iPad mini Mini 5, Mini 6, iPad Pro 11 2021 photo/video import comparison

[LibbyLA]

I run quite a few trail cameras. Most are cell cams so I receive the photos and (and videos that I request) delivered to several electronic devices. However, I have four cameras that are not cellular, so I pull the SD cards every couple of weeks, import the files to iPads, “favorite” the ones I want to keep, and transfer them to my computer before deleting all the imports for the next time.

I just ran some quick, unscientific tests importing 770 photos from one of my license plate cameras, 96 videos from one trail camera, and 363 photos and 121 videos from another trail camera. I used the Apple brand SD card readers (2nd generation of the lightning version). The test iPad was on my left, the timer iPad was on my right. I tapped “Import all” and “Start” at the same time and tapped “Stop” at 0 left to import.

(I did not restart any of the iPads or close any apps. Mini 5 and Mini 6 are running iOS 15, iPP 11 is running iOS 14.something.)

The Mini 6 is MUCH faster than the Mini 5 and beat the iPP 11 2021 by a little bit on the imports that included videos (but not by enough for me to consider it significant).

(When I got the Mini 5, I tested it against the Mini 4 and the 5 was significantly faster than the 4.)

 

[wilberforce]

The transfer rate for your license plate camera is really slow, about 6MB/s (for Mini 6.) Those photos are only 0.15MB each? (117/770)

The transfer rate for the other cameras' cards is about 50 to 80 MB/s, similar to what I get.

btw, if you ever want to transfer files from the iPad TO an external drive (HD or SSD or flash drive), or directly from an SD card to an external drive (by using a hub attached to the iPad), the external drive *must* be formatted APFS, else the transfer is excruciatingly slow (like 5 MB/s).

Thanks for this comparison, I felt my Mini 6 was transferring slightly faster than my iPP, but had not timed it. This shows they are pretty much the same (unsurprisingly). I think it is governed by the read speed of the SD cards, which is pretty slow compared to USB-C

 

[LibbyLA]

The transfer rate for your license plate camera is really slow, about 6MB/s (for Mini 6.) Those photos are only 0.15MB each? (117/770)

The transfer rates for the other cameras' cards is about 50 to 80 MB/s, similar to what I get.

btw, if you ever want to transfer files from the iPad TO an external drive (HD or SSD or flash drive), or directly from an SD card to an external drive (by using a hub attached to the iPad), the external drive *must* be formatted APFS, else the transfer is excruciatingly slow (like 5 MB/s).

The license plate photos are pretty low resolution. It’s a specialty camera that’s optimized for license plates, especially at night when the reflectivity causes problems with regular cameras. That is a full-sized SD card. The other two are microSD/adapter. That might explain the speed difference. The microSD are probably higher performance cards.

Thanks for the info on formatting the external drive. I don’t know how often I might need to do that, but that’s handy info.

 

[sparksd]

The transfer rate for your license plate camera is really slow, about 6MB/s (for Mini 6.) Those photos are only 0.15MB each? (117/770)

The transfer rate for the other cameras' cards is about 50 to 80 MB/s, similar to what I get.

btw, if you ever want to transfer files from the iPad TO an external drive (HD or SSD or flash drive), or directly from an SD card to an external drive (by using a hub attached to the iPad), the external drive *must* be formatted APFS, else the transfer is excruciatingly slow (like 5 MB/s).

Thanks for this comparison, I felt my Mini 6 was transferring slightly faster than my iPP, but had not timed it. This shows they are pretty much the same (unsurprisingly). I think it is governed by the read speed of the SD cards, which is pretty slow compared to USB-C

5MB/S for non-APFS drive? That's not right. I just transferred a 6.9GB file from my iPad Pro to a Samsung USB-C SSD in 21 seconds - the SSD is exFAT.

 

[rui no onna]

5MB/S for non-APFS drive? That's not right. I just transferred a 6.9GB file from my iPad Pro to a Samsung USB-C SSD in 21 seconds - the SSD is exFAT.

Transferring hundreds of files totaling 6.9GB is going to be slower than copying a single 6.9GB file.

 

[sparksd]

Transferring hundreds of files totaling 6.9GB is going to be slower than copying a single 6.9GB file.

True, but not anywhere near 5MB/Sec - at least that's what I've seen moving lots (hundreds) of Canon RAW images to an exFAT SSD.

 

[rui no onna]

True, but not anywhere near 5MB/Sec - at least that's what I've seen moving lots (hundreds) of Canon RAW images to an exFAT SSD.

I expect those Canon RAW images are several MB each and not 150 KB each. The smaller the files, the bigger the bandwidth lost to overhead.

 

[wilberforce]

5MB/S for non-APFS drive? That's not right. I just transferred a 6.9GB file from my iPad Pro to a Samsung USB-C SSD in 21 seconds - the SSD is exFAT.

OK good to know.

On my iPad Pro I transferred files to 3 different HDs that were formatted HFS+, and got about 5MB/s, it was so slow I thought the iPad was locked up. I also transferred files to a FAT32 flash drive and got 2 MB/s. I was transferring 50MB files.
I then searched for forums/threads for people that had similar issues, and the consensus was that the drives needed to be APFS.
So I converted my HDs and flash drive to APFS (a quick process on a Mac), and voila the transfer speed went up to about 50 MB/s, which is about the limit of the HDs.

I did not try an external SSD as I do not have one - I don't really need one as the transfer speed is limited by the SD card read speed anyway.

Anyway, great if people have no trouble with transfer speeds, but if they do then converting to APFS is something to try.

 

[sparksd]

I expect those Canon RAW images are several MB each and not 150 KB each. The smaller the files, the bigger the bandwidth lost to overhead.

I still do not buy 5MB/Sec because of non-APFS. I use only exFAT and have never seen anything remotely close to that low of a speed over iPad USB-C.

 

[sparksd]

OK good to know.

On my iPad Pro I transferred files to 3 different HDs that were formatted HFS+, and got about 5MB/s, it was so slow I thought the iPad was locked up. I also transferred files to a FAT32 flash drive and got 2 MB/s.
I then searched for forums/threads for people that had similar issues, and the consensus was that the drives needed to be APFS.
So I converted my HDs and flash drive to APFS (a quick process on a Mac), and voila the transfer speed went up to about 50 MB/s, which is about the limit of the HDs.

I did not try an external SSD as I do not have one - I don't really need one as the transfer speed is limited by the SD card read speed anyway.

Anyway, great if people have no trouble with transfer speeds, but if they do then converting to APFS is something to try.

Can’t if you don’t have a Mac to format with - a no-go on Windows (why I use exFAT).

 

[wilberforce]

Can’t if you don’t have a Mac to format with - a no-go on Windows (why I use exFAT).

This is true. I almost exclusively use Mac.
I also have one HD which is NTFS, which is pretty stupid, can't believe I did that. Basically it is read only and I cannot change it, and has nearly 4TB of data on it

 

[rui no onna]

I still do not buy 5MB/Sec because of non-APFS. I use only exFAT and have never seen anything remotely close to that low of a speed over iPad USB-C.

It's not a function of the connection but rather an inherent property of SD cards. They generally handle small block read/writes slower than they do large sequential.

Raspberry Pi microSD card performance comparison - 2019 | Jeff Geerling

www.jeffgeerling.com

Mechanical HDDs also tend to be slow at 4K read/write. If you want fast 4K R/W, a proper SSD is the way to go.