This is nothing new, good hardware, mediocre software, sadly it's been the trend since Cook.
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iPhone 14 Pro Max 14pro max. Worst camera of any iPhone.
- Thread starter King_Kimbo
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I dont agree but one thing i really dislike is the macro always triggering due to the main sensor. The 13 Pro Max had a better experience.
Nothing beats the 14 Pro Max RAW images edited in lightroom though. My S23 Ultra cant even compete with Pro Raw.
Nothing beats the 14 Pro Max RAW images edited in lightroom though. My S23 Ultra cant even compete with Pro Raw.
Damn and here I was thinking my 14 PM takes awesome shots. Maybe I don’t have an eye for photography but I’ve been really happy with the pictures coming from my phone. Even more than my cousins’ S23U in certain cases (not zoom) where colors look way too saturated.
When the 13 pro, and pro max came out, it was the worse camera. Now the 14 is. I’m sure the 15 will be the worst camera too.😆
I don’t work with professional photography, but as a hobbyist I love both the Pixel AND iPhone cameras. There’s flaws with both, for sure, but I feel I get my money’s worth.
“14pro max. Worst camera of any iPhone.”
Yeah, definitely. The iPhone 3GS camera was WAAAAAAAAAAY BETTER!!!
Yeah, definitely. The iPhone 3GS camera was WAAAAAAAAAAY BETTER!!!
And I think you like both because the flaws in each are not as apparent as the other. The iPhone has amazing optics that has already been talked about across the board and the Pixel is just unmatched the software processing. I know that I was always a fan of iPhone because it gave really good true to life colors while others were big in the saturation and vivid colors which is more eye catchy, but just look back at those older phone photos from those phones and they just don't hold well today. I still have photos from my 3G and honestly besides very low megapixel count they photos hold pretty well, but there was no post processing done to the photos automatically back then. Having RAW support helps a lot with the iPhones current picture problem, but realistically that's for photos you can plan where most of the time it is point and shoot photos and I have many pictures (mostly when the sun is involved, but living in SoCal I can't avoid it lol) where the HDR effect is just far too much.
I had to go from my 14 Pro Max back to a refurbished 12 Pro Max due to pwm sensitivity and I must say one benefit to the “downgrade” (or is it “retrograde”) is that I have photos with accurate color and they look natural and not over contrasted and sharpened.
My daughter was so frustrated with her 14 Pro enough she was thinking to get her iPhone XR back in action. But now she’s going to wait for the iPhone 15 and see if it’s less screwy. She’s not a pro photographer by any means.
She just wants nice photos of her friends and her travels and she says she will see how nice a shot was captured and then the processing changes it before her eyes into something she doesn’t recognize. She won’t shoot in pro RAW because she doesn’t have the time to go through and edit and convert all her photos into ones she can share.
I have an S23 Ultra and maybe my camera is defective or something but I wasn’t blown away by how it handles automatic exposure. I got some really messed up looking blurry prom pictures and graduation pictures out of it, so I just kept on using my 14 Pro Max. (I didn’t have the 12 pro Max at the time).
I use the s23 Ultra more for outdoor vacation photos. For the beach, it is excellent and the zoom is great to get seagulls and shorebirds I can’t get close to.
My daughter was so frustrated with her 14 Pro enough she was thinking to get her iPhone XR back in action. But now she’s going to wait for the iPhone 15 and see if it’s less screwy. She’s not a pro photographer by any means.
She just wants nice photos of her friends and her travels and she says she will see how nice a shot was captured and then the processing changes it before her eyes into something she doesn’t recognize. She won’t shoot in pro RAW because she doesn’t have the time to go through and edit and convert all her photos into ones she can share.
I have an S23 Ultra and maybe my camera is defective or something but I wasn’t blown away by how it handles automatic exposure. I got some really messed up looking blurry prom pictures and graduation pictures out of it, so I just kept on using my 14 Pro Max. (I didn’t have the 12 pro Max at the time).
I use the s23 Ultra more for outdoor vacation photos. For the beach, it is excellent and the zoom is great to get seagulls and shorebirds I can’t get close to.
I think the OP is overreacting here. Sure, you may not like the processing of some of the images but it's far from being the "worst" camera. Lol 😆
Contrary to some of the believe here, the iPhone 14 Pro does produce some of the most natural looking photos amongst all the flagships. It has it flaws obviously. Like producing subpar dynamic range in certain photos or making overly sharp photos. But it's far—far!— from being terrible.
Here is a comparison to support my claim:
Contrary to some of the believe here, the iPhone 14 Pro does produce some of the most natural looking photos amongst all the flagships. It has it flaws obviously. Like producing subpar dynamic range in certain photos or making overly sharp photos. But it's far—far!— from being terrible.
Here is a comparison to support my claim:
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I think a comparison of 13 PM and 14 PM can help here. Overreacting is an understatement for the forums.
I certainly agree with not the worst by a long shot, but you have to admit that over the years the aggressiveness of the various image edits that Apple has implemented has been happening. Ive had nearly every iteration of the iphone since the beginning and I can see scrolling through my years of iPhones the difference. I 100% agree that overall the photos are better, but within recent years the sharpening and HDR is getting to be too much, I think iPhone 11-12 processing with current optics would be a sweet spot.
Even compared with the 13 P/PM they both produce virtually similar photos. The 14 P/PM produce somewhat more natural colors in most situations.
