There are times you wish you had done something sooner and I will admit I should have got the iPad accessory the camera connection kit sooner. I really enjoy taking photos and think that the iPad is a great way to view them. So wouldn’t it be great to just simply connect the camera or memory card to the iPad and transfer your photos directly to it. That is what the kit does.

Why didn’t I get one sooner if I like gadgets so much and have both a D-SLR and iPad? I makes perfect sense doesn’t it. Well my camera uses a compact flash card and the camera connection kit advertises itself as having an adaptor for an SD card and also to connect to a camera and I was doubtful my EOS 350D would connect as the kit was not available when the camera came out so wondered if it would work.

So what made me decide to get one? Well my sister from Australia was visiting and she has an iPad and new digital camera. She got a camera connection kit when we visited the Apple store on Regent Street. I was a bit upset as I think this might be the only time that I’ve walked into an Apple store with someone else and they’ve bought something and I haven’t. Note to Steve Jobs, please set up a loyalty card scheme for your loyal customers, of which most of them must be.

Anyway we got back and I tried it out, my camera didn’t connect but I didn’t give it much of a chance as I wanted to test it with my card reader. Apple doesn’t promote the card reader as something you can connect to the kit. Well, well, it connected and recognised the photos on the card no problem. I tried it with the Sony Memory Stick from the video camera, which can take stills, and that worked too.

This camera connection kit is so easy to use just switch on the iPad, plug the adaptor into the dock port on the iPad put the SD card in or connect camera or card reader. The photo app will fire up, it will load the pictures select the ones you want or tap on import to import all or import those you selected.

Once imported it was also easy to email the photos. Whilst viewing an album tap on the Email button, select up to five at a time and tap on Email.

Your photos can then be transferred back to your computer when you sync use your photo app on your computer, on the Mac it is iPhoto. The photos were transferred to the computer at the original quality I shot them at, with the exception of the RAW files if you’re shooting RAW, if you are you’ll know what I mean.

This is a great device and accessory for when travelling or just transferring photos without having to switch on the computer. I can see I will use this on holiday and not take my laptop with me for doing things like that. That will make my luggage a little lighter.

As I always say this is way the iPad is great for viewing photographs, now you can get them on the go from your camera to your iPad. Great stuff.

Now all we need are some great apps for editing the photos, there are some out there and this is clearly going to improve.

Happy computing

Gary