Android Tablet, Section 2

For posting on the 'net or sending to another iPhone the Apple cameras are pretty good. Lost of things are fixed in the camera software. Only a tiny fraction of pictures taken are ever printed out. However, these camera are only about 8 very tiny megapixels. A decent digital camera from about 8 years ago will probably beat them every time.

The cameras in Android devices seem to compare poorly in quality compared to Apple stuff. My phone and tablets have mediocre cameras and I don't use them very much at all (pretty much never on the tablets). But then I never bought any phone or tablet based on the quality of the camera.

IMO, I would be fine with phones and tablets that didn't have cameras if they used the space and engineering effort on improving the rest of the tablet performance (e.g. enlarge the battery a bit, bigger wifi or GPS antenna).
 
Jim, I agree 100%, and the camera is certainly not the primary reason. In working on this project, (which it really is coming to be), I have found cameras in a range of 1.5 meg all the way up to 8meg. My Camera of choice currently is a Canon SX50HS. Too big for a pocket camera so I guess that is where the phone comes in now, as my Pentax waterproof died last spring. I have packed tons of SLR's, lights and lenses for a very long time, and have pared down to one little camera with a fairly good reach and pretty portable.

"The camera you have with you" has paid off many times for me and that is why I am looking for a good (reasonable at least) camera on the tablet.

As to boats, well being honest, I always recommend a C-Dory. :thup 8)

Thank you for the reminder. I had thought to replace that little Pentax belt camera, and had forgotten about that. Might have another project on the way.

One of my uses for a tablet is to convert my music from CD to some sort of portable device. No, I don't have an I-pad so although I have a couple hundred CD's on my lap top, it is not really a portable music source (car, boat, mc and truck.) Looks like I have some more learning to do there too.

Again, thanks, always look forward to your comments and your pictures.

Harvey
SleepyC:moon

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Harvey, I found a good use for my iTouch. I have all my CD's and a few of my records (yeah, I still have a lot of vinyl!) converted to MP4 files, and loaded on my iTouch. Very convenient and much smaller than carrying around a CD case (or 3)! Most modern radios now days have the AUX input I can plug it into. I also have some of my music on my iPad, and just a few albums I like on my iPhone. So if I get tired of FM radio, and still want to hear music, I usually have one of those three with me. ;-) (Of course I also have everything loaded on my PC, but just much easier to play from one of the i's.) Colby
 
Caution, the following statement is opinion only, specifically, MY OPINION!

"Photography is much more about subject and photographer than camera."

The best camera I have ever owned was a used Rolleiflex from the 60s that I accepted in payment of a debt I was having difficulty collecting. I loved that thing and took some awesome photographs with it. Finally, with parts becoming difficult to find and digital cameras dominating the market, I gave it up. I now own an expensive Nikon that I seldom use due to the excellent capability of my smart phone. Obviously, there are things the phone cannot do, so I do drag out the Nikon occasionally, but the phone is always in my pocket!
 
When I bought my current iPhone, the young lady in the Apple Store went on and on about how "the camera takes good pictures."

She went on to say, "I do professional photography on the side, and my iPhone is all I use anymore."

Genius? Not hardly. If all you are ever going to do is look at the photo on your phone, I'm sure that will be adequate. BUT, if you want to take a photo of any action that isn't up close (think: sporting event, kids playing, whales breaching, wildlife of any kind, distant scenery, sunsets, buddy boating, ), good luck getting a decent image with any phone or tablet.

While I will agree, it is the shooter who controls the camera (because I have never found a camera that "takes good pictures"), if the action is too far away, you can't "zoom" with a phone, you can only crop. The more you crop, the crappier the image becomes. The more you crop, the more obvious it is that you didn't have a fast enough shutter speed to control the movement.

That said, do I use my phone as a camera? Sure. There are times when I don't carry a camera, but I almost always carry my phone. Do I wish I had a real camera with me at that same moment? Absolutely.

Some of you know what I do all summer. I shake my head when I see people trying to take whale photos with their phones while on our whale watch boats. At best, they get a "dot", but generally get a photo of water where a whale had been a moment ago. Not much of a memory, but I suppose it is better than nothing.

It isn't about the "megapixels" - it is about the photographer's ability to capture the image and control the exposure. You need "good glass" (the proper lens), and enough "light gathering" (combination of ISO/shutter speed/aperture) to get a crisp image. Nice to be able to decide if you are focusing near or far, so you can control the depth of field. With that in mind, and comparing a phone camera to a real camera, we aren't talking SLR capabilities here... you are looking at Aunt Mary's old 110 camera. It usually got an image, but it was seldom great. And if it was, it was because of the circumstances, not the camera.

Phone cameras have brought photography to the least common denominator. They are the "Twinkies" of photography... a nice DSLR is a 5 course meal. Most any pocket camera that has a zoom and some exposure control will blow away a phone camera.

Yabut, I can make it a square or use an app to make it look like an old timey photo or blur the edges... because that is why we take photos... said no one, ever.

Jim

Not a rant. Really. I'm sitting on the couch with a nasty cold. Armed with an opinion and a pretty good background in photography. :wink:
 
I came back from Hong Kong with a brand new Nikon D3300. It will be with me whenever I am expecting to be taking pictures, like the safari to Africa that is in the planning stages for next year. The rest of the time, my iPhone 5s is always in my pocket for the unexpected, like what I see when taking Baxter for his morning walks!
 
I spent a fair time this summer up on the NE side of Vancouver Island. Happened to find some good photo opportunities for both Bears and Whales. One of the best pix I didn't get was when a humpback surfaced very close to my boat, and the phone wasn't quick or close enough.

Jim is right on the difference between zoom and crop. In my experience cropping used to make the subject closer or bigger, which as Jim is saying, turns into pixilating, which is really turning the picture (cropping) to crapping.

Much better to have and use longer lenses, or zooms, or get closer to your subject. Agreed, if you are only looking at your pix on your phone or email it doesn't make much difference what you take the picture with. The difference comes when you start looking at enlargements 8x10 and up.

That's why a 5 meg camera on an 8 inch glass can look ok, but a 12 or 16 or higher meg camera will easily go up to 16x24 or 30x40.

Jim, sorry about your cold. Up here, we just have cold, sort of.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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In the end, something I've learned in my riper, older age. A camera, no matter how good it is, can never catch the same view that your eyeball does. I don't take as many photos anymore. (Besides, when it comes to scenery, I've already got photos of most the places anyway.) Sometimes it's just nice to spend the time looking at the scenery, instead of trying to capture it. Colby[/i]
 
Harvey

fyi

http://www.walmart.com/ip/45804405?u1=V ... 10&veh=aff

Walmart offers the RCA 16GB 7" Quad-Core Android Tablet in four colors (Purple pictured), model no. RCT6773W42BF C, for $39.99. Opt for in-store pickup to avoid the $4.97 shipping charge. That's tied with our mention from a week ago, $20 off list, and the lowest price we could find. It features a 7" display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, WiFi, microUSB, and Android 5.0 OS (Lollipop).

$40
 
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