iPad 2: Rear camera specs

I was also speaking about the rear camera, in addition to the front camera. They are both there primarily for use with FaceTime. The rear camera augments what the front camera provides during the call because you can switch from one camera to the other. For example, in the original Apple FaceTime video on the iPhone there is a soldier and his wife having a FT call while she is having a sonogram of their baby and she switches from the front camera to the rear camera so that he can see the baby on the sonogram machine's monitor.

As Glor pointed out, Apple created the camera connection kit for the iPad 1 for attaching USB still and video cameras to the iPad to upload their contents to the iPad.

I agree, augmented reality makes a lot of sense for the use of this camera.

I think I see your point. Both the cameras are there primarily for Facetime. It does seem like they missed an opportunity to make the iPad 2 more functional by not making the back camera the same higher quality as the iPhone (and I suspect the reasons were solely to get the iPad 2 as thin as possible). While I have not seen photos taken with the iPad 2 camera, if it is the same as the one on the iPod, there is a huge difference in quality (not just megapixels) compared to the the iPhone and other mobile device cameras.

Nevertheless, you have a good point, and I will refer to these as really only Facetime cameras.

As it turns out, I waited 6 hours for the iPad earlier today, the camera is not a good quality. Probably anywhere between 1 and 3 MP. Really that was the only disappointment. It is a great product, but the camera is really the only lacking feature that I see.