iPhone 13 Iphone 13 Abysmal Video Quality?

[JippaLippa]

Hello, everyone

I'm a very loyal Apple user, therefore there's no phone for me other than the iPhone, and I recently upgraded from an Iphone XR to a 13 and I love it.
Everything about the phone is amazing, especially the screen (once again, coming from the very cheaply made XR).
There's one thing that left me quite perplexed though, and it's the video recording quality.

I'm an animator and I have a decent background in camera tech and video formats and I'm well aware of the physical limitations a small smartphone sensor has, however despite not expecting any Hollywood quality I was extremely disappointed with the video quality of the iPhone, specifically with the strong grain that's present even in very sunny and adequately lit environments.
I cannot seem to be able to get any clip that's not plagued by a very noticeable noise that makes 4K footage looks sub-1080p (I triple checked it's actually recording in 4K); I have been shooting lots of clips in the last week and I wasn't able to get a single usable one without the garbled mess in the shadows.
To be fair it doesn't look noticeably better than my previous XR (except for the HDR colours in Dolby Vision perhaps)
The situation is bad outside, however if you shoot any sort of video in an interior, no matter how well lit it is, is a complete mess of macroblocking and noise.
I contemplated the purchase of an iPhone Pro, for the prores recording, which would be undeniably better, but I'm not sure how much of an improvement it would be as it seems the problem is just because of the sensors themselves.
I even tried shooting in S-Log V2 with the extreme quality preset in the FilmicPro app, but it's still so noisy.

I'd just like to know if I should surrender to the fact it's impossible to get sharp footage from a smartphone (genuine sharpness, not the garish digital sharpening); as said before I'm very satisfied with every other aspect of my new phone, so I don't fel like my purchase wasn't worth it....but I can't deny I feel a bit confused in seeing how many reviewers praised the video quality of the iPhone.

Is my unit defective or is it just the way it is? If the latter is true, I guess I'll surrender to the fact I'll have to save for a decent camera.

Cheers.

 

[akash.nu]

On YouTube you’ll find plenty of footages to compare against. Did you try to upload your video to YouTube in 4K and do a side by side comparison?

 

[Pilot Jones]

It sounds like your problems are a lot more intense than the leeway most people would give to the physical limitations of a smartphone camera. Should test a bit more though to be absolutely sure.

You may very well have received a defective unit. Try doing a side-by-side with another iPhone yourself in an environment where your phone performs poorly (maybe some friends or family could help out with theirs) and see what the result is.

 

[JippaLippa]

It sounds like your problems are a lot more intense that the leeway most people would give to the physical limitations of a smartphone camera. Should test a bit more though to be absolutely sure.

You may very well have received a defective unit. Try doing a side-by-side with another iPhone yourself in an environment where your phone performs poorly (maybe some friends or family could help out with theirs) and see what the result is.

I'll try to upload some video files.

 

[Fred Zed]

I can’t say that my eyes see a better results compared to how my previous iPhone 12 PM l. I find low light videography more grainier but I attribute that to perhaps have 4k 60 set this time as opposed to 1080 60 on my previous iPhone. ?

 

[stanle1]

Hello, everyone

I'm a very loyal Apple user, therefore there's no phone for me other than the iPhone, and I recently upgraded from an Iphone XR to a 13 and I love it.
Everything about the phone is amazing, especially the screen (once again, coming from the very cheaply made XR).
There's one thing that left me quite perplexed though, and it's the video recording quality.

I'm an animator and I have a decent background in camera tech and video formats and I'm well aware of the physical limitations a small smartphone sensor has, however despite not expecting any Hollywood quality I was extremely disappointed with the video quality of the iPhone, specifically with the strong grain that's present even in very sunny and adequately lit environments.
I cannot seem to be able to get any clip that's not plagued by a very noticeable noise that makes 4K footage looks sub-1080p (I triple checked it's actually recording in 4K); I have been shooting lots of clips in the last week and I wasn't able to get a single usable one without the garbled mess in the shadows.
To be fair it doesn't look noticeably better than my previous XR (except for the HDR colours in Dolby Vision perhaps)
The situation is bad outside, however if you shoot any sort of video in an interior, no matter how well lit it is, is a complete mess of macroblocking and noise.
I contemplated the purchase of an iPhone Pro, for the prores recording, which would be undeniably better, but I'm not sure how much of an improvement it would be as it seems the problem is just because of the sensors themselves.
I even tried shooting in S-Log V2 with the extreme quality preset in the FilmicPro app, but it's still so noisy.

I'd just like to know if I should surrender to the fact it's impossible to get sharp footage from a smartphone (genuine sharpness, not the garish digital sharpening); as said before I'm very satisfied with every other aspect of my new phone, so I don't fel like my purchase wasn't worth it....but I can't deny I feel a bit confused in seeing how many reviewers praised the video quality of the iPhone.

Is my unit defective or is it just the way it is? If the latter is true, I guess I'll surrender to the fact I'll have to save for a decent camera.

Cheers.

