iPhone 14 Pro Max 14pro max. Worst camera of any iPhone.

[NT1440]

I really don’t understand this. The 14’s cameras are clearly the best Apple has ever made. Those with complaints seem to have an issue with the image processing that is done in software….

But that’s optional. There are plenty of 3rd party camera apps that are more geared towards those who want to compose their shots on device (rather than post processing, which is also an option).

So the complaint is the photography die-hards don’t like the “for dummy’s” (regular users) preset settings on the phone’s stock app. But don’t seem to consider the plethora of pro-centric camera apps an alternative?

From a hardware perspective, the notion that this is the worst iPhone camera ever is pure hyperbole.

 

[ToddH]

Thank you. This discussion interests and worries me as I'm on an iphone X and have been thinking of upgrading to the iPhone 15 Pro. I'm a photographer and warning bells are ringing when i read this thread.

I'm have some trouble understanding what "overprocessing" means in practice - could you or someone else show examples perhaps?

Thank you very much
Philip

The over sharpening spoke of is with the jpeg or HEIF files on the iPhone photos. That doesn’t happen or is greatly minimized on ProRAW files. 90% of the iPhone owners do not use ProRAW and want the iPhone to provide near perfect photos without any effort on the user to make them better. Just point and shoot. Those that aren’t photographers rely on the phone camera to do the work for them. So Apple has created an image format that applies more saturation and sharpness / extra noise reduction to the photo to please the masses. The iPhone 12 Pro had an option to turn hdr off, after that model & later iOS versions have not included that toggle switch anymore. You said you’re a photographer so you should know how to produce better photos than those that aren’t photographers. I’m a pro photographer as well, I love the 14 pro max camera, it’s very detailed and pleasing to use. Doesn’t look like a bad camera to me!!!

Taken on the iPhone 14 pro max.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Thank you. This discussion interests and worries me as I'm on an iphone X and have been thinking of upgrading to the iPhone 15 Pro. I'm a photographer and warning bells are ringing when i read this thread.

I'm have some trouble understanding what "overprocessing" means in practice - could you or someone else show examples perhaps?

Thank you very much
Philip

Philip- Do not worry. Each new iPhone Pro improves its camera. The negative experience some here report is not the phone camera, it is the individual user. Use good technique and each camera generation is clearly an improvement.

Examples of a badly shot image only means someone posted an image that they failed to capture properly. More relevant is to look at the hundreds of excellent captures Apple shows in their marketing as shot on iPhone. Those pix (and the dog pic above) show the iPhone cameras' competence in the hands of competent photogs.

 

[maxrest]

Philip- Do not worry. Each new iPhone Pro improves its camera. The negative experience some here report is not the phone camera, it is the individual user. Use good technique and each camera generation is clearly an improvement.

Examples of a badly shot image only means someone posted an image that they failed to capture properly. More relevant is to look at the hundreds of excellent captures Apple shows in their marketing as shot on iPhone. Those pix (and the dog pic above) show the iPhone cameras' competence in the hands of competent photogs.

100%! Also, they should check out the pictures taken on 14 series thread that is pinned on the iPhone section of the forums. Plenty of amazing shots on there taken from this phone.

 

[Dsmith7]

Philip- Do not worry. Each new iPhone Pro improves its camera. The negative experience some here report is not the phone camera, it is the individual user. Use good technique and each camera generation is clearly an improvement.

Examples of a badly shot image only means someone posted an image that they failed to capture properly. More relevant is to look at the hundreds of excellent captures Apple shows in their marketing as shot on iPhone. Those pix (and the dog pic above) show the iPhone cameras' competence in the hands of competent photogs.

The camera is very capable, that isn't in dispute. The post processing of images is horrible. When you take a picture that looks good in the view finder only to open gallery and see within seconds of opening the picture now seeing a blown out overstarated mess it is very disappointing. Just give us the toggle to turn off smart hdr again. Ugh

 

[ToddH]

The camera is very capable, that isn't in dispute. The post processing of images is horrible. When you take a picture that looks good in the view finder only to open gallery and see within seconds of opening the picture now seeing a blown out overstarated mess it is very disappointing. Just give us the toggle to turn off smart hdr again. Ugh

Jpeg or ProRAW? Mine don’t look terrible. Most likely poor technique. Plus I believe these complaints about image quality are from zooming into the photo way beyond 100%. It’s easy to zoom in on a 12mp jpeg / HEIF file on the iPhone and reach 600% quickly. When you zoom to view past the 100% threshold, yeah it’s going to look bad. Take the shot and double tap the screen to see the image, that’s around 100% on the iPhone with the screen resolution for a 12mp image. 48mp files from ProRAW can handle much heavier zoom.

