Ben Sillis asks for Electricpig, “So, remember back when the iPad first launched, and everyone had a good old a moan about the the lack of a camera?”
“Yeah, here’s Flickr‘s current daily average user stats for Apple’s devices with cameras,” Sillis reports. “Just 22 Flickr users out of more than 40 million use their iPad 2‘s camera to upload snaps, making it 200 times less popular than the iPhone 4.”
Sillis reports, “Of course, comparing between iOS devices is hardly fair: it’s not as though Apple has sold as many iPad 2s as it has iPhone 3Gs. But taken on its own that number, 22, is still stunningly low for a device that’s already shipped in the millions, and the total number of images on Flickr taken with the tablet is a paltry 12,570. Number of iPhone images? 51,331,761.”
More in the full article, including a high-res infographic, here.
MacDailyNews Take: With our iPad 2, we only use the rear camera only for the most down-and-dirty snapshots – almost always for use in quickly communicating “hey, look at this” imagery – not to create a photo that we’d ever share as “photography.” As Day One iPad owners for both models, half the time we still have to remind ourselves, “oh yeah, this thing has a camera now” (however rudimentary it may be) and not go reaching for our iPhone 4s. Anything we’d consider “photography” would come from at least our iPhone 4 or a real camera.
The iPad 2’s rear camera feels like a bit of spec sheet fodder from Apple. “We’d better have a camera on the back, too, not just on the front for FaceTime, so we can say we have a rear camera and easily and cheaply a bullet point from competitors sales sheets. We know nobody will use it much, but people think they need one, so just give it to them this time. We do enough tech reeducation projects already.”
So, if all that’s at hand is the iPad 2, we snap away (when we remember it’s there), but if we have something better (and we almost always do, since we have our iPhone 4s at the ready, at least), then we use the best camera we have within reach. iPad 2’s 0.7 megapixel rear-facing still camera reminds us of the original iPhone’s camera: Pixellation and poorly-lit artifacts galore; far better for video (it shoots HD) than for stills, for sure.
iPad 2 owners: Do you use your iPad 2’s rear-facing camera? If so, for what type of use(s)?
MSN take “Anything we’d consider “photography” would come from at least our iPhone 4 or a real camera.” is misleading. IPhone 4 is a REAL camera. You can add lenses too. There are heaps of lense adapters so you can attach Zoom, Macro, etc. Google it up.
Lens ‘adapters’ are NOT lenses, and degrade the quality of the image. They are just cheap plastic (maybe some are glass, but still cheap) that tricks the lens into doing something its not built to do, image quality will suffer as a result.
Sorry to burst your ballon.
Got a Leica And a nice Lumix GH1. The only thing I use the iPhone camera for is in app stuff like Evernote. Never even messed with the rear camera on my iPad2.
Obviously… People are going to pull out their iPad and hold it awkwardly to take impromptu photos. Most of the time, they won’t even have their iPad with them. An iPhone is with them most of the time and convenient.
I am one of the “wish the iPad had a camera” crowd.
FRONT facing FaceTime camera.
I never cared for a rear camera, still don’t. I’ve used mine a few times, use the front alot.
I use both on my iPhone, pics and video.
My daughter Face Times with my mom every day. We probably split 50-50 between the front and back camera as when my daughter is trying to show grandma stuff it is easier to flip to the back so I can use the pip window to see where I’m aiming.
It’s all in how you use the devices. I don’t use my iPad 2 when i want to take a photo of something, not b/c of the camera abilities, but b/c the iPhone is so much easier to hold as it’s more of a P&S type camera.
I LOVE the iPad 2’s cameras though b/c of FaceTime, both the front and the back. FaceTime + Grandparents + Grandkids = One happy Dad.
This is why people wanted the camera.
FaceTime.
I’ve used FaceTime for tech support, flip camera around so I can see your screen.
Perfect when there is no other way to connect to the persons computer.
I have had iPad for a month but have not used either camera yet. No reason to.
Putting a rear-facing snapshot camera on a device the size of the iPad is ridiculous. It may be small and light compared to a laptop, but it is huge and ungainly compared to a camera phone or pocket camera. Only a moron would expect such a device to function as a camera.
The only legitimate use I can think of for a rear-facing iPad camera is to allow Facetime users to transmit video of what they are looking at. The video camera in the iPhone has the same capability.
ditto the facetime babies/grandparents comment
I have searched high and low on Flickr’s statistics pages, but could NOT find a single mention of Samsung Galaxy Tab. In other words, it seems that NOBODY ever uploaded a picture shot with it to Flickr.
Android fanbois kept screaming how the iPad didn’t have that camera, and how Android tablets all have.
Android fanboys inevitably scream OMG! OMG! OMG! My [insert name of Android product here] specs are better than the iPad/iPhone/iPod touch!!!! But what they fail to mention is that Android is such a crappy OS that it makes those specs/features practically unusable.
Of course hardly anyone uses the camera on the back. It is too awkward to take photos with this large device. Unfortunately, Apple gave in to the whining public and included a ‘buggy whip holder on their new Lamborghini’.
The public are collectively such dolts.
I’d be much more interested in a new iPod Touch with cameras similar to those of the iPhone 4
@Sarasota would rather a good iPod touch camera. Me too. Would love to combine my digital camera and iPod but can’t afford an iPhone (as well as an iPad 2 and a MacBook Pro).
It’s perfect for grabbing clips from newspapers and magazines that have not gone digital. Also, for facetime.
So these 22 people have uploaded an average of 571 photos each!?!?!
Exactly what I was going to say … That’s a lot of photos.
The film is pretty cheap.
We’ve been testing the ability to shoot HD video with the rear facing camera. Shot detail close ups of moss, then instantly reviewed on HDTV via AirPlay.. The super large ‘viewfinder’ (the whole iPad screen) is reminiscent of shooting large format stull photography. And the video is inherently more stable looking than iPhone, because of the wider grip used.. Still, its all just an experiment..
I look up Chinese characters with the OCR add-on function in Pleco. Man is that cool. I used to spend hours with a paper dictionary to understand an newspaper article for school. That changes to minutes with the aid of that little camera.
I use my iPad 2 camera all the time. But not for “photography” purposes. I’ll take 10-20 photos per day of various flipcharts, notes, layouts, configurations and more. Then upload them all to DropBox and they are at my desk when I get back.
What the hell is Flickr?
It’s what Bubba does when he’s done digging for the Gold! 😉
We are working on a pilot program to use the iPad for conducting safety, asbestos, and hazard surveys. We currently have to walk around with a paper checklist and a digital camera. Spent a lot of time transcribing the notes from the paper form and then attach the picture to print out and submit for our reports. It got better when the camera got better in the iPhone 3gs because we would then only carry our paper forms and the phone. The iPad would be perfect and save a huge amount of time to use an electronic checklist and then attach a picture directly to the document. We can then email it. Perfect solution for this type of application.