Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
The iPad 2's camera shoots at less than one megapixel. Photo: Jon Snyder / Wired.com
It seems impossible for Apple to put a decent camera into anything but the iPhone, and despite many hopes, both cameras in the iPad 2 are about as rudimentary as you could get without having to load a roll of film in there. In fact, the iPad 2s camera has more in common with the low-res camera in the iPod Touch than it does to the rather excellent one in the iPhone 4.
The specs for the iPads rear-facing camera only lists on number: 720p. That should mean 1280 x 720, which gives a megapixel figure of 0.92, clearly useless for stills. 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 a lower resolution than video, just shy of 7 megapixels. This is most likely because the wide-screen movie format is squared-off to shoot stills.
Its extremely likely that the iPad 2 and the iPod Touch share the exact same camera (although we wont know for sure until iFixit tears one open to see). It seems that it will be fine for movies, and bad for photos. Then again, with the camera connection kit you can always just import images from a real camera. And for taking notes, snapping menus or grabbing pictures before grunging them up and sending them off to Instagram, itll do the trick.
Still, for a device that costs a minimum of $500, it would be nice to have a better sensor. Will we ever get one? Its starting to look rather doubtful.
iPad 2 camera [Apple]
See Also:
Breaking: iPhone 3GS Camera Doesn't Suck
Why the iPhone 4 Camera Is So Promising
Teardown Reveals iPhone Camera Could Fit the iPod Touch Barely
Hands-On With Apple's Skinnier, Faster iPad 2
Gallery: Apple's Jobs Unveils Upgraded, More Colorful iPad 2
