iPad mini IPad Mini 6, wow bad selfie camera

[3SQ Machine]

Just got the iPad mini 6 tonight. It finally came in. I’m underwhelmed.

I bought this to replace a 2-generation old iPad Air I have been using for work video calls and to have something a little more lighter and portable for casual use.

After setup, tested the iPad Mini in my home office. I tried it side-by-side with the iPad Air and was shocked at how bad the front facing camera is. It is grainy and of such lower quality than my older iPad Air. I did some test zoom calls and the older air just smokes it. Makes no sense to me that the iPad Air camera from two generations ago would be better than this brand new iPad mini. The Mini’s selfie camera reminds me of the atrocious camera on my MacBook Air ‘19.

anyone else with a new mini had a chance to try out the front facing camera for video calls and find a similar result?

 

[turbineseaplane]

How can that be?

It has a better front camera than both of the most recent iPad Airs

 

[3SQ Machine]

Agreed, I don’t get it either.

But, I figured out part of the mystery. Forcing the native wide angle view using the selfie camera makes it much more crisp. Where the problem comes in for video calls is that it appears like the iPad is doing a form of digital zoom. The effect becomes even more pronounced turning centerstage on. This zooms even more resulting in higher graininess. Since the older iPad Air does not have this feature, it is appearing more “clear“ on video calls.

now I just have to figure out how to force the iPad to transmit video on these calls without using any type of digital zoom.

One step closer at least.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I don’t get it either

Maybe a defective unit somehow?

This shouldn't even be close --- the Mini 6 FaceTime camera experience should be blowing away the one from your Air

 

[ElectronGuru]

It’s the new wide angle camera with auto cropping. Ask others with same camera on other models what they see.

 

[3SQ Machine]

It’s the new wide angle camera with auto cropping. Ask others with same camera on other models what they see.

Thanks for the tip. This is my first Apple device with these new wide angle cameras. I did some digging and I see that this camera has a smaller sensor and is noisier if the lighting isn’t just right. Added some lighting and it’s much better. Funny thing is, that same lighting makes me washed out on the older iPad Air camera—my lighting was “just right” for the older one, not enough for the new one. At least I know it’s not defective, just a “feature” of this camera. Thanks!

 

[3SQ Machine]

Here's a new weird bug -- doing a zoom call in portrait orientation with gallery view cuts off half my face! The view is "full" to the other participants but on my view I can only see half of me. I reached out to Zoom to let them know that the iPad 6 in portrait orientation has a bug. I obviously won't be able to use my new iPad mini in portrait orientation for these calls until the bug is fixed.