Tablet cameras are rarely a primary purchasing factor, but the differences here are worth understanding. The most notable gap is on the main shooter: the Xiaomi Pad 8 offers a 13 MP rear camera versus the Oppo Pad 5's 8 MP. More megapixels alone don't guarantee better photos, but they do allow for greater detail retention when cropping images — useful for scanning documents, capturing whiteboards, or shooting subjects at a distance. Both tablets cap video at 4K at 30fps, and share an identical 8 MP front camera, so video calls and selfies are on equal footing.
Beyond resolution, the two devices diverge in opposite directions on secondary features. The Oppo Pad 5 supports slow-motion video recording, which the Xiaomi lacks — handy for capturing fast-moving subjects or creative video work. The Xiaomi, on the other hand, includes in-camera panorama shooting, absent on the Oppo, making it slightly more versatile for wide landscape or interior shots. Both cameras share the same manual controls — ISO, white balance, exposure, and focus — as well as continuous autofocus during recording, HDR mode, and a video light, so the feature parity is high outside of those two specific differentiators.
Given the shared video ceiling and identical front camera, the Xiaomi Pad 8 holds a modest edge in this category primarily due to its higher-resolution main sensor. The Oppo's slow-motion capability is a genuine differentiator for video-focused users, but for general tablet camera use, more megapixels on the rear lens gives the Xiaomi a slight practical advantage in still image detail.