Unfortunately I noticed exactly the same problem. Try turning HDR (Dolby Vision) OFF or changing to 30 fps with Dolby Vision enabled. The quality of 4K 60fps Dolby Vision recordings is a joke. For me its unusable.
I rather stick with HDR of and 60fps for razor sharp videos

 

[Tsepz]

Hello, everyone

I'm a very loyal Apple user, therefore there's no phone for me other than the iPhone, and I recently upgraded from an Iphone XR to a 13 and I love it.
Everything about the phone is amazing, especially the screen (once again, coming from the very cheaply made XR).
There's one thing that left me quite perplexed though, and it's the video recording quality.

I'm an animator and I have a decent background in camera tech and video formats and I'm well aware of the physical limitations a small smartphone sensor has, however despite not expecting any Hollywood quality I was extremely disappointed with the video quality of the iPhone, specifically with the strong grain that's present even in very sunny and adequately lit environments.
I cannot seem to be able to get any clip that's not plagued by a very noticeable noise that makes 4K footage looks sub-1080p (I triple checked it's actually recording in 4K); I have been shooting lots of clips in the last week and I wasn't able to get a single usable one without the garbled mess in the shadows.
To be fair it doesn't look noticeably better than my previous XR (except for the HDR colours in Dolby Vision perhaps)
The situation is bad outside, however if you shoot any sort of video in an interior, no matter how well lit it is, is a complete mess of macroblocking and noise.
I contemplated the purchase of an iPhone Pro, for the prores recording, which would be undeniably better, but I'm not sure how much of an improvement it would be as it seems the problem is just because of the sensors themselves.
I even tried shooting in S-Log V2 with the extreme quality preset in the FilmicPro app, but it's still so noisy.

I'd just like to know if I should surrender to the fact it's impossible to get sharp footage from a smartphone (genuine sharpness, not the garish digital sharpening); as said before I'm very satisfied with every other aspect of my new phone, so I don't fel like my purchase wasn't worth it....but I can't deny I feel a bit confused in seeing how many reviewers praised the video quality of the iPhone.

Is my unit defective or is it just the way it is? If the latter is true, I guess I'll surrender to the fact I'll have to save for a decent camera.

Cheers.

Could very well be the sensors, is the iPhone 13 using the exact same main sensor as 13 Pro and Pro Max?
I’ll be honest I never watch the reviews of standard models as I typically go for Max devices.

I’ve been quite happy with my 11 Pro Max video quality for the most part (usually shoot in 4K @ 30FPS with Auto-Low Light FPS enabled) except when I shoot in dark environments which all smartphones seems to struggle with.

Where iPhone seems to do the best is Auto Focus in videos and stability, in my experience, it always impresses me.

Maybe the standard 13’s struggle is having less lenses to capture more detail with? Someone correct me if I am wrong.

 

[JippaLippa]

I'm having quite better results by using filmic pro and recording in 10-bit log3, then using a lut conversion inside after effects.
That said I'm still a bit disappointed with the noise levels, especially the ultra wide, which is unusable.
I'd appreciate more apple improving the ultra wide sensor rather than having a main 48 megapixel camera that would cause an even bigger difference in quality between that and the ultrawide

 

[Tsepz]

I'm having quite better results by using filmic pro and recording in 10-bit log4, then using a lut conversion inside after effects.
That said I'm still a bit disappointed with the noise levels, especially the ultra wide, which is unusable.
I'd appreciate more apple improving the ultra wide sensor rather than having a main 48 megapixel camera that would cause an even bigger difference in quality between that and the ultrawide

I don’t think Apple have improved the Ultrawide since the iPhone 11 series lol, hopefully they do indeed work on it in the 14.
They seem to be overly reliant on post processing sorting it all out. 😬

 

[jav6454]

Ultra-wide has sucked since release. Too noisy.

 

[stanle1]

Yesterday I discovered ProCamera app and I can confirm that quality is much better. Check the attatched close up screenshots to see the difference. ProCamera 4k 60fps HDR is even better quality than regular 4k 60fps HDR OFF video.

 

[e1me5]

Apple's post processing of stills and video is a joke. Much more of a people pleaser that produces vivid colours and bright images for users that have no technical knowledge and they have great demands in terms of quality. 3rd party apps are always better as they bypass most of Apple's processing algorithms. Lightroom VS the camera app is an example.

 

[JippaLippa]

I use filmic pro, and it's pretty much excellent.

 

[stanle1]

I use filmic pro, and it's pretty much excellent.

With FilmicPro you can't record 4k@60fps with Dolby Vision enabled right? Only 30fps from what the developer says in app's description

 

[JippaLippa]

With FilmicPro you can't record 4k@60fps with Dolby Vision enabled right? Only 30fps from what the developer says in app's description

Perhaps, but at least the quality is better and you get manual control.

 

[stanle1]

Perhaps, but at least the quality is better and you get manual control.

With ProCamera you also get manual control and can record 4k@60fps with Dolby Vision anabled and the quality is superb. It's really worth checking out!