iPhone 13 Pro Really bad photos with iPhone 13 Pro (+Max) Merged

[kirk.vino]

I have the iphone 13 pro max and also seeing the photo issue - first it's blurry then it takes about a second for the photo to become clear. I called Apple support, the rep reached out to their technician at the image or photo team for advise. First they said it was caused by my wifi speed and that the photo was taking time to upload to my icloud. I argued with apple support that it wasn't my wifi speed and they put me on with the senior technician who earlier suggested it was wifi speed issue. The technician ran some hardware test on my iphone and said everything (LiDAR, and other camera components) are working fine. I was asked to take the phone to a Apple Genius so they can "hold the phone and see the problem". I have appointment on Thursday so let's see what they say.

More proof that most of those people have no clue about anything. Also, they’re probably not even using iPhones to begin with or not the latest ones, which complicates the matters even more.
The delay in photo processing is normal: you can clearly see the algorithms and image processing doing their thing. I suggest turning on ProRaw on your phone and see if that helps. It tends to produce better and less harsh results overall. The Apple HEIF engine is just way too aggressive.

 

[aj330]

More proof that most of those people have no clue about anything. Also, they’re probably not even using iPhones to begin with or not the latest ones, which complicates the matters even more.
The delay in photo processing is normal: you can clearly see the algorithms and image processing doing their thing. I suggest turning on ProRaw on your phone and see if that helps. It tends to produce better and less harsh results overall. The Apple HEIF engine is just way too aggressive.

I posted the problem on Apple user forum and people there said it was "normal" for the new iphone to process photos this way. Some people there were/are defending iphone 13 camera like it's something personal. I could be wrong, but it feels like some of these people work for Apple and are on the apple forum to squash any legitimate issues even though they say they don't work for Apple.

 

[Count Blah]

I posted the problem on Apple user forum and people there said it was "normal" for the new iphone to process photos this way. Some people there were/are defending iphone 13 camera like it's something personal. I could be wrong, but it feels like some of these people work for Apple and are on the apple forum to squash any legitimate issues even though they say they don't work for Apple.

Sounds like macrumors in general, sadly.

Good Luck!

 

[N69AP]

I have the iphone 13 pro max and also seeing the photo issue - first it's blurry then it takes about a second for the photo to become clear. I called Apple support, the rep reached out to their technician at the image or photo team for advise. First they said it was caused by my wifi speed and that the photo was taking time to upload to my icloud. I argued with apple support that it wasn't my wifi speed and they put me on with the senior technician who earlier suggested it was wifi speed issue. The technician ran some hardware test on my iphone and said everything (LiDAR, and other camera components) are working fine. I was asked to take the phone to a Apple Genius so they can "hold the phone and see the problem". I have appointment on Thursday so let's see what they say.

I don't even use iCloud Photos but I've noticed the same problem. Even with all that processing power it still seems to take a while for the phone to finish processing photos.

 

[amerdxb]

I took my iPhone 13 pro out on a long city trek and tried to take photos in various conditions. Macro photos are absolutely amazing. However something is really off with normal photos.. everything seems blurry .. there is no crisp clarity to almost anything I took a picture of... it sort of adds a watery layer to the image.

The macros are out of this world .. check the photo of the parrot.
Regular photos look water painted .. check the photo of the peigon

Seems the lens being used for regular photos is not the same quality as that of the iPhone 12 Pro.

 

[ant the ninja]

Isn't this deep fusion doing its thing and that's why you see the photo one way for like half a second and then deep fusion applies its adjustment?

Edit: I am not defending it, I'm just saying I think this is what people are seeing. I could be wrong though.

 

[xxray]

My 13 Pro also takes a second to process the photos. I just assumed it was normal as I haven’t upgraded in 3 years and the Google Pixels did/do this when you take photos on them.

 

[kp98077]

why is this not happening on the PM?? Thought they were the "same'?

 

[amerdxb]

I inspected the photos just before deep fusion added its magic to the photo... The watery like effect you see on objects is still pretty much there before and after the post processing..In fact post processing tries to sharpen it. (live is set to off)

The lens being used for normal photos reminds me of that of my old Huwawei Mate 20 Pro, used to do the same thing.

I feel that previous generation apple phones took photos that are more detailed, sharp and clear around the edges of the objects.

 

[kp98077]

I inspected the photos just before deep fusion added its magic to the photo... The watery like effect you see on objects is still pretty much there before and after the post processing..In fact post processing tries to sharpen it. (live is set to off)

The lens being used for normal photos reminds me of that of my old Huwawei Mate 20 Pro, used to do the same thing.

I feel that previous generation apple phones took photos that are more detailed, sharp and clear around the edges of the objects.

I am not seeing these issues with my 13 PM, why?

 

[amerdxb]

I don’t think it’s defect,, it’s just something I noticed after I switched from 12 pro to 13 pro.. also I heard Apple will be introducing a patch that will allow us to manually flip between cameras rather than automatically.

 

[compaqee]

I wanted to come on and add I'm finding the same issues with clarity, sharpness and overall inability to properly focus and illuminate the white balance properly on the subject. I made an account just so I can add to the discourse because as a first time iPhone user, getting the pro max camera on the 13 has been disappointing. Coming from a pixel 2 xl, the colours / sharpness is very apparent.