I wouldn't say it's as bad as the OP is making it out to be. Sure. I've seen better (darn Pixel phones) but it's OK. Anyway. sadly, I will be departing the sunlit uplands of Appletania, and will become a Googleonian from early October. The Pixel 8 pro has got my tech juices flowing. I've grown a bit bored of Apple and their tiny, year on year incremental improvements just to reel in the punters, and then charge you handsomely for the privilege - plus, those iPhone colours this year! Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus. How exciting.
No way, the processing is much better on the 14 Pro / Pro Max than it was on the XS, 11 and 12 series.
Don't forget to use Photographic Styles to add more tone/contrast/warmth to your shots if that's what you like. After honing in on settings I like, I'm getting the best shots I've ever gotten on an iPhone.
Don't forget to use Photographic Styles to add more tone/contrast/warmth to your shots if that's what you like. After honing in on settings I like, I'm getting the best shots I've ever gotten on an iPhone.
I completely share your viewpoint. I previously used a Samsung S21+ which captured significantly better photos than my 14PM. I employ a workaround to address some of the excessive processing by selecting Live images. After taking the photo, I edit it and select a frame of my preference from the live photo settings. While this does result in a slight loss of framing, it's a definite improvement over the original overprocessed appearance.
These are also baked into your image and while you may like them now..will you hold the same thought in a year or more? I think OP is really just wanting a good balanced overall photo leave the creative stuff to the user like with what you mentioned or using RAWs or just using the built in editor in the photos app. Plus it is a lot to ask for someone to fix a problem by making photographic styles for all situations or majority situations.
Thanks for posting this. There clearly is tension between the autoprocessing Apple programs for people like me who have no understanding of the settings involved (and no desire to learn anything about those settings), and for those who do understand and recognize the impact of that processing. I have the 14 Pro and am happy with the quality. There are times when I do adjust the quality of certain pictures in Photoshop, it is rare and I am usually happy with what it gives me. I think the fact that the phone is labeled as PRO supports your argument against so much autoprocessing. That said, I still appreciate being able to live in ignorance and get good pictures.
Unfortunately, you chose the wrong product. iPhone is not a special tool to be relied upon when doing business - it is never meant to replace the actual real camera. For your commercial estate property with led shots the real camera would be better as well to picture the behind the scenes as you said.
For us, iphone is a great addition cause people don’t mind taking pics of kids, pets and nature with an iphone. My 2011 mirrorless camera is couple time better than the latest iphone’s camera but its size is 3x bigger than pro max. For me iphone is an additional backup camera that works good with kids on a 1 hand - no way i am taking pics with a kid and a dslr.
For us, iphone is a great addition cause people don’t mind taking pics of kids, pets and nature with an iphone. My 2011 mirrorless camera is couple time better than the latest iphone’s camera but its size is 3x bigger than pro max. For me iphone is an additional backup camera that works good with kids on a 1 hand - no way i am taking pics with a kid and a dslr.
I have taken great photos with my 14 Pro Max and find it to be a significant improvement overall to my previous 12 Pro Max. I do notice that sometimes when my preview images of live photos first appear, they look better overall to me than the finished product that shows up afterward, which adds contrast and edge enhancement. Seems like ProRAW should fix this, but that just gives me the overprocessed finished product rather than teasing me with the quick view of the preview version I like better. I guess this is similar to what OP is saying, so I get it. Overall I wish there were more options in the default camera app to manage image processing.
But OP never stated the the iPhone in general was a poor camera, but a poor upgrade as OP states that they had previous versions and basically preferred the straight out of camera photos of those compared to now back when there was less automatic processing. I agree with you though as someone who prefers using my mirrorless camera, but when I am with my kid that is much harder, but there have been a good number of photos (usually with the sun in the background) that the processing just went overboard and prefer the image you can see if you click on a photo and that like half a second before the processing kicks in I would have preferred that image prior to the processing. Over the years Deep Fusion is just getting more and more aggressive compared to say like the iPhone 11 Pro. I really actually noticed this a while back since my brother has the 12 Pro Max and we were taking photos side by side and yeah I had some good ones I was happy with and some that were just too much especially with seeing the differences right there.
Edit: adding that specifically for me it is Smart HDR that I have a problem with. Even Halide posted an example of what may be going on. Subjects are "smartly" being made brighter and sharper and the only way to stop it is using RAW, well not every shot needs/should be taken in RAW on a smartphone especially like you said wanting photos of your kids without baked in processing happening. Smart HDR seems to mainly get messed up with there is a human in either a darker environment or a really bright environment, and it isn't every lens that has the issue. So yes in my opinion inconsistency in the 14 Pro phone processing is a problem.
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Agreed, but watching even 1 comparison video on youtube from maxtech would reveal that "natural" photos are long gone since XS, XR and less 11 - everything from Iphone 12 is beatufied. That is how i buy my phones - at least get some ideas over reviews written or recorded.
I also like the looks before it kicks in with the effects of AI. But I also like driving my car and Subaru has only controlled cars with the "eyes" right now. So it looks like the world is just turning into something automatic and pre-selected for us.
It is sad obviously, but people above said that you can buy an app for 13 bucks that would solve the problem.
+1!!! I was so disappointed with my iPhone 14 Pro’s pictures and now hope iOS 17 dials back some of the overprocessing. Looks worst than my 13 Pro tbh