Android RAW workflow - direct from sd card to ext HDD

I think I do something close to what you're looking for, using a Galaxy Tab 7.0 which supports USB host (OTG), a 32GB micro SD card and the Photo Mate app. My workflow goes like this...

1. Use Photo Mate to copy pictures from the camera to the SD card on the tablet. My camera (Sony NEX7) doesn't show up as a camera so I need to import from the USB drive but that works ok. I leave the pictures on the camera so they're in two places.
2. Use Photo Mate to skim through the images and convert selected ones to JPEG.
3. Use Gallery to share the new JPEGs to the web for people to see. I still use Picasa but I think its days are numbered. Its possible Photo Mate sharing has improved so I'll give that a try next time I do this.

I've considered copying the raw images to google drive or similar in case I lose both camera and tablet but I haven't tried it yet.

Good luck!

Hi Graham,

Cheers for your message, that's the sort of thing I'm after, first hand experience of one of the things I want to check out. So you can convert the RAW files to jpegs - do you have to do that with the RAW file saved on the tablet or have you tried doing it whilst they are till on the sd card (not the micro sd that you save to)? Can you adjust the quality as I only want a relatively low res jpeg so that I can post it onto facebook whilst I'm away, just something that will blow up to a half decent size on a monitor without becoming overly pixelated (seeing as though fb can use any images you post, hopefully these wont be good enough for them to do anything with).

I'll have a play with photomate as it's one that's been mentioned a few times by people and seems like it could be an app to be buying.

What do you do when your micro sd and the camera's sd are both full? I'm paranoid when it comes to backing up as I've met so many people who've lost all the photo's from their trips after equipment has failed or they've had things stolen. I know it'll take a while to transfer between drives via usb but if I can just set things up and leave them overnight every now and again its fine with me.

Some answers...

So you can convert the RAW files to jpegs - do you have to do that with the RAW file saved on the tablet or have you tried doing it whilst they are till on the sd card (not the micro sd that you save to)?

You can chose to copy, convert, or both. The reasons I copy all first then convert just the ones I want to publish are for speed and to some extent to not waste tablet storage.

Can you adjust the quality as I only want a relatively low res jpeg so that I can post it onto facebook whilst I'm away

Yes. Note the JPEG thats embedded in the raw image is only good for a thumbnail so you really need to convert from raw to get anything useful.

What do you do when your micro sd and the camera's sd are both full?

I take several cards for both devices so I don't run out. When the camera one fills up I put it with my passport. The full tablet card stays with the tablet.

I would like a cloud backup solution to copy from the tablet when there's a reliable and speedy internet connection, either over wifi from the tablet or by plugging the tablet into a regular computer. More news on that as it happens but don't hold your breath!

The Photo Mate app works ok for me and is worth the few bucks it costs. I found a couple of quirks with it and wrote them up on the google store page and they were fixed within days so its nice its actively maintained.

Let me know if you need more!

Easy.

I use:
A powered USB hub
Total Commander app with USB Stick Plugin-TC.
Traveller HDD (no power supply) formatted FAT32
OTG cable into USB host port
Card reader and USB cable

if you want JPG shots just shoot RAW & JPG

Total commander can be set to show the HDD in one window
and the card reader (SD/compactflash) in the other window.
Copy files between them.

Can't stand this cloud thing, I like to know my files are mine ....

Best regards, Roy