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Comment by braythwayt | Hacker News Reader

I don't, but I see plenty of people who shoot pictures with their iPads. If the best camera was on the front, what would they use for a viewfinder?

Also, I used to be 100% remote, and I WFH plenty, so I'm on videoconferences all the time. I do not perceive the need for insanely good cameras for this.

Selfies, maybe, perhaps Instagram influencers need super-high-res selfie photos and movies.

All that being said, maybe there are uses I haven't even imagined for an iPad that has a better front-facing camera than rear-facing camera. But for my current use cases... I would say not.

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With the new keyboard attachment the front camera isn't even at the top of the iPad, it is on the left/right edges. That's a large oversight.

As to video conferencing, it depends on what you're doing. If you're presenting a meeting and are being projected onto a conference room's TV/projector, the quality matters.

It clearly isn't an oversight. When people hold their pad they predominately use it in portrait mode. When people use it with a keyboard, they want it in landscape mode. This is pretty universal.

And, guessing, I would imagine people use this sans keyboard >95% of the time. So they gear it for that. Or should they put two cameras on it?

I highly doubt Apple was oblivious to this, but there are always compromises.

As to quality, the quality of this camera is equivalent or better than the overwhelming majority of webcams. Maybe people are doing xxx streams or something, but for a corporate meeting this is about three tiers above the average.

Put it on the corner maybe?

My biggest pain point with the iPad camera has always been that it isn't aimed against your face:

  \    /  :-(
   \  /
    \/   
    <=============>

I have never seen a person take a picture with an iPad using the rear camera.

What I want from the front camera is mostly good light sensitivity and color rendition. I don't need more than 1080p video on it though. It feels like it should be possible without making it very expensive. If it isn't possible, then for an iPad I'd sacrifice ALL the rear camera functionality for just a slightly better front cam, in a heartbeat.

in my experience it is very popular to do in older demographics.

I’ve also seen it a lot at large scientific conferences where people take pictures of slides. This can be easier to work with on an iPad because they are probably also taking notes on it, so the picture get integrated into the notes.

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