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

[Pandyone]

The issues you guys are talking about here are jpeg files which are highly compressed and processed before you can do anything with them. Large pixels on a small sensor tend to produce less sharp photos of objects further away.

This is not not the only issues discussed at all, and shooting raw does not always help with either sharpness or the oil painting effect.
I have posted examples further back here, with screen shot of a raw file that was really bad with neon light reflection (the telephoto lens turned out better), and problem with incorrect lens selection.

 

[ToddH]

This is not not the only issues discussed at all, and shooting raw does not always help with either sharpness or the oil painting effect.
I have posted examples further back Here, with screen shot of a raw file that was really bad with neon light reflection (the telephoto lens turned out better), and problem with incorrect lens selection.

Well the link doesn’t work, so far I haven’t had any issues with my phone so, I hope you guys get yours figured out.. happy shooting!

 

[dantracht]

Well the link doesn’t work, so far I haven’t had any issues with my phone so, I hope you guys get yours figured out.. happy shooting!

Link not working for me either.

 

[ToddH]

Here is a ProRAW shot edited in Lightroom mobile. The 1x camera. So don’t zoom in to 500% trying to see flaws in the image, it doesn’t work that way. Not sure this will satisfy, it may not be a full 12mp here on the forum.

Screen shots, 100% crops

 

[Pandyone]

Here is a ProRAW shot edited in Lightroom mobile. The 1x camera. So don’t zoom in to 500% trying to see flaws in the image, it doesn’t work that way. Not sure this will satisfy, it may not be a full 12mp here on the forum.

It's great that you are happy with your phone, and if you are not experiencing any issues, great!

I corrected the link in my post above. I'm not pixel peeping or zooming in the pictures. There is really weird processing in the pictures, and maybe it's only some devices affected.

Below is a more fresh example. Both are JPG and shot with 3x. Its after I clicked a brighter part of the screen it actually switched to telephoto lens on second photo. So it's both the lens switching issue, and that it looks like a oil painting.
If someone showed me the first picture and said they had painted it in Procreate, I would almost believe it.

 

[dantracht]

It's great that you are happy with your phone, and if you are not experiencing any issues, great!

I corrected the link in my post above. I'm not pixel peeping or zooming in the pictures. There is really weird processing in the pictures, and maybe it's only some devices affected.

Below is a more fresh example. Both are JPG and shot with 3x. Its after I clicked a brighter part of the screen it actually switched to telephoto lens on second photo. So it's both the lens switching issue, and that it looks like a oil painting.
If someone showed me the first picture and said they had painted it in Procreate, I would almost believe it.

View attachment 1917184View attachment 1917183

I see what you mean about the oil painting effect, especially on the left. Yikes.

 

[Fred Zed]

13 Pro Max, Apple ProRAW. Lightroom mobile

View attachment 1916434

That’s wallpaper quality that is.👍🏼

 

[firstime]

Hello! what about discussing about this, also in the Apple official forum?
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253181534

I noticed that some people are trying highlighting this oil painting effect but same 2 or 3 users are trying to hide the problem.

Maybe if people who are facing this are posting their screenshot there it could be easier to share information about it.

i also tried to send my feedback here:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/camera/

 

[diego.caraballo]

Here is a ProRAW shot edited in Lightroom mobile. The 1x camera. So don’t zoom in to 500% trying to see flaws in the image, it doesn’t work that way. Not sure this will satisfy, it may not be a full 12mp here on the forum.





View attachment 1916982



Screen shots, 100% crops

Your discoveries are sort of amazing. If you take a photo with the 13 Pro, heavily edit it on LR, add some filters and vignette (like the railway one) and present it as a miniature of 3 x 2 inches, it looks great.

Directly from the iPhone X. No edits. Zoomed to actual size:
Can you spot the quality difference between your flowers and mine?

The Apple support thread on this issue has over 1652 "Me too" affected users so far. And that's just the people login in to complain.

