Front camera and CenterStage in new iPad Pro are just unacceptably bad

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Level 1

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Front camera and CenterStage in new iPad Pro are just unacceptably bad

I have been looking forward to the new 2021 iPad Pro for so long & finally owned one. I love it except for one huge disappointing piece of hardware and an equally bad software that is introduced to cover it up. The FaceTime camera & the CenterStage software.

The FaceTime camera has been a nightmare for me even with my MacBook. For a pro device, I cannot fathom why Apple would put such a horrible piece of front camera? The wide angle camera quality is bad and the CenterStage crops the image & makes the video look so much worse. CenterStage is also quite buggy and requires so much refinements but that still cannot fix the quality problem.

With a top notch microphone in place, a good front camera would have meant, people like me could have used this device for live streaming on social media or even day to day meetings! It's 2021 & the entire world is virtual & Apple still cannot fix the fundamental problem - the position of the camera and quality of it and I really don't know what to say.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

PLEASE... Support USB cameras.

It should not be hard at all, given the iPad OS already supports external USB microphones or other USB peripherals or storage devices. So why can't USB based cameras be supported?

It solves the biggest gripes music artistes like me have with the device. We perform LIVE, teach, we engage with our fans on social media with these devices and to think I cannot use my new iPad Pro, such an expensive device, in 2021 for one of my basic needs, is really hard to digest.

Dear APPLE! Please add support for USB cameras in iPad Pro.

iPad Pro, iPadOS 14

Posted on Jun 23, 2021 1:31 AM

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Answer 1

LotusPilot

Level 10

302,210 points

Jun 23, 2021 1:59 AM in response to ganil

The Apple Support Communities are a user-to-user Technical Support forum. Other than the Moderators (who ensure that we all observe the Terms Of Use that govern participation within these Communities) and the Apple Specialists who will attempt to provide help with unanswered questions), Apple do not monitor or participate.

Apple do invite constructive feedback, comments and feature requests via their product feedback pages - this perhaps being the most appropriate channel to express your frustration and desire for external camera support.

Feedback - iPad - Apple

Similar comments to yours have been seen in the Using iPad Community, voicing disappointment in the new front ultra-wide camera and Centre Stage feature. Clearly, increasing the extreme camera field will exhibit lens distortion - this being atypical of all very wide angle lenses; image processing attempts to correct the distortion. A further function of wide angle lenses is to reduce the effective resolution of the cropped image, inevitably reducing image quality.

As the lens is fixed, without the ability to “pan”, the Centre Stage feature uses AI to crop and zoom the ultra-wide image to an appropriate frame. This feature can be disabled in iPad Settings, providing a full-frame image at the cameras native resolution.

Centre Stage clearly has its limitations - and isn’t for everyone. The new camera is not optimised for “selfie-type” image framing.

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Front camera and CenterStage in new iPad Pro are just unacceptably bad

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