostalgic & appreciative:
We’ve come a long way, baby:
- 2004: Epson P-2000: $500, 1360 grams., 3.8” screen, and 40GB HD.
- 2014: Apple iPhone 6 Plus: $500*, 172 grams, 5.5” screen, and 128GB HD.
At the time one couldn’t plug Apple’s Camera Connection Kit into the phone. Things have changed, however: According to PetaPixel, iOS 9.2 Lets You Import Photos to an iPhone Directly From a Camera or via the Lightning-to-SD-card reader. On the new iPad Pro, that means transfer speeds that can theoretically be 10x faster (see previous).
My ideal world, as of late 2015:
- 128GB phone with USB 3.0 speed
- On-the-fly import of raw files as DNG proxies (massively smaller, but 99% as flexible as raw originals)
- Preservation of raw originals on the card (as I don’t need or want all the original bits clogging up my phone)
- Backup of originals later (via desktop upload) + syncing of edits performed to DNG proxies
For this I’d more than happily stick a short, $29 cable into my pocket every time I took my SLR for a spin.
Of course, as long as you’re dreaming, every time you snap a photo on your SLR it wirelessly floats onto your phone. Snap several photos quickly, and your pocket becomes uncomfortably warm.