Don't Get Too Excited About The iPad 2's Camera
by Joe White
March 5, 2011
Apple's second generation iPad, which was unveiled a couple of days ago and currently resides over the main page on Apple's website, comes with a couple of cameras. While the device is reportedly capable of shooting HD video at 720p, still photos are most likely going to have a megapixel value of less than one.
We're not going to say that this comes as a complete surprise - in fact, it was rumored back in January that the iPad 2 would feature the same cameras as Apple's iPod touch (4G). Now, in an article by Wired, this rumor is further justified.
Basically, Apple notes that the second generation iPad can shoot video at 720p. "That should mean 1280 x 720 pixels, which gives a megapixel figure of 0.92." Of course, this is "clearly useless for stills." Wired continues:
However, flip over to the iPod Touch camera specs and we see the following: “HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with audio; still photos (960 x 720) with back camera.” Yes, the Touch shoots stills at an even lower resolution than video, most likely because the wide-screen movie format is squared-off to shoot stills. The stills it produces are just shy of 0.7 megapixels, or about the same resolution as an early 1990s-era digital camera.[sic]This has left many of us thinking that the iPad 2 is going to feature exactly the same cameras as the iPod touch. Obviously, nothing has been confirmed - and we'll probably not know for sure until somebody posts a complete teardown of the second generation iPad. But, this serves as a warning. Even if you were planning on using your iPad 2 as a digital camera (which, in all seriousness, would be like taking shots with a clipboard), be aware that the resulting images aren't going to be all that great.