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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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I updated to 18.6 today using the same iPhone that gave me camera issues after each update and I had to restore my iPhone as you recall to fix the issue to get the camera working properly again. Well today I tested the camera since I had the camera module replaced in this phone, so far zero issues, it looks great, super sharp and clean even zooming into 600% using ProRaw
Got tired and sold mine eventually. Having a good time using just iPhone 11 with LCD screen and shooting in Bayer RAW via ProCamera.
Gonna wait for 17 series. There’s a rumour Apple finally releases Pro Camera App for Pro models.
OK sounds good. I understand your disappointment. I’m glad mine didn’t go sideways on me after the update like it used to before getting the camera module replaced. I use two iPhone 16 Pro Max models, I might just upgrade one of them to the 17 Pro Max in a couple of months. So far the replacement camera on my 16 Pro Max is very pleasing. So I’m keeping this one for a while. With only 118 cycles on the battery, 100% health. I hope the pro camera app rumor is available on the 16 Pro as well. I heard Aaron with the Zolotech mentioned that the pro camera app will probably be for video only, like a bigger update for Final Cut camera, but we will see. I believe the telephoto camera and sensor are the only things with the camera that are changing this year. The other two cameras, the 1x & .5x ultra wide are staying the same. But hopefully not hopefully they change the optics on the camera lenses so that vignetting and glare are reduced. However, if the 17 Pro Max is way better than I expect, then I might just upgrade both phones at the same time.
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Well, so far iOS 18.6 camera quality looks fantastic. This photo of the magnolia tree using ProRAW and edit it in Lightroom just small edits shows to be really good especially around 600% zoomed in. I drew a red box around the cropped area of the tree. Impressed by the clarity so far. This is the phone that I had the camera module replaced in. I have not had a chance to use night mode yet to see how that looks. It probably hasn’t changed much to be honest, but I’m still curious. More to come later…
Anyone on iOS 26 betas? For those who didn't get there camera modules replaced. Any improvements?
New 17PM.
Photos with less detail in ProRaw format, compared to my 16PM. Especially in the background part of the photos.
ProCam and stock camera app.
Lets wait for more updates and optimizations.
Photos with less detail in ProRaw format, compared to my 16PM. Especially in the background part of the photos.
ProCam and stock camera app.
Lets wait for more updates and optimizations.
Wow!! You'd think apple would have this squared away and fixed by now. However the same 1x and .5x cameras & sensors are in use on the 17 Pro. The optics on those cameras have been the same for the last three years, i think it's time that they give those a hefty update to compete with the other phones out there.
I didn't get the new iphone this year. I'm switching over to the samsung galaxy S25 Ultra, much better image quality from the cameras for my needs. Especially when using expert raw. I wish apple would implement a software camera option like expert raw, where you could control the ISO, shutter and manual focus. Yes, i know this can be done with third party apps. But once those options are changed, the image resolution droppes from 48 megapixels down to 12 which is stupid. Happens on the Halide & ProCamera by Moment. No way around it, you're stuck with twelve megapixels. However with expert raw, I can control the phone camera just like I can with my Sony camera and maintain 50 or 200 megapixel files. Even when the shutter speed is two seconds, five seconds or even thirty seconds long. These aren't stacked one second exposures either. They are actual long exposures, just like a DSLR.
I still have my 16 pro max, which I will keep for a while, if the 17 pro max turns out to be really nice, I'll trade the 16 in and maintain an iphone along with my Samsung phones. I'll keep checking this thread to see if there are any improvements..
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Here we go again...
I still think it's a focusing issue over everything else. Sometimes it gets it right, sometimes it misses slightly.
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Unfortunately, it seems that no newer iPhone can match the 14 Pro in 48 MB ProRAW.