Do We Really Need an iPad With Three Cameras?

Do We Really Need an iPad With Three Cameras?

The term “leaks” seems to be fairly inadequate when it comes to rumors about smartphones and tablets during the month of September, but it certainly gives the tech world a huge amount to write about. One that stood out from last week’s launch event is the prospect of an iPad Pro that features a triple camera.

If you’ve ever stood at an event surrounded by people holding up their phones to shoot woeful footage that they will never watch, Apple is potentially adding to that eye-roll of despair at fellow humanity by continuing to bump the specs of the camera included in its largest, most expensive tablets. As everyone knows, nothing is real and nor can it be remembered unless you’re filming it on a giant tablet that completely obscures the view of what’s happening for you and the three people sat behind you. Cameras on tablets are about to get three times more pointless and three times more annoying.

Of course, we can but hope that this is a hoax, and that Apple is not so naive to think that “more is better” at the cost of ergonomics. With the tech giants constantly leaking leaks that are not actually leaks, the time for fake leaks is certainly ripe, especially with manufacturers struggling to find innovative new features now that the market has fully matured, if not saturated.

Would you prefer a professional tablet that has a camera that matches smartphone performance or a tablet that maintains its slim form? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Andy Day's picture

Andy Day is a British photographer and writer living in France. He began photographing parkour in 2003 and has been doing weird things in the city and elsewhere ever since. He's addicted to climbing and owns a fairly useless dog. He has an MA in Sociology & Photography which often makes him ponder what all of this really means.

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17 Comments

Scrap the fancy cameras and make it less expensive. If you are taking photos with a tablet, you look like you are taking photos with a baking sheet pan. I don’t really see the practical application or need for it.

They have been making a less expensive ipad. It's $329. Maybe the cameras will be for more than taking a photo. AR perhaps? Or, the keynote showed FiLMiC filming with all 4 cameras at once. If the cameras are the same quality as on the max, I imagine it would be more beneficial to use an ipad and have a bigger screen to manage the cameras.

Looks good to me! xD

I am those that is hoping that Apple will finally put its best cameras system on the iPad. Shooting with the iPad is one of the best experience. It’s like shooting with a large format camera. I don’t get it when people complain about people shooting with iPad.

Did you ever shoot with bigger than full frame ? :p

yep I am shooting with Hasselblad h4d-50 and a Cambo 8x10 SCX monorail camera.

Well, ok, appologies for guessing wrong. Having a big screen surely helps with framing.
I was more thinking about image quality in every aspect which - I hope - really isn't the same.
I'm really using my camera as a tool. And even if the viewfinder is as bad as a gameboy screen, I don't bother (too much) as long as I have the framing, and the focus, and few more infos.

As much as an Iphone needs 3. Neither do but they have to make new stuff to sell new stuff to people who are obsessed with having new stuff.

Inovation, apparently.

I'd love 3 cameras on my iMac, please, apple, do something !

It consistently cracks me up to see people taking pictures with a tablet. I don't have anything specifically against it, I just find it entertaining.

I usually crack them with a rock when I see them during concerts. Bigger target in front of my face.

I wouldn't bring any camera to a concert. I tot your there to enjoy the music and vibe not to shoot

Nooooo ! First time I went to the Vatican (totally by luck) I grabbed two seats about 75 feet from the Pope was to sit. I had my 70-200mm and 300mm lens ready on two separate bodies(I’m pumped up with excitement), the Pope starts his ascent up the alter then it happens . Everyone in front of me opens up their giant tablets (covers opened like tabletop books) and start taking pics. My heart sank ! I’ve been to many public events since that dreadful day but now with smartphone enabled bodies, there is a workaround. It’s like taking pictures with a laptop , why would you ?

Apple is good at inventing stuff Samsung already added.

"Do We Really Need an iPad?". There, fixed it for you.

I didn’t know my iPad had a camera.

Asking photographers if an iPad needs three cameras is like asking a race car driver if a Ford Fiesta needs 500hp.

And someone jumping up in front of you, blocking your shot with their iPad is no worse than someone with three DSLRs stepping in front of someone else with any camera trying to take a shot.

I think we need to ask why people take photos with an iPad (or a phone, for that matter) instead of a "real" camera.

Most of the time, when I ask someone, the reply is that they don't know anything about photography, or that my DSLR & big fancy lenses are too expensive, or too intimidating.

Very often, they aren't after a photograph, they are after a "snapshot." They are after a memory. They don't care that their photo won't win contests or sell for mega-bucks. They are only concerned with showing their friends and family where they were and what they saw.

If three cameras in an iPad helps them do that, fine.

But I do like the option of being able to get an iPad either without a camera all together, or at the very least, a simple, inexpensive one, because for me personally, a camera in an iPad is unnecessary.

For people for whom that is their only camera, fine. Give them the best. Maybe a spark will be ignited, and they'll go out snd get a DSLR of a mirrorless.