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darkheroz

macrumors regular
Jan 4, 2012
122
170
Bulgaria
13pro, edit in native app only!
3BE5F6B8-0DCB-4C90-93EE-2034155458C1.jpeg
A77614D2-28EE-4B14-965A-98D29ECB6F6C.jpeg
11BC19CB-C452-4DE7-AC2E-5BDB7D0A698D.jpeg
94204DE9-8A26-4881-BD91-A59691B401A8.jpeg
 

catean

Suspended
Jun 16, 2013
531
555
London, UK
Have you looked at the car registration plates in the last picture? Are you happy with that? If you would have taken the picture with an XS, the country code would have been visible too.

And if you look at the picture in the woods, it looks like a painting, not like a photo.
 

darkheroz

macrumors regular
Jan 4, 2012
122
170
Bulgaria
Have you looked at the car registration plates in the last picture? Are you happy with that? If you would have taken the picture with an XS, the country code would have been visible too.

And if you look at the picture in the woods, it looks like a painting, not like a photo.
Agree ! My ex 11PM was better!
 
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Pandyone

macrumors regular
Sep 30, 2021
242
322
This photos were taken within a short span of time(except for the ProRaw shots), so it should be able to give us an idea how the photos defer with Apple’s current processing flavour. The iPhone 13 Pro Max is running iOS 15.0.2. The rest are on iOS 14.8.

Honestly I do prefer the shots taken from the iPhone 13 Pro Max, especially the ProRaw shots.
Having said that, these are tiny cameras on the back of our phones, and I could be happy with the photos from the iPhone 8 Plus. The difference to my untrained eyes are relatively small.

Good comparisons. These show what I find most annoying about the main lens in 13 Pro. There is often a ghosting effect around white areas in images, and it creates a blur overall in images. It is quite clear in the white metal part in the middle of the picture.
Here is an example between the 11 and the 13 Pro main lens and ultra wide angle. It is difficult to decipher what is actually in focus on the f1.5 image at this range, but I guess that is why Apple decided to automatically switch.

Compare-lenses.jpg
 

MacLappy

macrumors 6502a
Jul 28, 2011
530
394
Singapore
Good comparisons. These show what I find most annoying about the main lens in 13 Pro. There is often a ghosting effect around white areas in images, and it creates a blur overall in images. It is quite clear in the white metal part in the middle of the picture.
Here is an example between the 11 and the 13 Pro main lens and ultra wide angle. It is difficult to decipher what is actually in focus on the f1.5 image at this range, but I guess that is why Apple decided to automatically switch.

View attachment 1875628

Execellent comparison!

I am guessing at this point it is because of how iOS interacts with f1.5 on the 26mm.

The shot taken with the ultra wide on the iPhone 13 Pro Max looks amazing.

Am going to try to recreate this.
 
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Borjan

macrumors 6502
Sep 28, 2004
263
59
While I recognise that it should 'just work', its really interesting to read more about how the iPhone handles taking photos. I'd recommend reading the blogs from Halide or other technical discussions.
 

beerseagulls

macrumors 6502a
Aug 18, 2021
814
614
That is taking it to extremes. The original SE took very bad pictures compared to XS for example. All the new models, until now, brought an obvious improvement in pictures quality. 13 Pro for the moment is the exception, which is funny as Apple is marketing this model as the biggest improvement in cameras in an iPhone.

not necessarily.... I agree with the other poster... my iPhone SE(2016) takes better picture than my iPhone Xs Max. (although both are horrible for indoor/low-light shots, by today's standards)

I returned my iPhone 13 Pro Max last week due to the PWM issue causing me daily headaches. however, I was also not impressed with the photos.... especially with the 3x telephoto lens... it was MUCH worse than the telephoto lens on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Strangely, pictures taken with 3rd party camera apps on the 13 Pro Max looked amazing.... so I assume that Apple can easily fix this issue. :(
 

darkheroz

macrumors regular
Jan 4, 2012
122
170
Bulgaria
How iPhone and iOS decide where the focus is ??? In all samples focus point is somewhere in the middle. The borders lacks of focus ...
 

kirk.vino

macrumors 6502a
Oct 27, 2017
667
1,013
How iPhone and iOS decide where the focus is ??? In all samples focus point is somewhere in the middle. The borders lacks of focus ...
Which is normal for optics with fast apertures. It all depends on where you tap your focus. I’m still not sold on most of the comments here. I still have my iPhone 11 Pro, I’m also into photography and have a Sony a7III, which is a full-frame camera. I sat down on my couch yesterday and took a bunch of pics with my 11 Pro and 13 Pro Max side by side. I focused on different things around my living room. 99.9% of the time the 13 PM would take better pics, better detail and less noise. I compared the HEIF files only. Once again, anything outside of the main area of focus on the 13 PM would appear blurrier, which is absolutely normal for a faster aperture since the depth of field is shallower. Anything in focus looked better on my 13 PM than 11 Pro.
People here should stop comparing pics taken with different optics/apertures when they look at the out-of-focus areas. That’s just not apples to apples, no pun intended.
 

