M1 Max 16" terrible webcam quality !!!!

[Kylo83]

I have the MacBook Pro 16" m1 max and I love it but the webcam is so bad even now being 1080p its worse than my old intel model, its like it has a beauty smoothing filter on by default and can't disable it, in meetings I have the worse quality camera, no way its 1080p it looks like 380p anyone else seeing this

 

[kofman13]

are you high? every comparison published by any channel or website shows that the m1 max/pro camera is better no one can argue

 

[Kylo83]

are you high? every comparison published by any channel or website shows that the m1 max/pro camera is better no one can argue

Have you used it in person?!? Do you even have one? Also there are loads of Reddit posts about this to so I’m not alone, the quality is terrible and grainy like a beauty filter is on

 

[throAU]

Check you haven't got fingerprint gunk all over it.

 

[Kylo83]

Check you haven't got fingerprint gunk all over it.

I have it’s clean I always clean the screen, I have been looking on Reddit and YouTube and many people have said the same how the camera is poor and has a Snapchat like beauty filter on; I love the machine and don’t mind the notch but for this poor camera they should of just put it in the small bezel it’s not worth the notch, for a £3300 machine it should have a good webcam for video calls

 

[Sanpete]

There have been a few complaints here about an overprocessed look, but most agree it looks better than before.

 

[OhMyMy]

I second the OP. The picture looks like something you see when you take a low light image and crank up the smoothing to 100% in photoshop only 10x worse. I still don’t get how it got some rave reviews unless mine is broken or there’s some setting that’s ON by default that shouldn’t be.

14” 10/16/16

 

[Kylo83]

I second the OP. The picture looks like something you see when you take a low light image and crank up the smoothing to 100% in photoshop only 10x worse. I still don’t get how it got some rave reviews unless mine is broken or there’s some setting that’s ON by default that shouldn’t be.

14” 10/16/16

Exactly glad you understand it’s so bad I feel like it’s worse then my intel 2019 MacBook Pro, the fact we have a notch for this webcam is shocking the reviewers got it wrong as they always have to say everything is amazing

 

[Kylo83]

There have been a few complaints here about an overprocessed look, but most agree it looks better than before.

It looks worse than my intel 2019 MacBook Pro, reviewers don’t know what they talk about half the time

 

[Kylo83]

I second the OP. The picture looks like something you see when you take a low light image and crank up the smoothing to 100% in photoshop only 10x worse. I still don’t get how it got some rave reviews unless mine is broken or there’s some setting that’s ON by default that shouldn’t be.

14” 10/16/16

I looked everywhere there’s not setting to change this; it’s unstable people on my zoom work chat said my camera looked terrible, I thought with it now being 1080p and apple M1 power it would be sharp and great quality but nope apple gave us a notch for this terrible camera, might as well just put a small cheap one in the small bezel

 

[Bluninja]

Mine in a 16" M1 Pro looks very blurry, like it's out of focus.

 

[m1m1m1m1]

Have you used it in person?!? Do you even have one? Also there are loads of Reddit posts about this to so I’m not alone, the quality is terrible and grainy like a beauty filter is on

Can confirm on 16" now in decently lit room. In FaceTime live preview it looks like I've been JPEG compressed and my beard hairs smoothed together as if its in some acne filter. Maybe in bright daylight it's better, but right now it looks like a knockoff USB cam. Glad I use my Fujifilm.

 

[teknikal90]

are you high? every comparison published by any channel or website shows that the m1 max/pro camera is better no one can argue

Do you own one?

 

[luxx80]

I see the same thing on my 16 M1 Pro. You'll need to either get better window or artificial lighting; I think it looks worse when in darker lighting. Disappointing for sure, especially with Zoom calls being such a huge part of my day now.

 

[Kylo83]

Mine in a 16" M1 Pro looks very blurry, like it's out of focus.

This isn’t acceptable

 

[Kylo83]

I see the same thing on my 16. You'll need to either get better window or artificial lighting; I think it looks worse when in darker lighting. Disappointing for sure, especially with Zoom calls being such a huge part of my day now.

Yeah they made out in the keynote it was now 1080p and better blah blah but they have actually made it worse

 

[wilberforce]

Actually I agree with OP. There is some processing going on that smooths out skin tones and textures so that faces look a bit waxy. Other items are reasonably sharp and detailed. Significantly more waxy faces on my 14" MBP than on my 2020 iMac, both of which have 1080p webcams. (In my case, a waxy face is probably a good thing.)

The MBP has better dynamic range processing (shadows not so crushed, highlights not so blown), but is less contrasty (which makes it look more washed out).

 

[boss.king]

Are you guys using it in low light? I tried the webcams in store recently and 14 was positioned to have a worse lighting than the 16. It made an appreciable difference in the quality (I assume because the machine was working overtime to make the image usable).

 

[arche3]

It looks fine to me. Compared to 16 Intel and m1 air

 

[syncopy]

It is definitely smoothing skin tones and some blemishes, it’s most noticeable on my hair. It clumps them together almost like an anime character. I was annoyed with it at first, but I actually don’t mind looking less tired in the morning. But yea, it’s visibly blurring the skin. I haven’t checked to see if it’s AI-based or it Apple just over-processes anything that it sees in frame.

 

[jtopp]

I have the MacBook Pro 16" m1 max and I love it but the webcam is so bad even now being 1080p its worse than my old intel model, its like it has a beauty smoothing filter on by default and can't disable it, in meetings I have the worse quality camera, no way its 1080p it looks like 380p anyone else seeing this

Used google and found this.

How to adjust webcam settings on your Mac

Apple doesn't have built-in camera settings, but you can use third-party software to really improve your camera quality.

www.macworld.com

 

[Larabee119]

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. There is indeed a skin filter built into the webcam and you cannot disable it.
If you hate it that much, return the machine for people who don't mind it or buy a dedicated webcam / mirrorless camera and use as a webcam.

 

[minik]

I have the 14" model and the FaceTime HD camera looks better than my Intel 27" iMac (2020), which is also 1080p but no 'advanced image signal processor with computational video'

 

[Kurtz van Nosferatu]

Maybe you have a faulty unit.
As for mine, it’s so good that it looks even better than the professional conference camera from Oracle, that we bought for $7k, pales in comparison. Ever since I switched from Intel MBP everybody’s asking why my image is so good.
Sure, it looks processed, but for work video calls it’s perfect.
So get your unit replaced, it must be damaged.

 

[Juraj22]

I have the MacBook Pro 16" m1 max and I love it but the webcam is so bad even now being 1080p its worse than my old intel model, its like it has a beauty smoothing filter on by default and can't disable it, in meetings I have the worse quality camera, no way its 1080p it looks like 380p anyone else seeing this

Would you mind to post a picture produced with the camera?