One of the first things I wanted to try out on the iPad 2 was the cameras. I found them to be nice to have for convenience and Facetime calls, but less than adequate for photography. Let’s face it they suck at photography when compared to my iPhone 4 and Canon G12. The iPad 2 won’t be replacing either of these anytime soon. I think that is okay, because I don’t see myself wandering around trying to catch that special moment in time wielding an iPad 2. After all it is kind of big, right?
However, the cameras are there and I might as well make the best use out of them that I can. So I launched iTunes and I looked at the iPhone and iPod touch camera apps within my app library and installed some of them onto my iPad to test.
Here are the results.
All of the following apps worked fine during my preliminary testing on the iPad 2. I did not go into heavy testing so some feature may or may not work. However, the gist of the test was to see if the apps could see the two cameras or not.
Out of the 15 apps I tested only two, ProCamera [iTunes link] and UStream [iTunes link], refused to see the cameras on the iPad 2 or just didn’t work. The rest worked fine in either 1x or 2x display mode on the iPad 2. If you are new to the iPad this is a feature on the iPad that allows you to see iPhone or iPod touch apps on your iPad in their normal sized resolution or “biggie sized” for the iPad screen in 2x mode. You simply tap the black circle labeled 1x or 2x to swap between the resolutions. Sometimes apps can look pretty bad in 2x mode, but they should still work okay.
I found that the following apps could access both the front and rear cameras with the features I tested intact.
- 8 MM – see 8MM Vintage Camera App Brings You Awesome Retro Video Effects [Review] [iTunes link]
- 10x Camera Tools Pro [iTunes link]
- QuickSnap (This app was pulled from the app store.)
- Camera Plus Pro [iTunes link]
- QuadCamera [iTunes link]
- Camera Genius iTunes link]
- Camera Plus [iTunes link]
- Camera Bag [iTunes link]
- Hipstamatic [iTunes link]
- Mirror Cam [iTunes link]
- Slow Mo [iTunes link]
- TimeLapse [iTunes link]
- UStream Broadcaster [iTunes link]
Although the iPad 2 could make a great camera its unwieldy size won’t make it a camera replacement. However, if it is in hand and you need to capture the moment it would be nice if the tools available to you would support that. So hopefully some of these application vendors will update their apps to support the iPad 2 cameras.
Have you tested any other camera apps on your iPad 2? Tell us about them and the results you had using them on an iPad 2 by leaving a comment.
David W. Martin has more than 20 years of experience in the industry as a programmer, systems and business analyst, author, and consultant. David has written for CNET’s iPhoneatlas.com, MacLife.com, CultofMac.com, BYTE.com and recently for aNewDoman.net. He comes to Cult of Mac’s website with deep knowledge and passion for the all things Apple. Follow David on Twitter @david_w_martin or see what he’s up to now at davidwmartin.com.