diego.caraballo

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2013
699
1,807
Which is normal for optics with fast apertures. It all depends on where you tap your focus. I’m still not sold on most of the comments here. I still have my iPhone 11 Pro, I’m also into photography and have a Sony a7III, which is a full-frame camera. I sat down on my couch yesterday and took a bunch of pics with my 11 Pro and 13 Pro Max side by side. I focused on different things around my living room. 99.9% of the time the 13 PM would take better pics, better detail and less noise. I compared the HEIF files only. Once again, anything outside of the main area of focus on the 13 PM would appear blurrier, which is absolutely normal for a faster aperture since the depth of field is shallower. Anything in focus looked better on my 13 PM than 11 Pro.
People here should stop comparing pics taken with different optics/apertures when they look at the out-of-focus areas. That’s just not apples to apples, no pun intended.
Most people on this thread are not new to the iPhone. Is hard to avoid the comparisons. I agree that the iPhone 13 Pro used in close range is really good. However, when shooting what should be "infinite" focus it's really bad.

Below is a photo taken with the 12 Pro. What area I should choose to focus and what part I should sacrifice using the 13 Pro...

IMG_3239.JPG


Or the XS:

IMG_8530.JPG
 
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corebit

macrumors newbie
Oct 25, 2021
3
5
I'm glad I stumbled across this thread. I preordered 13 Pro Max for myself and 13 Pro for wifey. Both phones took blurry pictures especially 3x. I took hundreds of pictures and during good lighting my XS Max produced better pictures. They look natural and real. 13 Pro Max produces pictures that look like a water painting. On top of that, it miss-focuses as well. I took over 1,300 portraits on my XS Max since 2018 and never had focusing issues. I buy the 13 PM and I suddenly can't take decent pictures. What gives? Are we moving backwards or what?! Mind you, this isn't my first time taking pictures. Anyway, I returned both of the phones after a week of testing.

Bought another 13 PM few days ago and exact same issue. Same garbage and unusable images. Will wait for iOS 15.1 and if that doesn't fix it, the 13 PM is going back. I already complained at the store and Apple wanted to reach out to me. I'm hearing that apple and other manufacturers are using cheaper lenses. Perhaps plastic elements?

All in all, three iPhone 13 Pro units and everyone of them took exact same water painting like pictures that are unusable and kind of like out of focus. 3x lens is pretty much useless as it produces some of the worst pictures.
 
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austyn23

macrumors 6502a
Nov 22, 2017
620
709
Wow, sad to hear this, a little extrange also, how apple don´t see this?.

Or as sometimes happens is just a bunch of forum users while thousands are getting nice pictures of they phones?
 

Apple_Glen_UK

macrumors 65816
Oct 26, 2015
1,190
15,482
West Sussex, England
I am still baffled by this. Clearly many people are experiencing issues. However, in other threads on here the photos from the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max look stunning and having watched loads of reviews on YouTube, I haven’t seen anyone raise this problem. I watched a comparison on YouTube yesterday comparing photos on the 12 Pro vs 13 Pro and the 13 Pro shots looked better (to me at least) in every instance. Could it be a batch of dodgy phones?
 
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BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
I am still baffled by this. Clearly many people are experiencing issues. However, in other threads on here the photos from the 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max look stunning and having watched loads of reviews on YouTube, I haven’t seen anyone raise this problem. I watched a comparison on YouTube yesterday comparing photos on the 12 Pro vs 13 Pro and the 13 Pro shots looked better (to me at least) in every instance. Could it be a batch of dodgy phones?
I don't know. I do know for all the years I've been here, every year there's a thread about how the camera on this year's phone is worse than previous phones with a dozen of people having the same problems without fail. <shrug>. I'm not discounting their experiences, just making an observation that I see here every year.

Having owned the 4s, 5, 6+, 6s+, 8+, Xs Max, 11 Pro Max, and 12 Pro Max? Cameras have always gotten noticeably better for me. The Xs Max and 11 Pro Max had some serious green globs at night when reflecting light but the DSLR I had does similar things without a filter.

My 13 Pro Max is taking some of the most amazing photos I've ever seen come out of an iPhone. My wife's 13 PM as well.

Again, not discounting the poster's concerns and problems - they appear to have problems and/or bad phones but - these threads happen every release.
 

aspenextreme03

macrumors regular
Oct 22, 2021
242
315
Have not had a lot of issues with the 13pm with pics except when I use telephoto in photo mode. If I am using telephoto with portrait mode works well. Kind of odd using that mode to get the best out of 3x. If I am using in regular photo mode and go over 2.5x it gets noticeably worse in my experience so far. The ultra and wide camera though are very nice.

Still testing raw vs regular jpg to see if it makes any difference. I would shoot raw all the time on my Nikon DSLR and do in post but I am not sure it is worth the time shooting in RAW on my 13pm even though I have the 512gb version and don't have to worry about storage.
 

diego.caraballo

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2013
699
1,807
I don't know. I do know for all the years I've been here, every year there's a thread about how the camera on this year's phone is worse than previous phones with a dozen of people having the same problems without fail. <shrug>. I'm not discounting their experiences, just making an observation that I see here every year.

