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iPhone 16 Pro Max Issues with ProRAW 48 and stock camera app
- Thread starter jajo.j
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If you guys are still having camera quality issues with your iPhone, you should maybe make an appointment and get the camera module replaced in your phone. I did that and so far I’ve had really good results. Of course I haven’t tested the phone with a new software iOS update yet because one has not yet been released since I’ve had my camera module replaced, I guess that will be the test. As far as I can tell from the rumors, only the telephone photo camera on the new iPhone 17 Pro will be changed & upgraded. The use of the fusion camera and ultra wide camera I think are going to remain the same with no change in optical performance or f/ratio. Anyway, I hope I’m wrong about that, we shall see.
The fact of the matter is that some cameras/lenses are just de-centered and either half of the image can be blurry when you zoom in. I noticed this on the 15 Pro Max (eventually got a replacement that I was satisfied with, sharp in all 4 corners) but the issue is definitely worse with the 16 Pro Max units that I’ve tested. You have to really pixel peep to test for the issue but once you realize that the issue is present on your unit it becomes apparent even without pixel peeping.
This is the most recent comparison I did, I was happy with the screen uniformity but the camera being this different was a killer and prompted me to return the new device. Is this similar to what you experienced? These are 24 MP HEIF images.
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Yeah, that looks a lot like what I was getting. Especially after updating to the next iOS that was released. For some reason, the iOS updates messed up the image quality of the camera, and I had to do a full restore to fix it. So I guess it was a combination of the camera and software. So now my camera image quality is really good. I don’t have any complaints at the moment. I’m trying to decide if I’m gonna upgrade to the 17 Pro Max or keep this one since the camera is better. I have two 16 Pro Max phones so I might upgrade one of them with a 17 Pro Max. I guess it depends on if they’re still using the same fusion camera and ultra wide camera. I know the telephone photo is going to be upgraded. In a few months, I guess we’ll see.
I took this one today. ProRAW & Lightroom edit, 16 PM. The new camera replacement is really good. Not complaining yet….
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@ToddH - Has your replacement kept up its good performance over the last month? I've been on a cycle of ProRaw Max, No Fusion app w/ HEIF+, and the new Project Indigo from Adobe as of late. I've been happy with my results.
Yes actually it has.. i’ve had to power cycle my phone a few times which is something I normally do anyway too get everything working better after our power cycle. There were a maybe one or two times that Camera quality seem to have dissipated a little bit, but I think that was mostly phone performance more than anything. so far the camera upgrade/replacement has been great. I own two iPhone 16 Pro Max devices but I think I’m just gonna upgrade one to the 17 pro max in a couple of months so I can take advantage of the upgraded portrait lens/tele photo. but yes, overall the camera quality has remained great. And I am mainly just use the default camera app all the time with the Stark black-and-white styles as my first choice and then I will switch to ProRAW often as well.
I’ve heard about that project indigo app, is it still making your phone run hot and has it adopted 48 megapixel resolution photos yet? Whenever I shoot raw, I have some presets that I bought from Tyler Stalman and that’s basically all I use these days. his presets are the best that I’ve used so far and whenever I open them in Lightroom, he has them set up on Adobe color profile instead of ProRaw Apple. Using that profile makes a big difference.
That’s good news!
Yes - Project Indigo still makes my 16 Pro heat up after 7-10 photos. Hopefully they continue to optimize. The reflection removal and AI denoise features baked in are very cool, as is super zoom. I’ll keep it on the home page and continue to tinker.
Are you able to link those Tyler Stalman presets? Would love to give them a look.
https://stalman.sellfy.store/
https://stalman.sellfy.store/p/lightroom-presets-for-iphone/
He has only 6 presets, three DNG & three HEIF. They are basic presets that can be adjusted & saved as additional presets. The highlights are well controlled, and I like them a lot. He also has some really good YouTube videos, reviewing the iPhones and the cameras and goes over what he likes about them.
I will probably wait to install project indigo until it gets better.
On your recommendation, grabbed Stalman’s presets today. Really nice as a starting point for ProRaw!
Absolutely! Here’s a JPEG created from a ProRaw snap, 1x camera, Stalman’s “Maras” DNG preset and a few other tweaks. Mai Tais from earlier tonight.
(Note: Have to compress it significantly to get MacRumors to accept)
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Cool, I’m glad you got them. I assume you watched the video on how he edits using his presets. Sometimes the image goes really dark because of the profile being used but easily the shadows are lifted due to the high dynamic range of the iPhone camera sensor. His presets seem to remove the baked in high dynamic range with Apple software. You’ll see that more when you photograph Nature, shots, stuff, outdoors, etc. Here’s one that I edited using his presets mainly the Cusco preset. His presets seem to work really well on the night sky when you’re photographing the Milky Way or what have you.
This photo is from the back of a carnival cruise back in March. Taken with my iPhone 16 Pro Max using ProRaw and Lightroom edit.
I think I like the one showing the deck of the back of the ship better than I do the open ocean, but I think both of them are mutually exclusive and unique
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