What is the best way to transfer Micro SD footage to iPad Mini 4

[Videoman]

I am going on an overseas fishing vacation in the next few months and was wondering what the best and easiest way would be for transferring my Mavic and GoPro footage (both use Micro SD cards) onto my iPad Mini 4. I then hope to do simple edits each evening of the days events on the iPad Mini 4 using iMovie. If possible I would prefer taking only the smaller iPad Mini 4 and not my outdated and cumbersome laptop. I also would have liked to take along my 4TB portable external hard drive to dump all of the days raw footage onto, which would then allow me to format the Micro SD cards at the end of the days shooting, all clear and ready for the next day ... there will be 21 days in total so a lot of raw footage from both GoPro and Mavic. I have been told by somebody that I will not be able to connect my portable hard drive with the iPad Mini 4 ... is this true?

I have read about the Apple Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader which would allow me to place the Micro SD cards in the adapter and import into the iPad Mini 4 to edit on iMovie. I have also read somewhere about the Lightning to USB Camera Adapter as well as a USB hub which can take 3 or 4 USB devices.

It's all getting rather confusing so was hoping to perhaps get some ideas and solutions from others who have done something similar ... any advice or suggestions greatly appreciated ... thanks in advance.

 

[Starz]

Apple reader works great for pictures and very easy to use. Not sure about video.

 

[cmoney1976]

I am going on an overseas fishing vacation in the next few months and was wondering what the best and easiest way would be for transferring my Mavic and GoPro footage (both use Micro SD cards) onto my iPad Mini 4. I then hope to do simple edits each evening of the days events on the iPad Mini 4 using iMovie. If possible I would prefer taking only the smaller iPad Mini 4 and not my outdated and cumbersome laptop. I also would have liked to take along my 4TB portable external hard drive to dump all of the days raw footage onto, which would then allow me to format the Micro SD cards at the end of the days shooting, all clear and ready for the next day ... there will be 21 days in total so a lot of raw footage from both GoPro and Mavic. I have been told by somebody that I will not be able to connect my portable hard drive with the iPad Mini 4 ... is this true?

I have read about the Apple Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader which would allow me to place the Micro SD cards in the adapter and import into the iPad Mini 4 to edit on iMovie. I have also read somewhere about the Lightning to USB Camera Adapter as well as a USB hub which can take 3 or 4 USB devices.

It's all getting rather confusing so was hoping to perhaps get some ideas and solutions from others who have done something similar ... any advice or suggestions greatly appreciated ... thanks in advance.

I have used this: Amazon.com: Lexar microSD To Lightning Reader - LRWMLBNL: Electronics and it works fine for transferring video to my camera roll on my 256gb iPhone 7/32gb mini 4.

 

[Videoman]

Apple reader works great for pictures and very easy to use. Not sure about video.

Yes am considering this ... apparently does do video

 

[Videoman]

I have used this: Amazon.com: Lexar microSD To Lightning Reader - LRWMLBNL: Electronics and it works fine for transferring video to my camera roll on my 256gb iPhone 7/32gb mini 4.

Thanks for this ... another one I'm also considering

 

[HarryMerkin]

Why doesn't DJI make it so you can just transfer straight from the drone? More than once I've forgotten to put my chip back in.

 

[EAvila]

Why doesn't DJI make it so you can just transfer straight from the drone? More than once I've forgotten to put my chip back in.

I usually take out the SD card and copy videos to PC, but the other day I was playing back the images and videos from my phone while connected to Mavic.

You can download directly to the phone from the DJI Go4 app via the play mode.

The problem for OP is going to be storage over time, as the iPad is definitely not a large storage medium if you're doing 21 days of 4K video (depending of course on the size of your iPad's storage). You may still need a mechanism for larger HD storage, and if access from iPad is needed there are wifi or USB are options to read the HD.

Another option is multiple SD cards, and just use them as your library. Use the iPad as working memory and backup if you have the space. There are also hard drives with built in card readers so you can get the videos off card for archive.

 

[HarryMerkin]

I usually take out the SD card and copy videos to PC, but the other day I was playing back the images and videos from my phone while connected to Mavic.

You can download directly to the phone from the DJI Go4 app via the play mode.

The problem for OP is going to be storage over time, as the iPad is definitely not a large storage medium if you're doing 21 days of 4K video (depending of course on the size of your iPad's storage). You may still need a mechanism for larger HD storage, and if access from iPad is needed there are wifi or USB are options to read the HD.

Another option is multiple SD cards, and just use them as your library. Use the iPad as working memory and backup if you have the space. There are also hard drives with built in card readers so you can get the videos off card for archive.

Yes but isn't the video quality lower if you transfer from GO to the phone? I still have to take my chip out.

 

[EAvila]

Yes but isn't the video quality lower if you transfer from GO to the phone? I still have to take my chip out.

Haven't tested, but it did have two options- one was cached (which is definitely lesser quality) the other IIRC was Raw which I would think is the full image/video. I guess someone can easily test if no one knows outright...

 

[Videoman]

I usually take out the SD card and copy videos to PC, but the other day I was playing back the images and videos from my phone while connected to Mavic.

You can download directly to the phone from the DJI Go4 app via the play mode.

The problem for OP is going to be storage over time, as the iPad is definitely not a large storage medium if you're doing 21 days of 4K video (depending of course on the size of your iPad's storage). You may still need a mechanism for larger HD storage, and if access from iPad is needed there are wifi or USB are options to read the HD.

Another option is multiple SD cards, and just use them as your library. Use the iPad as working memory and backup if you have the space. There are also hard drives with built in card readers so you can get the videos off card for archive.

FWIW I have a 64GB iPad Mini 4, so still would only be able to dump ONE full days video footage from both Mavic and GoPro onto the iPad Mini 4. So am still looking for a hard drive solution to save approximately 50GB per day over 20 days or so = 1TB ... and ideally would just like to take along the iPad Mini 4 and not my old brick of a laptop ... any suggestions? Multiple Micro SD cards are not really an option as I would need about 20 x 64GB Micro SD card ... expensive option. I like the idea of perhaps a hard drive with built in card reader ... that could work ... any Amazon links ?

 

[EAvila]

FWIW I have a 64GB iPad Mini 4, so still would only be able to dump ONE full days video footage from both Mavic and GoPro onto the iPad Mini 4. So am still looking for a hard drive solution to save approximately 50GB per day over 20 days or so = 1TB ... and ideally would just like to take along the iPad Mini 4 and not my old brick of a laptop ... any suggestions? Multiple Micro SD cards are not really an option as I would need about 20 x 64GB Micro SD card ... expensive option. I like the idea of perhaps a hard drive with built in card reader ... that could work ... any Amazon links ?

Pretty much what I figured. HD solution is available 1TB or 2.
This is the one I use: Amazon.com: WD 2TB My Passport Wireless Portable External Hard Drive - WIFI USB 3.0 - WDBDAF0020BBK-NESN: Computers & Accessories

 

[Videoman]

Pretty much what I figured. HD solution is available 1TB or 2.
This is the one I use: Amazon.com: WD 2TB My Passport Wireless Portable External Hard Drive - WIFI USB 3.0 - WDBDAF0020BBK-NESN: Computers & Accessories

Thanks ... this looks exactly what I need. I would assume this has a full size SD card reader so I would simply pop my Micro SD card into a SD Card reader adapter and it should work fine.