New phenomena of tablet computer cameras with LF-like viewing

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Vickko

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I've been at a couple of my son's school events and seeing parents beside me, using tablet computers to shoot their kids. What struck me was seeing the "better than LF" huge viewing, with tablet computer cameras.

It sure makes an impression, to see an almost 8x10 live view of the image that you are going to take, with none of the inconvenience, and, dimness, of a LF with hood and tripod and all that LF stuff.

And made standing there with my M9 and viewfinder, "small".

Have you run across this?
 
I was at a winter road-rally a few weeks back and a guy was shooting video of the cars using a full-size iPad. I was standing behind him so could see what he was photographing. An impressive image for sure, though it struck me that holding an iPad at arm's length would be both clumsy and tiring.

Jim B.
 
Kind of interesting, perhaps more so if your eyesight is not perfect. I can see the attraction of attaching an iPad to a pro camera as a tethering solution. I have seen a few people take photos with iPads, it's a slightly odd spectacle, and I wonder to myself how big a device would have to be before they decided against it, a 10" iPad, 14"? 21"?
 
I've had this same thought too... then I remember the sensor is tinier than a consumer P&S.
 
I snapped a few pics with my Asus TF700 on my last vacation and yeah you do get a larger preview picture but it is a low resolution so you dont see many details for instance when the tablet is focusing. I have found this to be the case with the ipad too, the preview image is not nearly as detailed as a final image would be.

Now if I could get my pad with its full HD screen hooked up to my DSLR for commercial photo shoots that would be nice.
 
^ what jsrockit said. Big screen and real-time viewing is nice, but the sensor is tiny. Plus, to me, it just looks a little clumsy waving a tablet around in the air.

But sure, I'd have to admit it has its advantages.
 
I like using the IPad at high ISO with B@W photography indoors. Resolution is not everything in photography. It is final image that counts.
 
the iPad is ideally suited for aerial photography between two people (tossing).. imagine the lomographic shots you could get!
 
When you try tethering your camera to a large screen you don't go back to other solutions, at least not for still life but to get around I find a bit cumbersome to say the least and tablets' picture are not good enough for me...at least not yet, I learn that with technology one should never close the door to possibilities and Samsung is already making a strange hybrid...

GLF
 
No way.
Comparing a flat picture (small sensor) with the real layers of depth that you perceive... no, *experience* when you compose via a ground glass does not work at all. Not for me anyway.
 
I saw this on our vacation in Italy. A busload of people making pictures with i-tablets. Probably putting them on their web pages as soon as they are back on the bus. It's a new behavior for sure.
Image quality? . . . good enough for the web.

I also saw this is museums and art galleries and then it becomes very very annoying. Lots of people up front holding i-tablets over each others heads and in front of your face. . . serious disturbs the ambiance, you know !

EDIT: for daylight viewing, shouldn't they have black cloths over their heads ?
 
If is already possible to control Canon SLR and Samsung mirrorless cameras (and I imagine many others) through an app on a tablet using wireless or 3G. Very useful tech and good enough image quality for many/most uses.
 
i love taking photos around the house with my somewhat cr*ppy non-apple tablet, the huge viewfinder is great and you can position it in ways you can't position a normal camera body.

i haven't tried it in public, though, i'll wait until the full frame tablets come out to do that, lol.
 
There´s got to be an app that dims the screen, flips the sides of the image and turns it upside down so you can get under a dark cloth and compose like a man :). And you´ll definitely want to clip screen corners to check for vignetting :D

Seriously, a wireless "tether" from a real camera to a tablet for live view/preview would be great for studio stuff. Probably there´s a camera that can do this already. I´ve tried tethered shooting on a few occasions with the old 40D via USB cord to a laptop but the cord and computer kept getting in the way. With a tablet, you could just clamp it to a tripod leg and not worry about having a table or a laptop tray you could knock over or lengthy cords to get tangled in.

I think there was a high end MF digital back that allowed an iPhone to be used as a control interface.

Edit: j_j´s post above proves my ignorance of the modern things :) so the tech is ready and works
 
You can use your smartphone, too. And with a 3D lens maybe even shadowfox would come on board?
 
There is no faster way to shoot, edit, and upload simple pieces than do it all on a tablet. That must be the main attraction.
 
The iPad mini has the same 5Mpixel camera that the iPhone 4 has. It's a darn good little camera, backed up by several apps that allow greater control of its capabilities and some very good editing software.

A quick snap while watching television this morning:

bears_tvjpg.jpg

iPad mini - edited with SnapSeed - uploaded with DropBox​

I rendered as slightly grainy B&W and put in the border with Snapseed ... the original is rather a little bit too smooth a rendering for my druthers.

It's less clumsy in the hand than trying to make photos with the full size iPad, and a higher resolution camera than my iPad 2 has (the newer models of the full size iPad have the upgraded camera too).

Like with any small-sensor camera, there are plusses and minuses. Best to have good light, a fixture for holding it steadily, and learn to work with deep DoF rather than try to go for the current vogue of shallow DoF ...

G
 
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