 

[ToddH]

Your discoveries are sort of amazing. If you take a photo with the 13 Pro, heavily edit it on LR, add some filters and vignette (like the railway one) and present it as a miniature of 3 x 2 inches, it looks great.

Directly for the iPhone X. No edits. Zoomed to actual size:
Can you spot the quality difference between your flowers and mine?

View attachment 1917248


The Apple support thread on this issue has over 1652 "Me too" affected users so far. And that's just the people login in to complain.

Well maybe, here is the original shot just with the basics. Sharpening etc. you guys can check this one out to see if there’s any differences

 

[diego.caraballo]

Well maybe, here is the original shot just with the basics. Sharpening etc. you guys can check this one out to see if there’s any differences

Your picture is an excellent example of one of the two issues that we are showing in this thread. You have Pandyone photo a few posts above with the oil painting effect.
The second issue is the lack of detail in the near field of the camera. I'm not sold that this is a aperture or pixel size issue. Fact is, that for me, this iPhone takes worst pictures than previous generations iPhone. Which is something new, since every iPhone that I owned before was a step-forward regarding the camera.

I'm aware that the forum uploads affects the quality a little, but even taken that in consideration no one can deny that the iPhone 13 picture looks like out of focus. Zoomed to my best to have the same objets size.

 

[ToddH]

Your picture is an excellent example of one of the two issues that we are showing in this thread. You have Pandyone photo a few posts above with the oil painting effect.
The second issue is the lack of detail in the near field of the camera. I'm not sold that this is a aperture or pixel size issue. Fact is, that for me, this iPhone takes worst pictures than previous generations iPhone. Which is something new, since every iPhone that I owned before was a step-forward regarding the camera.

I'm aware that the forum uploads affects the quality a little, but even taken that in consideration no one can deny that the iPhone 13 picture looks like out of focus. Zoomed to my best to have the same objets size.

View attachment 1917444

I guess you’re shooting JPEG versus me shooting raw? Rall is always going to look better than JPEG. You have to take in mind that this new sensor on this iPhone has fairly large pixels on a small sensor which doesn’t really give you superior resolution of distant objects. My Nikon D3 was a 12 megapixel full frame camera and with a 50 mm lens attached to it, leaves on an oak tree 50 yards away we’re not resolved very well and looked mushy. 12 megapixels is just not a high resolution sensor. I really wish Apple would put a 18 or 24 megapixel sensor in these cameras and that would make a huge difference. There may be a little bit more noise, but resolution would be much better. I very well could have a little bit of motion blur in my photo because I took the shot out of my window while sitting in my vehicle crossing the railroad tracks. I never shoot JPEG anymore, everything is raw even with a snapshot. The ones I don’t want or need and I end up deleting anyway, I’ve got plenty of storage on this iPhone so I don’t have to worry about running out of space. The new camera has 1.9 µm size to pixels which is pretty large for the small of a sensor. My D3 had 8.0 um pixels. There is also pretty large pixels for a 12 megapixel sensor. If they were 1.5 on the iPhone, the images would look sharper and cleaner especially when trying to resolve small objects like blades of grass or leaves on trees with a 26mm camera lens. So I would think that is where you’re issues are coming from perhaps.

So here is a much better controlled shot where I’m not in a hurry to take the shot like I did with the railroad tracks. Here is a regular shot about my vehicle window of some grass and fence

 

[diego.caraballo]

I guess you’re shooting JPEG versus me shooting raw? Rall is always going to look better than JPEG. You have to take in mind that this new sensor on this iPhone has fairly large pixels on a small sensor which doesn’t really give you superior resolution of distant objects. My Nikon D3 was a 12 megapixel full frame camera and with a 50 mm lens attached to it, leaves on an oak tree 50 yards away we’re not resolved very well and looked mushy. 12 megapixels is just not a high resolution sensor. I really wish Apple would put a 18 or 24 megapixel sensor in these cameras and that would make a huge difference. There may be a little bit more noise, but resolution would be much better. I very well could have a little bit of motion blur in my photo because I took the shot out of my window while sitting in my vehicle crossing the railroad tracks. I never shoot JPEG anymore, everything is raw even with a snapshot. The ones I don’t want or need and I end up deleting anyway, I’ve got plenty of storage on this iPhone so I don’t have to worry about running out of space. The new camera has 1.9 µm size to pixels which is pretty large for the small of a sensor. My D3 had 8.0 um pixels. There is also pretty large pixels for a 12 megapixel sensor. If they were 1.5 on the iPhone, the images would look sharper and cleaner especially when trying to resolve small objects like blades of grass or leaves on trees with a 26mm camera lens. So I would think that is where you’re issues are coming from perhaps.