 

[Dsmith7]

Jpeg or ProRAW? Mine don’t look terrible. Most likely poor technique. Plus I believe these complaints about image quality are from zooming into the photo way beyond 100%. When you zoom to view past the 100% threshold, yeah it’s going to look bad. Take the shot and double tap the screen to see the image, that’s around 100% on the iPhone with the screen resolutio

Jpeg or ProRAW? Mine don’t look terrible. Most likely poor technique. Plus I believe these complaints about image quality are from zooming into the photo way beyond 100%. When you zoom to view past the 100% threshold, yeah it’s going to look bad. Take the shot and double tap the screen to see the image, that’s around 100% on the iPhone with the screen resolution for a 12mp image.

Both actually.... And poor technique? am i holding the phone wrong? I said that the pictures look fine until the ai processing takes over. You sound like an apple employee who is gonna defend the product to the end. I seriously would be fine with it if they gave us back the toggle to turn off smart hdr

 

[ToddH]

Both actually.... And poor technique? am i holding the phone wrong? I said that the pictures look fine until the ai processing takes over. You sound like an apple employee who is gonna defend the product to the end. I seriously would be fine with it if they gave us back the toggle to turn off smart hdr

Perhaps you should provide an example, regular size, zoomed it at 100%, and one beyond 100%. I have provided many examples in this thread & in other threads that debunk the poor image quality complained about on the iPhone. Do you need me to show more examples and prove it again? However the samples below are not the kind of examples I provide.

HEIF from default camera roll at 600%

HEIF from NOMO RAW2 app in HEIF mode not raw. The NOMO RAW2 app looks better but at 100% they are indistinguishable. Nothing to complain about here.

If you want to have the hdr and other layers of processing removed from the iPhone JPEGs or HEIF files, then purchase the NOMO RAW2 app because it removes over sharpening, luminance, and recovers loss of detail. If you complain that you have to use an app to take photos rather than the default camera because you think it’s supposed to be great because you spent a lot of money on the iPhone, well, you have to open a camera app anyway, weather it’s the default or an app. No difference. If you want better photos from any camera, you have to put effort into achieving better photos. Sorry but There isn’t a magic camera out there. You get out of it what you put into it.

 

[JapanApple]

Good grief again with the iPhone 14 Promax camera BS. Fine, think what you like. maybe next time buy a 3,000.00 US or more camera then expect that type of result.

 

[JapanApple]

Nice! Thanks

Edit: purchased

brains of those that don't like 14 Promax cameras "NOT INCLUDED"😅

 

[izzy0242mr]

It shouldn't read that the iPhone has the worst camera because the cameras are actually really good..you do not like the processing that is automatically done and I certainly agree.

While you may be technically right, how good a camera sensor is physically doesn't matter if the processing gets in the way. This is 2023. A phone's image processing = its camera quality, unless there's a simple way to turn off that processing. If you cannot choose to disable the phone's processing, it doesn't matter how "good" the sensor is if the camera (the combined function of sensor + software) doesn't give you good photos, it's a bad camera.

 

[izzy0242mr]

I too wish that I could, without additional software, tell the phone what lens I want to use and how much after photo processing I want. But that would over complicate the camera app for the vast majority of people using the phone, I guess.

It would not.

Average iPhone users aren't going to go digging multiple layers into settings to enable a pro mode. Letting advanced users do exactly that would be a simple win for them while avoiding any confusion or complications.

But this is Apple, so slim chance of that happening…

 

[NT1440]

While you may be technically right, how good a camera sensor is physically doesn't matter if the processing gets in the way. This is 2023. A phone's image processing = its camera quality, unless there's a simple way to turn off that processing. If you cannot choose to disable the phone's processing, it doesn't matter how "good" the sensor is if the camera (the combined function of sensor + software) doesn't give you good photos, it's a bad camera.

So use different software?

 

[izzy0242mr]

So use different software?

Shouldn't have to buy a new app because Apple locks the camera down.

 

[ctjack]

So use different software?

All the software that i used back in the ip13 and earlier days ended up being a glitchy piece of crap. I also spent money on that stuff. Like give me the real analogue of native app and i would pay for that app.

 

[NT1440]

Shouldn't have to buy a new app because Apple locks the camera down.

They lock it down…by providing all the API’s needed to call the camera and develop *pro user* focused photography apps?

The serious photography people seem to be just like the spec obsessed computer users when it come to Apple. They seemingly can’t understand that Apple’s aim is to enable fantastic experience without being an expert. I find the camera app settings already way overkill, but I’m not a photography person at all.

 

[NT1440]

All the software that i used back in the ip13 and earlier days ended up being a glitchy piece of crap. I also spent money on that stuff. Like give me the real analogue of native app and i would pay for that app.

I thought people raved about the likes of Halide. What did you find lacking in that?

I’m curious if you can elaborate one what you mean by “ Like give me the real analogue of native app and i would pay for that app.” is there some private API’s for the camera that Apple is holding back from third parties?

