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Fred Zed

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2019
5,782
6,481
Upstate NY . Was FL.
1.7 X zoom. Terrible. 2nd pic
D08C4351-279B-42EF-BC0F-2E84DC8D0D78.jpeg
0CC6D73E-6C75-4F94-98C7-D02D8EBA7593.png
Cropped to show detail.
 

5105973

Cancelled
Sep 11, 2014
12,132
19,733
Hi GrumpyMom, sorry to hear that this year’s iPhone has not work out for you.

Been following your post and many contributions on this forum for years.

Glad your new iPhone XR is treating your eyes well.

Hopefully with time your eyes might be able to adjust back to your purple 12 mini.

About the camera.

Am wondering if the iPhone Pros(12 and 13) would be better equipped to focus on distance objects rather than what is in the foreground if the LiDAR sensor was covered.

If it could be somehow “tricked” to work without LiDAR. Might be a temporary work around.
Thank you for the kind words. I hope I can eventually return to my 12 mini but I have to admit I’m really enjoying the Xr more than I expected. The display has definitely less harsh backlighting than my previous XR did. The camera is better than I remembered. I think I can settle quite happily on this phone for a long time.

I’m fortunate to still be able to use the latest Android phones, so if I want all the latest zooms and computational photography tricks I still have options for my second AT&T line. From what I’ve seen of the new Pixel 6 Pro photos, though, images do look heavily processed at times. It’s the bane of newer advances in smart photography. I do expect the next step will be to dial that look back a bit.

That’s not a bad idea about blocking the LiDAR and I’ll suggest it to my husband next time we find ourselves in a similar situation.
 
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catean

Suspended
Jun 16, 2013
531
555
London, UK
I am so happy that we are bringing more “proof”! It’s seems that even macrumors is ignoring us and choose to not write an article about it.
 
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Ravox

macrumors regular
Nov 24, 2020
154
122
Florida
There is something really wrong with 13 Pro and Pro Max camera... took a picture of my daughter few days ago that looked like a photo i tool from a potato phone from 1990, meanwhile my friends 11 pro max, and regular 13 looked perfectly...hard to believe that Apple messed the camera that bad
 

tedley

macrumors 6502
Nov 3, 2009
294
339
Sacramento
View attachment 1899898 iPhone 13 pro max 15.0.2 what do you think?
At first blush, not bad. If you zoom in at the lower-right side of the door where the shadow is cast, it looks really strange going up from the bottom of the door to approximately 1/3 of the way up the door. It looks like the darker brown on the door where the shadow is, was 'painted' on. A very unnatural look. zoomed out looks fine, zoomed in, looks really strange. It's gotta be some of apples over-processing.
 

juanmaasecas

macrumors regular
Oct 26, 2014
101
66
Also I realised that the “preview” picture that shows is low resolution. This might be part of the problem.

I’ll explain myself.

I have set lightroom for not to make new previews of the pictures and only show the embebed previews in the file. For Sony raws, this is a 2mpx jpg embebed in the raw, but for Canon is a full resolution pic. In the case of my 13 pro max, what lightroom opens in the library module is clearly way below 12mpx. Why? Because if then I go to the develop module, you can clearly see how the picture loads with much more detail.

So that might be part of the issue, that apple is not loading in the gallery the real resolution picture but only a lower resolution thumbnail.

I agree that the pictures, especially the ones from the 3x camera are a complete joke. Also this camera is super slow to focus, and when on a mirror it tends to focus the glass instead of the reflection 🥺

Proraw has all the processing built in so it’s not a solution.

I have had my X for years and all the phones that came after, i just didn’t like them: too much hdr, too much noise reduction, the pictures don’t look natural. Finally I upgraded for other reasons but honestly I prefer the cameras in my X.
 

fs454

macrumors 68000
Dec 7, 2007
1,985
1,875
Los Angeles / Boston
Thanks. Figured it would be something like that.


I personally dislike how Apple allows the in-between zoom levels - it's a recipe for a bad photo, at least until we start seeing bigger megapixels crammed into sensors of this size without losing performance in other aspects. 12MP simply isn't enough to crop into. If you walked a little closer shot the same frame with the standard 26mm 1x it'd probably look nice and crisp.
 