 

[alicant3]

My 13Pro Max also has these issues. I have noticed that there is something wrong with the camera coming from a long time Huawei P20 Pro user; at first I said okay it is mainly the high post-processing that Huawei applies to its images and the iPhone tends to have more natural looking photos but it is not that. I have compared the photos side by side with the Xs, 11ProMax, iPhone 12, the P20 Pro and S21+. On the huawei and the other handphones the photos look more lively and have more details on normal photo mode without any correction.
More details can be seen in the photo; the 13PM has more noise in photos, less detail, less contrast, it looks like i am downgrading instead of taking the next step; it has NO improvement over the last phones, moreover, it looks way worse.
Very very disappointed. I need the camera for my work and this does not live up to the expectations. The screen is awesome, speakers too, battery too. The phone is smooth, my only issue is the camera. I am so so disappointed after I have waited a lot to make the switch to iPhone and now I regret it.

 

[EastHillWill]

I’m not seeing this issue on 13 Pro, but I do believe something is going on with a lot of devices. Those with the issue: Does it persist through different Photographic Styles?

 

[alicant3]

I do not even use those. The color reproduction is way off too. The white balance too. I have the 13PM sierra blue, any other sierra blue Pro or PM users with this issue? Maybe it is model or lot related though I find it really hard to believe that. I have contacted apple and my local retailer to see if there have been any other reports of this kind my country and it seems not but the device has been available for about 1 week here and it might be that a lot of iPhone users do not notice this issue.

 

[kirk.vino]

I have a feeling some people don’t get how faster apertures work. The main lens on the 13 Pro has a f/1.5 aperture now. That would produce shallower depth of field, meaning anything out of main focus would look a bit more blurry - artistic. I played with the main camera on my 13 PM and, if I tap the focus on the object closer to me, it will focus on it and produce a sharper image of that object. On the other hand, if I tap on something in the middle, it will focus on that instead and the previous object will appear blurry this time. It’s a normal behavior. Some other phones, especially, the previous iPhones with slower apertures will have a different effect and the whole picture will look sharper overall since the depth of field is different as well.

 

[Eekamouse]

I have a feeling some people don’t get how faster apertures work. The main lens on the 13 Pro has a f/1.5 aperture now. That would produce shallower depth of field, meaning anything out of main focus would look a bit more blurry - artistic. I played with the main camera on my 13 PM and, if I tap the focus on the object closer to me, it will focus on it and produce a sharper image of that object. On the other hand, if I tap on something in the middle, it will focus on that instead and the previous object will appear blurry this time. It’s a normal behavior. Some other phones, especially, the previous iPhones with slower apertures will have a different effect and the whole picture will look sharper overall since the depth of field is different as well.

It has nothing to do with shallow depth of field I have used many high end professional cameras and currently use a Sony full frame mirror less for my photography. I have seen it in my pro as well. Here are two photos taken a minute after each other. One in portrait mode which looks good and one regular which had no processing other than what the deep fusion or what ever apple applies. It made my dog over sharpened over clarity crispy looking and you cannot un do it. It did show the normal photo for a second before it applied whatever processing this is but you cannot make it undo. I use my camera a lot for work and need color accuracy and have found it applying this processing to my pics and throwing off the color so I may need to change phones which sucks.

 

[MisterTibbs]

For me at least, this (pinched from another thread) is a good representation of what I was getting.
The image on the left, whilst noisy, is more natural. The image on the right demonstrates the type of smoothing I saw on my photos, which I didn't like.
I guess it's doing all sorts of things in those processes. Personally, know about aperture, and that isn't the problem for me. It's the lack of an option to turn off all the "corrections".

 

[alicant3]

It has nothing to do with depth of field. If I take two photos, pressing on the same object to focus the image on iPhone 13PM has less detail and less clarity than Xs 11PM and so on. For example i took a shot of a cardboard box with writing on it. The distance was of about 50cm and the text, which is not that large, was readable on all phones but on the 13PM the least; the photos tend to look really rough like overprocessed and trying to get more detail resulting in the image looking odd.

 

[The Game 161]

Some are experiencing issued with HDR and it crushing the blacks on dark photos on twitter. So i think there are issues there. Something apple will maybe fix with an update.

 

[geologystar]

the sunrise photos are awful with 13 pro max - my 7 plus was always perfect now the sky and sand are super hot red instead of pink or orange - these photos are with 13 pro max - and the sky was NOt red like that all of the beautiful detail is gone - please let me know if anyone has ideas how to fix this
:-(

 

[renesan]

Same issue here with my new 13 Pro. While Macro mode works perfectly sharp, the normal wide lens and especially the tele lens produce results which are fully unacceptable, they look blurry and upscaled like out of cheap $50 action or web cam.

 

[kirk.vino]

It has nothing to do with shallow depth of field I have used many high end professional cameras and currently use a Sony full frame mirror less for my photography. I have seen it in my pro as well. Here are two photos taken a minute after each other. One in portrait mode which looks good and one regular which had no processing other than what the deep fusion or what ever apple applies. It made my dog over sharpened over clarity crispy looking and you cannot un do it. It did show the normal photo for a second before it applied whatever processing this is but you cannot make it undo. I use my camera a lot for work and need color accuracy and have found it applying this processing to my pics and throwing off the color so I may need to change phones which sucks.

My comment was about the “blurriness” that some people exhibit, not the HDR processing. You’re talking about something else here. Try shooting in Raw on your iPhone, that is not as harsh as the HEIF versions.

 

[Eekamouse]

My comment was about the “blurriness” that some people exhibit, not the HDR processing. You’re talking about something else here. Try shooting in Raw on your iPhone, that is not as harsh as the HEIF versions.

Ahh ok , here is a raw file I did no processing to this other than convert to jpg and it does look a bit better

 

[RRC]

Ahh ok , here is a raw file I did no processing to this other than convert to jpg and it does look a bit better

It’s still not right IMO. The nose and eyes are not in focus, unless you weren’t focusing on that area?