Apple made us wait for a camera on the iPad, but when it came, they gave us not one, but two of them. Yep, there’re both front- and back-facing cameras on the new tactile tablet. Self-portraits, video-calls (or Face-Timing, in Apple-speak), and photos taken with a device measuring 24×17.5cm are go. And so is Photo Booth. I do like Photo Booth. I can turn myself all Andy Warhol.

The back camera has a 5x digital zoom and 720p HD video recording capability to 30fps with audio. The front camera gives you VGA-quality stills and VGA video at 30fps with audio. Exposure is touch-controlled, and when you want to manipulate your Photo Booth images that’s done with touch, too.

Seeing as you can make videos on this here iPad2, you can edit them with iMovie. Makes sense. Then you can share them on YouTube or Vimeo or FaceBook or, or, or…

Front- and back-facing cameras for 'Face-Timing'

I was terribly restrained when the original iPad came out and repeatedly told myself that no, I really didn’t need one. But I’m not so sure I can convince myself otherwise with this shiny beast. Especially as Apple have said that it’ll be shipping at the same price as iPad version 1. And it comes in white from day 1. And it’s 33% thinner than the original one. And I’m just going to shut up now.

iPad2, available 11 March 2011, starting at $499. All the details from Apple.