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New MacBook Air and MacBook Pro Still Have 720p Camera, But Apple Promises Better Quality From M1
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What is silly is this quote of you: "[...] But this thing is an ipad with a permanent keyboard. [...] NO TOUCHSCREEN/PENCIL support."
Something which has no touchscreen support is not an iPad. Had you written "[...] But this thing is NOT an ipad with a permanent keyboard. [...] NO TOUCHSCREEN/PENCIL support." you would have made more sense.
those performance #s don't look like phoning it in to me.
I love the people in this thread comparing the maximum resolution (720p vs 1080p) of a webcam and thinking that has anything to do with image quality.
I run an early-2013 iMac at work it's just about better than anything else I see online. People really need to understand how f-stop and ISO work in low-light situations (offices/houses).
I run an early-2013 iMac at work it's just about better than anything else I see online. People really need to understand how f-stop and ISO work in low-light situations (offices/houses).
Agree - resolution has very little to do with this. It's all about sensor size and aperture in these lighting conditions. 720p can look great.
It's not the resolution of the camera that matters so much, the quality depends on so many other factors.
Head over the AppleInsider. Some of the most insane fanboys in that site that will defend literally anything related to Apple
Typical Apple - Instead of simply putting a 1080p camera in there, they’ll use 720p and then upscale and process the image using the 16-core Neural Engine.
Their supplier must have given them an once in a century discount on 720p webcam assemblies. I’m guessing we have about 5 more years before inventory runs out.
Their supplier must have given them an once in a century discount on 720p webcam assemblies. I’m guessing we have about 5 more years before inventory runs out.
Could it be that the lid is so thin that a 1080p camera looks worse due to optical constraints?
how much would a 1080p camera would have improved image quality for calls?
in that thin piece of lid, it's unlikely to do much. unless you want a camera protrusion.
you can't really increase the sensor size unless you increase the size of the lens. this will probably make the angle of view too wide which is not good for face to face conferences. this means Apple will need to increase the focal length, making the monitor too thick or the body will have camera protrusions.
having a 1080p camera with the same sensor simply means you're making the pixels smaller which does worse in low light situations. and since your Mac is often used in low light rooms, this doesn't make sense.
it's just limited by physics.
having a 1080p camera with the same sensor simply means you're making the pixels smaller which does worse in low light situations. and since your Mac is often used in low light rooms, this doesn't make sense.
it's just limited by physics.
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Looks like we will still need Camo....
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There indeed is a technical reason.
The image quality (or lack thereof) is abysmal. I cannot find any terms to describe the camera I could use on this forum with possibly minors in the audience. (Not that the minors wouldn’t have a much broader vocabulary than me...)
However, there are two technical reasons. First, the absolute amount of light entering the pinhole is very, very small. This leads to a lot of quantum noise (“graininess”) if the scene is not exceptionally well illuminated.
Second, the very small aperture sets the diffraction limit on the image plane so that increasing the sensor resolution (making the pixels smaller) would not increase the information in the image.
Both challenges are due to the very small aperture. This, in turn, is difficult to fix without increasing the distance from the lens to the image sensor. And that means a thicker lid.
During these WFH times I have been using different camera setups. If I need to look good (technically speaking, the rest would require a plastic surgeon to fix), I use a DSLR with a decent lens (HDMI + Elgato CamLink). Even when the resolution is downsampled to 720p and the stream is sent over Teams/Zoom/Whatever, the image quality is from another planet compared to any webcam. So, the number of pixels is clearly not the problem.
My suggestion to Apple is to toss the PoS called webcam. Instead, Apple should create the necessary SW for using iPhones and iPads as webcams. Their image quality is better than that of any reasonably priced webcam. (Yes, I have EpocCam Pro, but it has not proven to be too reliable in long meetings.)
What do you guys even do for a living that so resolutely (pun totally intended) REQUIRES a 1080p camera in a laptop as opposed to a 720p?
People with self-inflated importance.
I usually do most meetings from the beach with mobile phone, which does have a better camera than the MBP/MBA FWIW.
The cheapest iPad also has a 720p camera, and we have no idea (none of us) how the camera will be on the M1 Macs.
People who like their co-workers to see them as some jittery robot overlord