Originally Posted by
stkywik Why would you want state of the art cameras on the iPad? The iPad was not and is not designed to be a camera, and the cameras they have added to it are perfectly fine for the function they are meant to perform (Facetime cameras).
Why?
1) The spent 40min in the press event to prove
the iPad is an all-in-one media creation device. So what good is all that incredible software and powerful hardware when your native film/photo input is limited to a .69MP Front / 1MP Back camera?
2) Cameras arent limited to only view people. So its a HUGE deal that
the iPad 2 camera lacks AUTOFOCUS. As we've seen with this camera system on the Touch, many fantastic iPhone 4 apps require AF to work. Google Translate, Document scanning, Check cashing, QR scanning, Augmented reality, barcode apps will all be incompatible without a quality autofocus camera.
3)
HD Output. On the low res iPad screen you can (almost) get away with a sub-par camera. But now that Apple supports HD output then those 640x480 pictures will look
4)
This isn't 2004. When was the last time you had a sub 1MP cell camera? The original iPhone is 2MP. Most disposable cellphones have over 1MP cameras. The iPod Nano's 1.6" screen had VGA camera. And now the 2011 9.7" iPad has a .69MP/1MP camera set. And people are defending this?
5)
iPad INSTEAD of iPhone. In tech circles then everyone has a good phone. So yes, "take a pic with your smartphone" works with your friends. But MANY people will buy the iPad INSTEAD of an iPhone so why should the functionality be limited? Especially at this pricepoint.
6)
Developers If you dont provide the proper equipment then developers wont give any attention to that feature. So even if people will say "wait for 2012 to get a passable camera" then devs wont start working with that until next year.
7)
Price. Ignore the cost of the competition and look purely at Apples product line. $499 is great but lets not pretend it really costs $100/200 to move from 16GB to 32/64GB so
why not at least put in a high quality camera in the high end models? People defend Apples bottom line that they ignore the fact that a $829 tablet deserves more than a 1MP camera.
8)
Apple. Make all the excuses you want, but lets be honest here. When did Apple ever aim for the bottom? Apple has earned their public perception of being a quality company due to their forward-thinking attitude and reluctance to half-*** anything. Yet here we are staring directly into one of their few compromises. A camera that does not hold up to their reputation of innovative technology.
Actually the entire camera industry is locked into an outdated design for "comfortably" shooting photos and it isn't getting any better. With DSLR's and older cameras you would hold an awkward box to your head that restricted any peripheral vision. And with big screen cameras you now extend your arms to view a screen which creates a tremendous amount of shake. So to say the iPad is unwieldy doesnt necessarily make it any worse than every other camera in the industry.
