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Why no FaceTime camera upgrade?!

T

tr43z0r

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 22, 2011
107
7
Leicestershire, UK
My only disappointment (and a very slight disappointment) with the new iPad is tha it has the same front facing camera as the iPad 2.

I couldn't care less about the rear camera; I only use it during FaceTime. I think using an iPad to take photographs is ridiculous, and that people doing it look ridiculous.

Anyone else disappointed by the lack of an HD FaceTime camera?
 
Yeah I am disappointed too, especially when their touting the Retina display. Then again I was disappointed when the latest Macbook Air also didn't upgrade to a Facetime HD camera.

I still ordered the iPad 3 though, since it's an upgrade over my iPad 1.
 
digiphantom said:
Yeah I am disappointed too, especially when their touting the Retina display. Then again I was disappointed when the latest Macbook Air also didn't upgrade to a Facetime HD camera.

I still ordered the iPad 3 though, since it's an upgrade over my iPad 1.
Click to expand...

I'm still upgrading over the iPad 2. I don't use either of the cameras often, so it's certainly a minor complaint, but a camera that's at least better than a cheap webcam would've been nice.
 
thelead said:
i'm disappointed as well. I want to know about the memory as well...
Click to expand...

As far as specs are concerned, I don't know why people make a huge fuss about them. If the new iPad performs as well as the iPad 2 despite the retina display I'll be happy. If Apple can make it do that with as little processing power as possible then great, more battery life and less heat!
 
Because I care about performance. I don't like web pages refreshing when I switch tabs (which still occurs on the iPad 2).
 
thelead said:
Because I care about performance. I don't like web pages refreshing when I switch tabs (which still occurs on the iPad 2).
Click to expand...

Than that's a valid reason :) You must use more tabs than me lol.

Personally I'm happy with the performance of the iPad 2, but I guess I don't use it as heavily as some people.
 
tr43z0r said:
Than that's a valid reason :) You must use more tabs than me lol.

Personally I'm happy with the performance of the iPad 2, but I guess I don't use it as heavily as some people.
Click to expand...

I use tabs like there's no tomorrow :D
 
I was very disappointed by this, too. I could care less about the back camera. I don't facetime often, but when I do the quality of the front camera is horrid. I would have preferred to see a minor upgrade on both cameras instead of a bigger one on the back.
 
gigemzach said:
I was very disappointed by this, too. I could care less about the back camera. I don't facetime often, but when I do the quality of the front camera is horrid. I would have preferred to see a minor upgrade on both cameras instead of a bigger one on the back.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
The answer is rather simple. With better camera resolution all face defects would look horrible on a retina:apple: display.
 
ScubaCinci said:
It's likely a bandwidth thing...
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This makes no sense to me. Are we talking Bus bandwidth or wireless/cellular?

If we are talking wireless, then bandwidth is not an issue. Cellular, again, not an issue as facetime wont work anyway.

I'd love to hear the argument on Bus Bandwidth.

Not trying to be a smartass, just trying to figure out why two people think this is bandwidth related.
 
I'm sure there will be some kind of accessory that will allow you to use your rear-facing camera to Facetime. Just wait for it.
 
tr43z0r said:
My only disappointment (and a very slight disappointment) with the new iPad is tha it has the same front facing camera as the iPad 2.

I couldn't care less about the rear camera; I only use it during FaceTime. I think using an iPad to take photographs is ridiculous, and that people doing it look ridiculous.

Anyone else disappointed by the lack of an HD FaceTime camera?
Click to expand...

Think network connection bandwidth and pixel amount. It'll hit you why.
 
From posts in the past it seems that upgraded cameras would require the casing of the iPad to be thicker. Apple probably thinks that thin case > better front camera. The case may be redesigned for iPad 4 however...
 
The rear-facing camera is called iSight. It would be confusing to call it FaceTime, saying as you can't perform a face-to-face chat (without using mirrors ;) )

I don't imagine the front-facing camera has such a bad resolution due to bandwidth restraints.

Any video chat software worth its salt will negotiate video quality when a call is set up and downgrade video accordingly.

You could have a 20 megapixel webcam but if your connection is poor, software will downgrade it. However, if your connection is of sufficient quality, it won't.

To say this has to be controlled by the resolution of the camera hardware is crazy.
 
Everyone's screaming bandwidth... How is it different from watching a high quality YouTube video/Netflix etc.?

----------
jbg232 said:
From posts in the past it seems that upgraded cameras would require the casing of the iPad to be thicker. Apple probably thinks that thin case > better front camera. The case may be redesigned for iPad 4 however...
Click to expand...

Thank you, the first sensible reply I've seen. I didn't even think of that. I would've thought they could get around it somehow. They already have one decent camera in it. But this makes more sense than bandwidth.
 
Last edited:
jbg232 said:
From posts in the past it seems that upgraded cameras would require the casing of the iPad to be thicker. Apple probably thinks that thin case > better front camera. The case may be redesigned for iPad 4 however...
Click to expand...

The new Toshiba tablet 0.30 thin has a 2 megapixel front camera, I really can't figure it out? should have been upgraded, the back camera seems less important. but oh well, there is always the iPad 4 or should I say the new new iPad. And this will not stop anyone from buying, (Apple knows this) people are not going to jump ship to Toshiba for a front camera.
 
Suspect it's a space issue. Here's the front facing camera in the iPad 2:

http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/Yk3USvBZmqfv5YLn.medium

There really isn't much space to work with there, especially with the taper on the back. Yeah, other tablets may fit in a larger unit but look where they position it and I wouldn't be surprised to find there's a LOT more space in the design (e.g. no taper and just a consistant thickness through the whole tablet).
 
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