Sample Photos and Screenshots from 3rd Generation iPad

[Rogzilla]

As I keep saying, I am quite sure that the largest part of the increase is due to added functionality.

iMovie being the prime example - just listen to the keynote, and you will know why the size increased so significantly. After all, why should iMovie increase by a few hundred MB just due to the retina upgrade? I am guessing that iMovie contains just a few hundred kb of bitmap graphics (e.g. title screen, icons) which will now be replaced with higher-res graphics.

OK, good. I was worried I was going crazy for a moment. I'm sure there will be a size bump as programs switch over to support the retina display, but I don't think this is going to be anywhere near 2.5 to 3 times as much.

 

[JHankwitz]

Camera does look decent in most scenarios. Just a shame it seems to get washed out easily outside.

Wish I had the money to pick one of these up.

Photos usually get 'washed out' if the sun shines on the lens or the lens is dirty. Since it's difficult to attach a lens shade to an iPad, you should try to keep the sun at your back, and you should always clean the lens of dirt & fingerprints before use.

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

Where's the optical zoom, haha?

 

[jaison13]

Agreed, but that was not my point.

I have an iPhone 4s and an 'Oldest iPad'. If I had the 'New iPad', I doubt I would rarely ever use it for taking pictures.

For me, iPhone and iPad are relatively small form factors, but in comparison hugely different.

Many years ago I used to have to carry camera's and video camera's to get a half decent image. I have never taken as many photos as I have since I owned any iPhone. I imagine it would be a step back for me if I had to 'unsheath' my iPad every time to take a quick snap.

Just saying for purely practical reasons....



Hmmm, but is that not like saying, "I carry my laptop with me in case my iPad battery dies."?

i doubt anyone buys the iPad specifically as a camera!! but it's awfully nice that it has a capable one onboard. i think the iPad 2 took great pictures/video outside. this will be much better, plus i can edit those photos/videos much easier on an iPad than an iPhone. with your logic the iPad is a complete waste, just use an iPhone for everything.

 

[onejed1]

I’m confused. Will there be two versions of app’s in the app store? I have a first gen 16gig ipad and I’m worried that the same app will take 2x more storage space for content that I will never see. And what if I do buy an ipad 3 and app developers decide to charge again for “retina” updates. I paid once for the app, do I have to pay again?

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[jaison13]

i can say this about the iPad 3 new, i'm really wishing i got the last thing on my wish list! 128gb of storage. if all the apps are gonna grow in size i'm really screwed. i had trouble deciding what to dump on my iPad 2. i carry no music of videos. just apps, some books and comic books and it stayed right near full capacity. just my apple apps are gonna force me to cut apps.

in some cases that really sucks. i dumped let's golf 3 and in the process lost my completely built up golfer! that happens with a lot of games.

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I was thinking the same thing.

hopefully it does. the other way i doubt would even run on your iPad if it's made for 4x the resolution screen.

 

[andrewlgm]

As much as I want one of these beauts I'm skipping all of them until apple does right by the advanced user and allows a micro SD slot in there. "Apple will never put an SD card slot in there." I know, I know. That's the common rebuke I hear everywhere. Why would they when they can charge you $300 more for 64GB of storage, and these things still fly off the shelf?

Maybe I'll be waiting until the end of the world. But I rather not buy a device I will be upset with having to change the media I carry all the time. I have four anatomy text books I study with daily, they total 10GB+. Plus genetics which is 656MB and one for calculus with 3.2GB. PLus a music library of 80GB, and a video library of over 120GB. Forget pictures, and apps and games. I don't want to carry everything with me, that's clearly impossible. but being away from home for up to a week, it would be good to be able to carry at least 100GB of stuff. A 64GB iPad plus a 64GB SD card would be a perfect combination. Or two cards or 3 since they only cost you $80 instead of $300. Some of us are still waiting.

 

[onejed1]

hopefully it does. the other way i doubt would even run on your iPad if it's made for 4x the resolution screen.

Not sure what you mean. When you code apps to support both the iPhone standard and retina screens, you usually include graphics for both resolutions, and just append "@2x" in the filename just before the file extension (photo.jpg for standard, and another one called photo@2x.jpg for retina). So graphics for the other screen are in the app but never used, taking up space. It's not so bad in the case of the iPhone, but the iPad is hella larger.

And I'm not sure the increased file sizes for apple apps is mostly due to increased features, unless they have a **** ton of code for these features to warrant the dramatic increase. The major thing taking up space in my apps are the images, and i make sure to optimize them for web/devices in photoshop.

I'm thinking most people will just support the new resolutions and add images, increasing app sizes and ipad 1 and 2 owners will just have to suck it up.

Some people, like that guy who made x-plane on the iphone actually charge a new app for the upgraded display...

 

[cacophony555]

Looks like the camera is capable of great photo quality in ideal light circumstances. See Apple's photos for good examples of those circumstances

The majority of the pixel level issues with the photos posted here are due to two things:

1. The sensor seems to get awfully noisy above it's base ISO of 80. It appears to max out at ISO 200, and by then there is significant noise. The noise is even pretty bad at ISO 100.

2. Due to the limited useful ISO range and (presumably) lower light circumstances here, most of the photos here are shot around 1/15 sec. This is not a fast enough shutter speed to handhold at this focus length, so there's going be blur due to both camera shake and subject movement.