So here is a much better controlled shot where I’m not in a hurry to take the shot like I did with the railroad tracks. Here is a regular shot about my vehicle window of some grass and fence

I agree that sometimes the iPhone delivers good pictures. Like the one that you just posted. But the issue is the inconsistency in deliver those results.
I always shoot JPEG. I can't imagine to edit my pictures, I don't even correct framing after taken them. I try to perfect everything before shoot. The only thing that I have edited in the 13 Pro is the bokeh, since it had become too aggressive sometimes.

One picture that (while too harsh) is not out of focus:

 

[ToddH]

I agree that sometimes the iPhone delivers good pictures. Like the one that you just posted. But the issue is the inconsistency in deliver those results.
I always shoot JPEG. I can't imagine to edit my pictures, I don't even correct framing after taken them. I try to perfect everything before shoot. The only thing that I have edited in the 13 Pro is the bokeh, since it had become too aggressive sometimes.

One picture that (while too harsh) is not out of focus:
View attachment 1917508

Yeah I’ve noticed that sometimes some photos aren’t as good as others and it really depends on the lighting. If it’s dark then a slower shutter speed will be used and I guess it could be possible if we press the shutter button on the screen of the iPhone too hard it shakes the camera. I have a remote trigger for my iPhone, I don’t have an Apple Watch, so I can do a controlled test later by putting my iPhone on a tripod and firing the shutter via remote shutter release without touching the phone to see if there’s any difference. Lower shutter speeds I’ve noticed like 1/40 of a second and lower 10 to make the photo a little bit more blurry if you’re not holding still. So, just keep a lookout on this thread and I will post more samples as soon as I can

 

[Danae02]

I noticed the same problem. See attached taken point and shoot in jpeg format. The far away shot is without zoom, the others are zoomed in. This painting effect is very jarring sometimes.

 

[ToddH]

A couple of shots. The tree is a test shot with regards to this thread. ProRAW, Lightroom mobile. The Camilla flower was taken with the 3x and a film filter was added using the RNI Films app. iPhone 13 Pro Max

 

[ToddH]

After the rain:
13 Pro max 1x camera

 

[Pandyone]

After the rain:
13 Pro max 1x camera

Your photos are mostly examples of good photos that might suit better in the general thread with photos.
I think most people usually get okay photos, but here it is possible to highlight about the less good ones.

While shooting RAW could work as a workaround to get more consistent results, the cameras should be reliable enough to get good results without RAW.

 

[ToddH]

I’ve noticed that many sample photos here are loaded with a screen shot or computer monitor image and the images are viewed at over 100%. How far are you guys zooming in to look at your photos? Anything over 100% is going to look unnatural. Pixel peeping will not give you a true image quality view. The new camera (lenses) are f/1.5 now. There may be distortions at the corners because of the new fast lens. Similar to what you would get when using a DSLR with a 50mm f/1.4 lens wide open. Unless you have a Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 ($3800 lens), then you’ll see corner distortions.

Take a photo of a brick wall, wood grain floor, something with straight lines to see if your camera has more distortions than other iPhone users. A star test is a good test as well. Try jpeg and ProRAW. Not all of us 13 Pro and max users are seeing this. It may be software, it may be poor shooting technique. Compose your shot, adjust exposure as needed, take your time, touch the screen where you want the camera to focus.. post examples.