Fred Zed

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2019
5,782
6,481
Upstate NY . Was FL.
I personally dislike how Apple allows the in-between zoom levels - it's a recipe for a bad photo, at least until we start seeing bigger megapixels crammed into sensors of this size without losing performance in other aspects. 12MP simply isn't enough to crop into. If you walked a little closer shot the same frame with the standard 26mm 1x it'd probably look nice and crisp.
For some reason I thought for example if the optical zoom was 3X , I could go in between 1 and 3 x zoom optically. Lol
 

ItachiSBT

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 30, 2020
40
148
I say this in every page but I see that some people still are wondering why.

The problem is very simple. This year the combination of bigger sensor + very large aperture means that photos will be very "soft". It's not apple fault, it's just physics. Like I said, when samsung tried a f/1.5 lens on a large sensor they used a variable aperture to let the users close to f/2.4 during the day.

What is apple fault is that they did that and used as a "solution" a simple sharpness filter. That is beyond any reasonable decision on a 1500 dollars smartphone. And it's even absurd that a billion dollar company can think to beat physics with a filter.
And this is the result. There is no mystery, it's really that simple.
 
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fs454

macrumors 68000
Dec 7, 2007
1,985
1,875
Los Angeles / Boston
For some reason I thought for example if the optical zoom was 3X , I could go in between 1 and 3 x zoom optically. Lol
Mostly Apple's fault for marketing it that way IMO. Same goes for going to 3x in anything but ideal lighting - most of the time it's not even going to let you use the real telephoto camera but instead will crop a staggering 3x into the 12mp wide camera. During the day if you go outside and hit 3X you'll see the live preview go from a bit blurry to crystal clear as the phone decides to allow the 3x camera to be used. Always wait for that switchover when you want to shoot zoomed, or use Halide which will never lie to you about which lens you've got active.

Every single one of Apple's promo photos and videos are shot at exactly 0.5, 1x, or 3x.
 

golfnut1982

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2014
543
1,383
Chicago, IL
Mostly Apple's fault for marketing it that way IMO. Same goes for going to 3x in anything but ideal lighting - most of the time it's not even going to let you use the real telephoto camera but instead will crop a staggering 3x into the 12mp wide camera. During the day if you go outside and hit 3X you'll see the live preview go from a bit blurry to crystal clear as the phone decides to allow the 3x camera to be used. Always wait for that switchover when you want to shoot zoomed, or use Halide which will never lie to you about which lens you've got active.

Every single one of Apple's promo photos and videos are shot at exactly 0.5, 1x, or 3x.
I actually NEVER zoom in. I just take the picture. Crop later if needed. Everyone who zooms beyond what they camera settings are probably looking for trouble. At least that was the advice for years with digital zooms.
 

pdxa4

macrumors 6502
Aug 4, 2008
330
53
I've been mostly using Halide for taking photos now on my 13pro max, I've had halide for a few years, but using it more than ever now.

I am disappointed with the current native app and how Apple have released it, I guess they will eventually fix it, but it makes me hesitate "upgrading" in the future. I hesitated on upgrading from my 12pro max.
 

Big Dave

macrumors 6502
Nov 27, 2007
314
25
Crestview, Fl
I haven't posted in a long while but I just came here to say that my new 13 pro max camera is the worst camera on an iPhone I have ever used and I started with the OG. I'm seriously thinking of returning this heap of garbage and switching to something else. What's up with the OnePlus 9 Pro with the Hasselblad camera?
 

Apple_Glen_UK

macrumors 65816
Oct 26, 2015
1,190
15,486
West Sussex, England
I had ordered a 13 Pro but having read most of the comments on this thread - and a couple of other websites - I am now thinking of getting a refurbished iPhone 11 Pro instead. ‘Why not a 12/12Pro?’ I hear you ask! A friend of mine has the 12 Pro and regrets getting it and hasn't been impressed. I am wondering whether anyone else reading this thread previously had (or still has) an iPhone 11 Pro and what your thoughts are? I currently have an SE 2 which I plan to give to my wife once I have made up my mind on which phone to get.
 
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