Are you using the cloud-based Lightroom apps for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Web? Then you'll love my book, 
braver
Member
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2015
- Messages
- 58
- Lightroom Experience
- Intermediate
- Lightroom Version Number
- 3.6 Android, 7.5 Mac
- Operating System
- macOS 10.13 High Sierra
- Android
After being a loyal iOS only user for 11 years, I've finally decided to give Android a try with Note 9 -- most of all, for the S Pen, and the 512GB internal memory, and the microSD card for storing my Lr Mobile-uploaded albums, 330K+, locally. I also wanted to try importing in the field and uploading to the cloud. This is my first Android device -- all previous ones were all the top iPhone models, maxed out, and on AT&T. I also got T-Mobile for the Note 9 to go abroad and check out the global data (I'm based in the US), without giving up my previous setup.
I got a 400GB microSD and designated it as the LrCC storage. So far I got about 200K synced down and the syncing works well. I might even fit everything in there. I have DNG originals and Smart Previews are downloading from the Cloud. I did not have RAW originals in the cloud until I've tried uploading from Android.
First snag: connecting a USB-C/SD card adapter for importing works, and the My Files app sees both the microSD and the external SD card. But Lr stops import at once (I have my SD cards set to read-only) -- turns out it replaces the microSD in preferences with the new external SD the moment you connect the adapter. It gets confused to the point it wants to resync, so you have to disconnect the adapter. This is even despite the fact the the sources in the import dialogue show both the microSD and the external SD.
The solution had been copying from the external D to the internal device memory (512GB) first, then importing from there. The first card mysteriously showed only 88 our of 266 photos (I had 266 3FR+JPG pairs) but they all appeared upon import, yet only the JPGs. I selected all files in the folder. The import showed a note that some of the files failed to import. It looks like you have to carefully ensure all the files got uploaded if you rely on it as field cloud backup. Next time, I selected only the 3FR RAWs and they all got uploaded.
The flow is really a low-life version of the Classic import where I designate a Virgin Backups copy and also sync up to the Cloud collection, after renaming the files according to Peter Krogh's scheme with the EXIF YYYYMMDD in the name surrounded by my name and the original numeric suffix from the camera. There's a Tasker app on Android that can do batch renames and even an EXIF example (using Java, which is easy for me as a programmer) but that seems like a whole new project. There's also a raw2dng app that does convert the 3FRs to DNG beautifully, except you cannot configure full-size JPG preview or fast load data or anything else, only embedding the RAW original which I don't do.
The album I create in LrCC appears in the From Lr Mobile collections in Classic and I can rename files there. Which is cool. I have the store originals on for LrCC Mac and they are appearing in their folder, so that gives me a local backup that I could use for Virgin Backups if I import the RAW files, not DNGs, and then do the DNG conversion in Classic after the upload and download. I need to test this.
LrCC on Note 9 does not see the two cameras, nor the settable aperture unique to the Note 9. It seems it does not support dual cameras outside iPhone, which is a negative for DNG shooter with the phone only. I still have to see if the S pen works for editing on the Note.
Overall, the two painpoints are
-- lack of microSD <= external SD import without the intermediate copy to the device
-- lack of the dual camera support
But, overall, LrCC Android beats the iOS version hands down -- with microSD option and large internal/external storage it becomes possible, for the very first time in my 11+ years of RAW shooting (since the original class with Peter Krogh in Santa Fe using Lr 1.0-beta), to hold the entire collection of Smart Previews locally on a smart phone, rate, edit, and sync them back up to the cloud and then all other devices. The holy grail is near!
I got a 400GB microSD and designated it as the LrCC storage. So far I got about 200K synced down and the syncing works well. I might even fit everything in there. I have DNG originals and Smart Previews are downloading from the Cloud. I did not have RAW originals in the cloud until I've tried uploading from Android.
First snag: connecting a USB-C/SD card adapter for importing works, and the My Files app sees both the microSD and the external SD card. But Lr stops import at once (I have my SD cards set to read-only) -- turns out it replaces the microSD in preferences with the new external SD the moment you connect the adapter. It gets confused to the point it wants to resync, so you have to disconnect the adapter. This is even despite the fact the the sources in the import dialogue show both the microSD and the external SD.
The solution had been copying from the external D to the internal device memory (512GB) first, then importing from there. The first card mysteriously showed only 88 our of 266 photos (I had 266 3FR+JPG pairs) but they all appeared upon import, yet only the JPGs. I selected all files in the folder. The import showed a note that some of the files failed to import. It looks like you have to carefully ensure all the files got uploaded if you rely on it as field cloud backup. Next time, I selected only the 3FR RAWs and they all got uploaded.
The flow is really a low-life version of the Classic import where I designate a Virgin Backups copy and also sync up to the Cloud collection, after renaming the files according to Peter Krogh's scheme with the EXIF YYYYMMDD in the name surrounded by my name and the original numeric suffix from the camera. There's a Tasker app on Android that can do batch renames and even an EXIF example (using Java, which is easy for me as a programmer) but that seems like a whole new project. There's also a raw2dng app that does convert the 3FRs to DNG beautifully, except you cannot configure full-size JPG preview or fast load data or anything else, only embedding the RAW original which I don't do.
The album I create in LrCC appears in the From Lr Mobile collections in Classic and I can rename files there. Which is cool. I have the store originals on for LrCC Mac and they are appearing in their folder, so that gives me a local backup that I could use for Virgin Backups if I import the RAW files, not DNGs, and then do the DNG conversion in Classic after the upload and download. I need to test this.
LrCC on Note 9 does not see the two cameras, nor the settable aperture unique to the Note 9. It seems it does not support dual cameras outside iPhone, which is a negative for DNG shooter with the phone only. I still have to see if the S pen works for editing on the Note.
Overall, the two painpoints are
-- lack of microSD <= external SD import without the intermediate copy to the device
-- lack of the dual camera support
But, overall, LrCC Android beats the iOS version hands down -- with microSD option and large internal/external storage it becomes possible, for the very first time in my 11+ years of RAW shooting (since the original class with Peter Krogh in Santa Fe using Lr 1.0-beta), to hold the entire collection of Smart Previews locally on a smart phone, rate, edit, and sync them back up to the cloud and then all other devices. The holy grail is near!
