iPad 2 camera is horrible!
I have written before about the issues with having a rear facing camera on a tablet. It is completely moronic to think anyone will actually use it to take pictures. Anyone who uses it to record video will try it once, and not ever again. The form factor is completely wrong. Cameras work on a phone due to the small size, and the fact they are always with you. On the iPad 2, you have to hold the tablet with one hand, and use your other to press the shutter button located in the middle of the screen on the bottom edge. It just doesn’t work. Throw in the worst portable camera I have seen since my first Motorola flip phone that didn’t even have a color screen, and you have a laughable “camera.”
I have taken several pictures with the camera in the day and a half that I’ve had the iPad. Some images in darker environments, and some in perfect environments where the sun was coming up, and the light was gentle. None of the images pulled out a decent picture. The iPad does a lot of things right, but the camera is definitely not one of them. This is strange considering the generally pleasing photo quality from the iPhone lineup. Images are soft, or downright blurry and pixelated. Images easily get washed out. The focal range is terrible. I hope you like standing about 15 ft from you subject to get it all in. Also, tap to focus is horribly implemented. Unless the tablet is held perfectly still, you lose the area you tapped to focus on. No sense explaining it all. Here are a couple pictures from the camera.
The 3 comparison shots were taken one after another in the same lighting and location.
