We were chatting about cameras on tablets yesterday, and I reiterated my viewpoint that tablet cameras are cumbersome and dopey.
Thinking about this more in depth, the tablet camera doesn’t share many use cases with the camera phone. For example, when you’re taking pictures of an event. Here’s an item from the Failblog to prove my point.
Plus, most normal people carry a smartphone (or feature phone) with a camera, and even if they also carry a tablet, the phone’s camera is much more convenient. Beyond convenience, taking a picture with a tablet one-handed, is very challenging, unless you have large hands. When you’re on the go, having the ability to shoot pictures one-handed can be very useful. Think about it.
So, as with many tablet use cases, the tablet camera has more domestic appeal, e.g. video chatting at home on your couch, shooting video of your kids. All further proof to me that the tablet’s greatest uses are in the home, not on the go, unless you’re using it as a laptop replacement.
Thoughts?
The corner placement of the rear-facing camera on the iPad2 makes for some interesting angles and perspectives. Standing the iPad on it’s top edge on any surface puts the camera about half an inch above the surface. This wildly distorts the visual perspective, and makes for some interesting photos and videos. I’m certainly no photographer, but I’ve had some interesting results: http://youtu.be/P-KZis4MpxM
That’s cool. Noel has an iPad2, wonder if he’s encountered this effect. I’ve heard rumors that the next iPhone will have a center-mounted lens.