 

[ctjack]

I thought people raved about the likes of Halide. What did you find lacking in that?

I’m curious if you can elaborate one what you mean by “ Like give me the real analogue of native app and i would pay for that app.” is there some private API’s for the camera that Apple is holding back from third parties?

I have tried halide but it would lag here and there when taking pics or going into the library to see what i took. Battery would die faster. No doubt, if I needed to take that shot then I would go to halide and do it, but using it was no fun.

Also aperture and other manual changes would make viewfinder lose fps. Currently using lightroom to take dng pics, this thing works slower than the native app.

 

[ToddH]

The 14 pro max main camera is great for astronomy & low light photography.

 

[MacCheetah3]

this is the first time I have ever contemplated switching to android. In fact I never ever thought that day would come, but this 15pm camera and the price I paid for it has left a really bitter taste unfortunately.

You won’t want to go Samsung, they are notorious for over saturation. Bold and bright photos were/are a big part of their marketing. How do you think they do that, supremely better camera sensors?
😆

Just a couple of discussions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Galaxy_S20/comments/fcnbv2

Samsung account

us.community.samsung.com

 

[Tony_Soprano]

Yeah really feels like this topic escalated mostly due to the dramatic big entrance.

The iPhone 14 Pro Max camera is the best camera hardware inside a phone, period. It is however being dragged by exaggerated processing and sometimes completely inaccurate processing. Shoot RAW!

 

[jasonsmith_88]

They lock it down…by providing all the API’s needed to call the camera and develop *pro user* focused photography apps?

The serious photography people seem to be just like the spec obsessed computer users when it come to Apple. They seemingly can’t understand that Apple’s aim is to enable fantastic experience without being an expert. I find the camera app settings already way overkill, but I’m not a photography person at all.

But you can’t set alternative camera apps as the default. This forces you to unlock your phone and hunt for the app to take a quick photo. This is made harder when combined with the fact Face ID almost never works in direct sunlight.

I also agree with you that the default camera app has way too many options. My senior mother is always getting muddled. Hundreds of combinations of options that barely anyone actually uses. Yet the one option that was actually useful - saving both the HDR and non-HDR versions of a photo - was removed a few generations ago. My iPhone XS still saves both photos and 19/20 times the non-HDR version looks better. I like having the option to save both. My XS is dying and I dread having to spend $2,000 on a new phone that’s going to take worse photos.

 

[ibookemo]

This is subjective. I’ve managed to get some of the best photos I’ve taken from the 14 Pro Max.

To be honest though, I got some super pics from the 13 Pro Max, 12 Pro and 11 when they were current too. iPhone cameras are really good in general.

Sounds like you may need to be using an SLR. Apple make certain choices with image processing that don’t suit you. That’s fine - you just need to use a different camera or even a different phone.

It’s hard to please everyone all of the time. I, for one, really do enjoy my iPhone 14 Pro Max camera. I may even keep it for another year…depending on the specs of the new one of course.

 

[ToddH]

But you can’t set alternative camera apps as the default. This forces you to unlock your phone and hunt for the app to take a quick photo. This is made harder when combined with the fact Face ID almost never works in direct sunlight.

I also agree with you that the default camera app has way too many options. My senior mother is always getting muddled. Hundreds of combinations of options that barely anyone actually uses. Yet the one option that was actually useful - saving both the HDR and non-HDR versions of a photo - was removed a few generations ago. My iPhone XS still saves both photos and 19/20 times the non-HDR version looks better. I like having the option to save both. My XS is dying and I dread having to spend $2,000 on a new phone that’s going to take worse photos.

Most of the third party photo apps can be installed as a widget on your Lock Screen. Most photo apps advertise this on the App Store in the app description. Accessing the photo app as a widget on the Lock Screen is now quick and easy just like the default camera. Probably faster than the default camera because you have to press & hold the default camera icon before it will open, whereas you would just touch the camera app in the widget location to immediately launch it. I just added NOMO RAW2 as a widget on the Lock Screen and you can select the camera (.5x, 1x, 2x, 3x) that you want to launch as the first camera, or put all camera focal lengths in the widget. This option is faster and better than opening the default camera and trying to decide which focal length you want to use.

 

[GuruZac]

you do know astro is more than just the moon right? seeing as though the moon seems to be the only photos that seemly is not "true" when taking photos with some of the other smartphones. A designated Astro mode would just eliminate some of the automatic stuff like noise reduction that would normally be done for a nice clean photo, but because you would need at least 15 seconds imo of a photo being taken all of the the automatic things happening during and after the photo is taken would need to be off

Well if you set your phone up stabilized, you can set exposure for 30 secs.
I took these with my 13 Pro in my backyard with very minor editing in the Photos app: