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Cameras on budget tablets, what's the point?


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Old 20-10-2016, 12:07
Gusto Brunt
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A friend bought a budget tablet for £85 and it has a really nice picture on it when playing videos. It looks good too.

But the camera. By his own admission the results look like he has been filming in his front room at midnight with the curtains closed and the light off.

And that's with flash and daylight.

He's not bothered about the camera which boasts 8mp but is probably one 1 pixel.

I bought a budget tablet too, for £29, lasted me 4 months and packed up. But it was good while it lasted.

That said, the camera was blurred beyond belief. Completely unusable.
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Old 20-10-2016, 12:10
mred2000
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Cheap to implement and it ticks a box.
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Old 20-10-2016, 12:11
Gusto Brunt
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Cheap to implement and it ticks a box.
Aha, camera in name only.
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Old 20-10-2016, 12:58
howard h
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Just bought a second Lenovo 7" from Argos. Think it was £40 but cheap anyway.
It's not as pretty as my previous Lenovo, but it's been bough for one purpose only, to be used as an on-line streaming webcam for the Alfred Home Security service.

Had it going for a week now, the camera from the front's useless, but the one on the rear does the job nicely! So there's your answer - cheap but useful camera!!

Wonder how many are now buying cheap tablets/phones simply to use as home security cameras?
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Old 20-10-2016, 13:43
Gusto Brunt
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Just bought a second Lenovo 7" from Argos. Think it was £40 but cheap anyway.
It's not as pretty as my previous Lenovo, but it's been bough for one purpose only, to be used as an on-line streaming webcam for the Alfred Home Security service.

Had it going for a week now, the camera from the front's useless, but the one on the rear does the job nicely! So there's your answer - cheap but useful camera!!

Wonder how many are now buying cheap tablets/phones simply to use as home security cameras?
Glad to hear yours is acceptable.
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Old 20-10-2016, 14:53
howard h
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Glad to hear yours is acceptable.
Well it is for what I want it for; for decent video on my hols I use a £450+ Panny 4k job. Ain't using that just to see mum hasn't fallen over....
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Old 20-10-2016, 18:00
Gusto Brunt
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Well it is for what I want it for; for decent video on my hols I use a £450+ Panny 4k job. Ain't using that just to see mum hasn't fallen over....
Oh I see. Well as I said, most of the budget tablets I've seen, nobody bothers with the camera. Shouldn't even be a feature. As much use as a chocolate fireplace.
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Old 20-10-2016, 18:04
Mandark
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Oh I see. Well as I said, most of the budget tablets I've seen, nobody bothers with the camera. Shouldn't even be a feature. As much use as a chocolate fireplace.
As has been said, it's a marketing tick box. It's probably assumed that everyone wants a camera in their tablet, premium or budget) these days.
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Old 20-10-2016, 19:46
Gusto Brunt
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As has been said, it's a marketing tick box. It's probably assumed that everyone wants a camera in their tablet, premium or budget) these days.
I guess it's the same with budget phones. Often a waste of time having a camera.

I think a camera needs to be at least 5mp for decent pictures. The iphone and ipads are 16mp, right?
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Old 21-10-2016, 00:04
howard h
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I guess it's the same with budget phones. Often a waste of time having a camera.

I think a camera needs to be at least 5mp for decent pictures. The iphone and ipads are 16mp, right?
Not necessarily. 20mp doesn't make a better camera than 10mp - at least that's what I read from the "experts", it's all about the quality within. Anyone help with that??
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Old 21-10-2016, 02:13
zz9
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I have the £140 Linx 1010 Windows 10 tablet and the camera is useful for work/office/school type stuff. Like using it to scan documents or images that you can then use in Onenote. Or to video a lecture or presentation while you are taking notes in Onenote, and onenote will synch the video up with your notes so when you read your notes you can tap on a line and it will play the video that was recorded the exact time you made the note.
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Old 21-10-2016, 10:55
Mandark
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Not necessarily. 20mp doesn't make a better camera than 10mp - at least that's what I read from the "experts", it's all about the quality within. Anyone help with that??
I agree, the megapixel race is generally over now and there seems to be more of a desire to install the better quality components like sensors that you find in standalone cameras.
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Old 21-10-2016, 20:20
clonmult
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I agree, the megapixel race is generally over now and there seems to be more of a desire to install the better quality components like sensors that you find in standalone cameras.
Although the current crop of phones have pretty good cameras, they still aren't as good as the stupidly large/high resolution sensors Nokia put on the 808 and 1020.

Standalone compact cameras effectively have mobile phone sized sensors in them - its only when you get into the micro 4/3rds and compact system cameras that you get a decent sized sensor.

My son has a 10" lenovo tablet, it was pretty cheap - camera on that isn't that good in low light, but in reasonable light its quite good. The front camera is also pretty good, definitely good enough for video calling - which is probably the main use for them.
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Old 22-10-2016, 11:23
Gusto Brunt
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Interesting comments. Many thanks.
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