Having owned the 4s, 5, 6+, 6s+, 8+, Xs Max, 11 Pro Max, and 12 Pro Max? Cameras have always gotten noticeably better for me. The Xs Max and 11 Pro Max had some serious green globs at night when reflecting light but the DSLR I had does similar things without a filter.

My 13 Pro Max is taking some of the most amazing photos I've ever seen come out of an iPhone. My wife's 13 PM as well.

Again, not discounting the poster's concerns and problems - they appear to have problems and/or bad phones but - these threads happen every release.
Do you mind to share some? Wide, outdoor, daylight, straight from the Camera app. Would help to determine if it's a hardware issue with some phones. Thank you!
 

Rasputin78

macrumors newbie
Oct 25, 2021
22
36
Just wanted to chime in here after pushing several hundred photos through my 13 Pro the past 3 weeks. Firstly, I'm glad to have come across this thread, as I legitimately thought I had a faulty camera module on my phone. However, after shooting with it pretty heavily, I have come to some conclusions...

1) Apple ABSOLUTELY needs to bring back the ability to switch Smart HDR on/off. There are simply way too many use cases where that kind of processing is not desirable.

2) The mannequin, smudgy and "watercolor" effects produced in photos (at least in my case) has everything to do with the 3x camera (or lack thereof). Almost all of the photos I could replicate the effect with was a direct result of the camera not actually using the the 3x module. Instead, it was cropping in the the main sensor. The strange thing is, it was not doing this every single time. I originally thought Apple may have some parameters set to where it will 3x crop during certain lighting conditions and such, but variances exist in all conditions with no apparent reason. While using Halide and selecting 3x, the results are far different and that is due to it actually using the module. So, as large of a PITA that it is, anytime I use the 3x, I'm flipping over to Halide or Procam. Regardless, unbelievably ridiculous implementation from Apple. But, the general rule is Apple throws the kitchen sink in processing of any kind of digital zooming and it looks awful.

3) Apple's standard photographic style is not the "standard" of prior generations. I still think the 11 series found the sweet spot when it comes to accurate color representation by default. Changing the style to values of -30 tone / +15 warmth on the 13 gets it pretty close.
 
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aspenextreme03

macrumors regular
Oct 22, 2021
242
315
Just wanted to chime in here after pushing several hundred photos through my 13 Pro the past 3 weeks. Firstly, I'm glad to have come across this thread, as I legitimately thought I had a faulty camera module on my phone. However, after shooting with it pretty heavily, I have come to some conclusions...

1) Apple ABSOLUTELY needs to bring back the ability to switch Smart HDR on/off. There are simply way too many use cases where that kind of processing is not desirable.

2) The mannequin, smudgy and "watercolor" effects produced in photos (at least in my case) has everything to do with the 3x camera (or lack thereof). Almost all of the photos I could replicate the effect with was a direct result of the camera not actually using the the 3x module. Instead, it was cropping in the the main sensor. The strange thing is, it was not doing this every single time. I originally thought Apple may have some parameters set to where it will 3x crop during certain lighting conditions and such, but variances exist in all conditions with no apparent reason. While using Halide and selecting 3x, the results are far different and that is due to it actually using the module. So, as large of a PITA that it is, anytime I use the 3x, I'm flipping over to Halide or Procam. Regardless, unbelievably ridiculous implementation from Apple. But, the general rule is Apple throws the kitchen sink in processing of any kind of digital zooming and it looks awful.

3) Apple's standard photographic style is not the "standard" of prior generations. I still think the 11 series found the sweet spot when it comes to accurate color representation by default. Changing the style to values of -30 tone / +15 warmth on the 13 gets it pretty close.
Is halide really that great? For $50 lifetime it seems kind if steep but maybe that is just me. $2.99 for the month to test though might be a good thing. And I 100% agree with you digital zoom is horrendous.
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
Do you mind to share some? Wide, outdoor, daylight, straight from the Camera app. Would help to determine if it's a hardware issue with some phones. Thank you!
I would love to but most of my photos are not public ready or good enough to be studied. I apologize lol. I do hope that Apple figures out a way to fix the lens switching cuz I'm finding out it is switching lenses all the time when I try to take shots and it's annoying.
 

Rasputin78

macrumors newbie
Oct 25, 2021
22
36
Is halide really that great? For $50 lifetime it seems kind if steep but maybe that is just me. $2.99 for the month to test though might be a good thing. And I 100% agree with you digital zoom is horrendous.
Honestly, no and that's why it's so aggravating. I originally bought it pre-ProRAW because I wanted RAW ability and occasionally for the manual control ability, but for the price? No.

This seems like such an easy and logical fix and I'm sure there's some kind of reasoning behind why Apple did it. But, (to me) this seems like Apple decided that a majority of people don't know how to properly use the 3x camera therefore this is how they'll do it. As for the rest of the processing? Again, I think it's Apple assuming that a vast majority of the time, people will be viewing these photos on screen and in social media apps and most won't be zooming in at any great detail to see the smudgy mess they actually are.
 
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