How can I transfer all of my photos in any format from an SD card using an iPad?

Question

I bought a cheap SD card reader for my Android phone and an Apple SD card reader (the Camera Connection Kit) for my iPad.

On Android I can import my pictures in JPEG, or use some file manager to read the SD card and copy the JPEG or RAF files from my Fuji X-E1, send them to Dropbox, share via email etc.

Using my iPad and the Camera Connection Kit the best I could achieve until now was import my pictures to the Photos app. Using the app, I can only export the pictures in JPEG files and by email.

I bought my iPad to help me in the mission of transfer pictures — in any format, every file — from the camera to the cloud during while travelling and avoid carrying my laptop everywhere. Is there any way to do that?

Answer 1

You will need to jailbreak your iPad in order to do this. Apple, for whatever reason, doesn't allow anything but importing files into the Photos app, not arbitrarily.

That's not the worst thing — the photos will all be there. You'll just have to build your workflow around what Apple has decided, not necessarily devise your own scheme. Once the photos are imported into the Photos app, they'll be available in other apps. (I recommend PhotoSync for uploading your photos to all sorts of cloud providers or your own server. No affiliation, just a happy user. Among other things, it can automatically upload when wifi becomes available, and it can keep track of which photos are backed up remotely and which aren't.)

As you noticed, you'll have far more flexible options with your Android phone. Or, if you jailbreak, with everything that entails, you'll have similar flexibility.