 

[iEvolution]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.4; en-us; Kindle Fire Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Which is my primary reason for not upgrading yet... the capacity just isn't there yet, triple app size and 1080 videos, yet pre-retina capacities. When I pay the asking price of the ipad I would like enough capacity that I don't have to worry about fitting things on and cycling apps is a much different concept than music, most would like to access there apps at all times.

 

[SockRolid]

Stealth testing

Funny to think that the Tinhte.vn guys can walk around with the new iPad, snapping photos and all, and not even be noticed. The superficial resemblance with iPad 2 is so strong there's no need to hide it. I imagine Apple was able to test its LTE connectivity in the field with no camouflage.

 

[AppleMark]

then get a Windows Tablet then!

Mindless response. I expect a witty put-down as a minimum

It is actually a great way of shooting video inconspicuously. People assume you are reading a book or something and you can get some great unselfconscious footage.

WTF, now you are just scarying me...., or somebodies girlfriend...

with your logic the iPad is a complete waste, just use an iPhone for everything.

I did not say or imply that. I use my ipad for a number of things my iPhone does less well. Better luck next time.

 

[Anlino]

Anyway you cut it a 1024x768 app will look like crap on a 2048x1536 display. Just imagine iphone apps running on that display. It will be a pixilated disaster.

Apps running in 1024x768 on the iPad 3 will look just as good as they look on the iPad 2.

 

[cdmoore74]

Apps running in 1024x768 on the iPad 3 will look just as good as they look on the iPad 2.

All of your old apps have to be rewritten to take advantage of the retina display resolution bump. Even this website will look crappier on the new ipad vs ipad 2 if you do a comparison. And if websites do decide to make Retina ready website pages it would take longer to load up all the pictures due to the larger file size. All the old low res graphics that were used on the ipad/ipad 2 will become pixelated on this display. When I use to encode my own movies you can't take a 480p video source and upscale it to 720p without a loss of quality. Garbage in = Garbage out. You can use upscalers but they suck.

 

[Michael Scrip]

um.
how can we discern the quality of the iPad Retina display by viewing a photo on a display with less resolution than the iPad? why not just wait till Friday and look at it IRL?

I was just noting how BIG that screenshot is.

They are cramming 2048x1536 into the same size display... it will look amazing.

But yes... Friday will be the real test!

 

[adamfilip]

Still cannot see the point in using an iPad to take pictures....

same point as using any device to take pictures

 

[henrikrox]

a dumb question, but all apple apps have been updated to retina graphics right, like contacts, calendar etc etc

 

[Pigumon]

That 5 megapixel image looks great when scaled down to about 1 megapixel. Really what is the point of all those extra pixels if they're just a blurry jittery mush? And I'm not pointing the finger at Apple here, its all the people who demand more megapixels without understanding what they're getting.

The camera seems to be perfect in order to copy documents. This is a real life task for the new iPad. I wonder why nobody thought about that.

Remember: the iPad isn't just for fun. It can help students and other professionals with their daily work.

Neither can I...I have cameras for that purpose, I don't even use my iPhone that much, although the camera is a lot better than it was on the 4. I might have a go with my new iPad, but it's such an awkward device to hold that way...Always scared I'd drop it.

Photographing documents.

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Don't say "NOBODY". I've been saying that since the first iPad was announced.

There are unlimited applications for a camera on a Tablet. You can scan documents, receipts, take pictures of room and recolor walls, start a database of all your worldly possessions for insurance purposes, catalog all your comics, the list goes on and on. The good news for all these silly, short-sighted people is that creative thinkers like me can always make money off them.

For those saying it's a blurry mess, well that depends on YOUR ability to take a picture. Either way, 5MP on this better camera is 100X better than the iPad 2 camera!

 

[MythicFrost]

All of your old apps have to be rewritten to take advantage of the retina display resolution bump. Even this website will look crappier on the new ipad vs ipad 2 if you do a comparison. And if websites do decide to make Retina ready website pages it would take longer to load up all the pictures due to the larger file size. All the old low res graphics that were used on the ipad/ipad 2 will become pixelated on this display. When I use to encode my own movies you can't take a 480p video source and upscale it to 720p without a loss of quality. Garbage in = Garbage out. You can use upscalers but they suck.

The apps don't have to be re-written, they automatically look better. The developer only needs to update the app with double resolution media, and that's it.

The lower resolution images will still look the same as it does on the iPad 2's display though.

 

[henrikrox]

going to be weird trying some apps with text and artwork.

text will look amazing, but all the assets/artwork within the app will look like worse. oh well

 

[zoetmb]

Take a look at undoctored iPad 3 photo taken by someone taking a photo in the right circumstance.

A $29 camera can take a great picture in the right circumstance. A cardboard pin-hole camera can take a great picture in the right circumstance. That's not the issue. Circumstances are rarely ideal so you have to judge a camera on how it handles fast movement, low light, noise, high contrast situations, etc.

 

[kmanmx]

Photos usually get 'washed out' if the sun shines on the lens or the lens is dirty. Since it's difficult to attach a lens shade to an iPad, you should try to keep the sun at your back, and you should always clean the lens of dirt & fingerprints before use.

I am aware of this. But I would expect some software compensation for it to get round the issue. I guess we will have to wait until they can build better lenses for phones/tablets. Get a good camera lens and this rarely happens, even with a bright sun in the background.

 

[scoobydoo99]

I was just noting how BIG that screenshot is.

They are cramming 2048x1536 into the same size display... it will look amazing.

But yes... Friday will be the real test!

I agree, it will be awesome. Can't wait to get home today and see mine!