 

[ToddH]

Here is a shot from this morning using the 3x on the 13 pro max, can’t recall if the 3x is giving you fellas issues or not. This one was with ProRAW and Lightroom mobile edit

 

[Pandyone]

Here is a shot from this morning using the 3x on the 13 pro max, can’t recall if the 3x is giving you fellas issues or not. This one was with ProRAW and Lightroom mobile edit

Nice picture!
Maybe you are not reading the replies you get, but my post is literally just a couple posts back with example where the picture quality is bad, and not actually getting the telephoto lens when switching to 3x.
And again, I’m not pixel peeping or digitally zooming in. Some examples I’ve posted have been screen shots with metadata to show information for the photos.

The issues are there, maybe more sporadically for some more than others, and hopefully Apple will fix some issues in upcoming updates.

 

[ToddH]

Nice picture!
Maybe you are not reading the replies you get, but my post is literally just a couple posts back with example where the picture quality is bad, and not actually getting the telephoto lens when switching to 3x.
And again, I’m not pixel peeping or digitally zooming in. Some examples I’ve posted have been screen shots with metadata to show information for the photos.

The issues are there, maybe more sporadically for some more than others, and hopefully Apple will fix some issues in upcoming updates.

Well hopefully they (Apple) are paying attention. Not sure if any Apple employees or personnel take time or to read threads in this forum, if they are, they probably will fix the issues. Hopefully 15.2 will address some photo issues.

I saw your photos I think, I’ll take another look. It’s just difficult to see the actual quality on this forum since the photos are compressed even more when uploaded. I’ve been testing my iPhone with ProRAW and jpeg to examine the shots, so far I’ve seen the over processed look on some jpeg shots when a photo is taken in low light and high ISO is used. Smart HDR and deep fusion are supposed to be great… much better than the iPhone XS that I used to have where everything was jpeg. Major oil painting effects on that iPhone especially in low light. I keep looking for the 15.2 update, wish they would hurry up!!

 

[ToddH]

That’s wallpaper quality that is.??

Thanks…

 

[babyexercise]

So, there's clearly a problem with the photos on my iPhone 13 pro. It's not only me because yesterday I saw a topic here with people reporting the same thing.

Basically every single photo I take is automatically modified with evident layers of sharpness, excessive contrast and other things.
It's not one of the profile, it's not the normal post-processing of the phone. You know when in photoshop you put "sharpness" at 100 and everything look weird? Same thing.
And when I open a photo on the photo app at the beginning, for. fraction of second, I can see the normal photo with the normal colors. But after that second all the "modifications" pop up.
It happens on video too, it's even more evident because on the gallery you can see the icon of the video with the normal colors, only when you open it the different colors appear like a quick bad photoshop fix.

I tried everything and there no way to avoid this.

Another details, if I shoot a raw photo the preview is the same but when I open it to change it I finally see the "normal" version. But obviolsy I can't shoot only raw and I don't have this option with video.

This is the topic where people is reporting the same thing

Smart HDR Missing on iPhone 13 Pro?

Hi all, Just upgraded to a 13 Pro from XS and when I go to camera settings, the Smart HDR toggle is not there? Any ideas, or can it no longer be switched off? Thanks!

forums.macrumors.com

They think it's a side effect of a bad HDR implementation but for me is not that, the modification that the software apply are several and not only limited to exposure.

Edit: I just want to add. I had iPhones for years. I'm not confusing this with some "normal" post processing. The photos are really bad, it's basically impossibile to obtain a normal face without the "bad photoshop" effect.

That is what you have bought. Apple has one of the best AI processing to make photos or videos look better for most people. You want best raw photo? Buy Sony Pro I. It has the biggest sensor now and Sony has zero AI knowledge so you always get raw image.

 

[ToddH]

That is what you have bought. Apple has one of the best AI processing to make photos or videos look better for most people. You want best raw photo? Buy Sony Pro I. It has the biggest sensor now and Sony has zero AI knowledge so you always get raw image.

Well the Sony phone is ok, you’ll need to watch the review of it by Tony Northrop, his reviews are among the best.

It’s ok, but not great.