I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that every iPad review I’ve read online or watched on YouTube has to make some kind of smart-ass comment about the cameras. And it’s all because of this:

Okay, maybe not this exact picture, but something like it. And we’ve all seen it. A parent or older person taking a picture at a concert or kids’ event. It can look odd, and we’ve decided as a society that this is weird. And bad. Yet, Apple continues to put cameras in the iPad, even improving them over time. But are these cameras actually good for anything?

Front Camera

FaceTime and Video Conferencing

The front camera is intended primarily for video calls, and I’d argue for FaceTime in particular. This camera is famously placed at the top of the iPad, instead of on the landscape edge (except for iPad 10). One hundred percent of the time I FaceTime someone, the other person is on their phone, which is a portrait oriented device. With the current front camera setup, the aspect ratios are the same, and you don’t end up with black bars on the iPhone, which is a nicer experience.

Unfortunately, it seems like most other video conferencing services are used primarily on laptops, which means the iPad video aspect ratio ends up being the odd one out on a call. Apple is seemingly undergoing an effort to relocate the front camera on upcoming iPad models. I do wonder if this will apply to the iPad Mini, which, with its size, may make the most sense to keep a portrait-oriented front camera. It’s not like people are really using keyboard cases with the Mini.

Photo Booth

Who here remembers Photo Booth? I think it was moderately popular on macOS back in the day. That was a bit before my time. But it was a novel use of the generally terrible front camera on a laptop. With iPad 2, Apple created a version of Photo Booth for the iPad, and it’s a preloaded app on iPadOS. It is similarly novel and fun here, but is one of the first apps I delete on a new iPad. In the modern era, the AR filters on Snapchat and a dozen other social media apps handle the “fun with the front camera” need.

Selfies?

At one point, Apple was promoting kids using the front camera for taking selfies. I suppose if all they have is an iPad, sure, it would work. The Retina Flash feature allows the display to work as a pseudo front-facing flash. In my experience, kids steal or are given their parents’ phones to take pictures. But if you’re looking to entertain your kids with a device that probably doesn’t cost as much as your phone, the iPad has you covered.

Rear Camera

A Note About Accessibility

The best justification I’ve ever heard for taking pictures with an iPad is that the larger viewfinder makes it much easier to use for people with vision issues. I want you to keep that in mind the next time you listen to someone making the “hurr durr, I’m so cool” jokes about taking pictures with an iPad. Because this is a real use that makes this task easier for people that may otherwise struggle.

Photos

The rear cameras on iPads vary in quality across the line. For most of us, it is unlikely they are of better quality than what’s in your phone. But that doesn’t mean the cameras are useless. I find that for taking pictures of something in the house, like the dogs, the rear camera is more than good enough.

As someone that doesn’t have their phone glued to their hand 24/7, an iPad is often the closest device with a camera. So why not use it?

iPads don’t really need Pro cameras, but the bar on mobile camera quality keeps rising, so it makes sense for Apple to keep improving its cameras to keep picture quality “good enough”.

Video

When Final Cut was released for iPad last year, Apple did something weird. They were promoting the cameras on iPad Pro as “Pro Cameras”. The M2 iPad Pros are even able to shoot in ProRes. The camera interface in Final Cut includes a number of Pro camera features that expert camera users have been asking for on iOS for years, like white balance control. Maybe iOS 18?

(I’m not sure what the uptake has been on recording directly into Final Cut, but I’m kind of tempted to try it now…)

Document Scanning

If you’re a productivity-focused user, it’s likely that this is your primary use case for the iPad’s rear camera. It also presents a unique use case over a laptop, which traditionally does not have world-facing cameras. It’s great to not have to go find your phone when you can to scan in a receipt. This is a completely self-contained workflow on iPad…scan and file away documents right into the Files app.

Augmented Reality (AR) Applications

Before Vision Pro showed up, iPad was the device Apple was pushing as having the most immersive Augmented Reality experiences amongst Apple devices. While a tablet is never going to beat an AR headset in the immersion department, using AR on iPad still has utility in various industrial settings that might not be as accommodating to a $3500 headset. Similarly, if you’re using educational AR apps with your kids, the iPad can provide an immersive experience, without being as delicate as Vision Pro.

Conclusion

It grinds my gears a bit when people dismiss the cameras on a tablet. No, you’re not going to use them as your primary camera. That’s not the point. They still have valid use cases beyond taking pictures in public. I just wish reviewers would use even a tiny bit of imagination to think beyond that use case.