Reviews for Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit

The first connector (30 pin of course) features a USB port allowing you to connect up either your digital camera or iPhone direct to the iPad. When connected an application automatically loads up displaying thumbs of images that are available on the camera or iPhone to download. You can then select what you want to copy over. Images are then synced with your PC or Mac is required.

The next connector is almost the same but instead of connecting the camera direct to the iPad it features an SD card slot allowing images to be read directly from the memory card containing pictures. The same app (Photos) is opened up and the same interface.

3732 of 4489 people found this useful

The recent upgrade to iOS 4.2 renders the camera connection kit useless. The maximum USB output has been reduced from 100ma to 20ma which isn't enough to drive this device.

I invested £500 on an iPad specifically to be able to review photos with clients at the end of a shoot. The fact that Apple has suddenly and without any warning stopped supporting the camera connection kit is appalling and leaves me with suddenly needing to find a grand or two for a laptop.

It's even worse that they are still selling this without informing anyone that it doesn't work anymore.

This whole fiasco is a joke and the people involved should be ashamed of themselves.

2671 of 3132 people found this useful

I purchased the camera kit for use when i was out with iPad taking photos and recording video at sporting events, may well buy the monitor connection kit as well.
Both connectors work really well and are pretty fast, as soon as you plug the camera in, the images start to download.
The only thing to be aware of, and this isn't a connector issue its an iPad issue, is that if you try to import video in anything other that the format the iPad recognizes you'll just get an icon saying there's a video file there. Its a shame the iPad doesn't recognise more of the recognized codec's used in todays recorders as that would make these two connectors invaluable.
It probably should be a 5 star for the connectors as they both work perfectly, i just felt that they aren't being used to their full potential because of the iPad's current shortcoming.

952 of 1092 people found this useful

I'm a real user of mac product in my personnal and professionnal area. I've bought today the camera connector kit and i would like to say that my camera is not supported by the adapter.
Neither the camera nor a simple usb card, plugged threw the adapter, works.
Got a problem of a "usb powered" (switch 100 mA to 20mA)
I've learned that this feature has been restricted since the update of Ios 4.2, and it's really a shame to sell a product that restricts all the items bought for the ipad.
I will  not recommend the camera connector kit  until Apple update the ipad firmware to re-initialize the 100 mA USB port.

532 of 587 people found this useful

As a photographer this use to be a great device. I use a canon DSL camera with a compact flash and cannot put the CF into the IPad camera connection kit so I used a separate USB device to connect my compact flash. While I am shooting Track and Field meets I use to take the CF out of the camera and connect it to the Camera Kit on the IPad (though the USB SanDisk) while continuing to shoot the meet with another CF. As soon as the photos loaded I could select a couple and quickly look at them to send to the National Editor. I can no longer do that because the new update for the IPad does not allow for devices that need a lot of power............. which is almost everything. So now I have to connect my camera to the camera connection kit on the IPad which means I cannot shoot the meet while it is connected to the IPad. Doesn't work for me and now the product is completely useless as well as the IPad which is the whole reason I bought it!

450 of 494 people found this useful

What worked well with iOS 3, does not work after upgrade. iPad says USB card reader is drawing too much power. How is this possible? How could update break this? Unacceptable!

374 of 390 people found this useful

I have found this adapter to be very useful. All though it is considered to be a camera connector kit adapter, with the app "fileapp" it can be used to have flash drives and external harddrives for file access. With iworks you can save a file to the ipad and then transfer it to the flashdrive or ext hdd by using the "fileapp" app. Awesome, eh?

365 of 386 people found this useful

This worked perfectly with the original iPad OS, versions 3.x. Since the upgrade they reduced the amount of power that is supplied to the USB connector which causes most camera card readers to not work, I discovered this on Thanksgiving when I tried to load pictures to show off. This product is now useless for me.

339 of 352 people found this useful

Having read a lot of reviews here, I was a little nervous about buying this item, but I live pretty close to an Apple store so it wouldn't have been a big deal had I needed to return it. I actually intended to try it right in the store so I could return it immediately if need be, but stupidly left my camera cable at home (duh). I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-T9, which uses a Memory Stick Pro Duo card, and thus needs to connect via USB. The Apple sales guy was certain that the kit would work with my particular camera, so I bought the kit and headed home.

I read the (skimpy) brochure, then plugged all the bits together -- and got a message that my device wasn't supported. I pulled everything apart, put it all together again, same thing. Had the sales guy not been so insistent that it WOULD work with a Sony Cybershot, I might have returned it immediately.

BUT - sat with camera in hand for a minute, cable still plugged in, and started exploring options on the camera. I did already have the switch correctly pushed over to the setting where it needs to be in order to transfer pix to a computer. I hit the Menu button, and was given the choice of USB Connect or Folder. I selected USB Connect. I then was given the choice of PictBridge, PTP, Mass Storage, or Auto.

Given that the little brochure said this item works with cameras that support Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP), it seemed like a no-brainer to select PTP. As soon as I did that -- everything woke up, and thumbnails of all my photos started appearing on my iPad.

Mindful of folks who said their connection kit worked once but not subsequently, I've hooked it up and unhooked it a few times. As long as I have my camera set to USB Connect - PTP, my iPad recognizes the camera, without fail.

The other options for USB Connect on my camera are PictBridge, Mass Storage, and Auto. Auto and Mass Storage result in an error message on the iPad saying the device isn't supported. BUT - Everything works perfectly when I set the camera to PictBridge or PTP.

I read a bunch of the most recent review of this kit and didn't see any mention of this kind of tweak to the camera settings as a solution. I'm willing to bet that many users who are getting the unsupported device error would find their problem solved if they checked their camera settings, as I did.

303 of 310 people found this useful

Wouldn't work with iOS3.2 or 4.2.1. Unable to read my SD card or interface with my nikon coolpix camera on either OS version.

274 of 294 people found this useful