iPhone 17 Pro Unimpressed with 17 series camera quality

[cjsuk]

Great edit! My shot was straight out of camera since I don't have the patience or skills to do such things hehe. But yes distortion on the corners isn't a concern unless pixel peeping, just showing that the Air do not lose focus or decrease sharpness on the corners that much compared to your 17 pro on certain shots

Yeah it certainly does a better job than the Pro does! I'm annoyed I didn't buy the standard 17 as the camera in that is same as the Air.

I don't generally edit my photos since I value straight out of camera quality, and also, I don't want a camera that needs editing just to look decent. My iPhone 17 Air just gives better than any dedicated camera when it comes to straight out of camera shots IMHO

Are you sure? People forgot what photos look like when smartphones came along.

Nikon F80 + 50mm f/1.8 + Ilford HP5 - no edit or crop (25 year old camera / lens with 100 year old technology):

Nikon Z5ii + 40mm f/2 + no edit or crop:

 

[ToddH]

I just got the 17 pro max and it seems that the 4x @ 48mp isn’t always 48mp. The camera seems to choose 12mp if the light is too low and pushes the camera to 4000 ISO. Do you folks with the 17 pro see this oddity with the camera? Even 3rd party apps that allow me to hard select 4x @ 48mp I usually get 12mp instead. That’s weird. It’s like the camera is selective on what it wants. So if I take photos in a restaurant with somewhat low ambience, will I not get 48mp from the 4x? I haven’t seen an issue with the 1x and the two sensors are closely the same size. Will some of you test this please?

When the resolution is set to 24mp, the 4x will provide 24mp instead of 12, which nobody wants 12mp anymore

 

[nunolikeapple]

I just got the 17 pro max and it seems that the 4x @ 48mp isn’t always 48mp. The camera seems to choose 12mp if the light is too low and pushes the camera to 4000 ISO. Do you folks with the 17 pro see this oddity with the camera? Even 3rd party apps that allow me to hard select 4x @ 48mp I usually get 12mp instead. That’s weird. It’s like the camera is selective on what it wants. So if I take photos in a restaurant with somewhat low ambience, will I not get 48mp from the 4x? I haven’t seen an issue with the 1x and the two sensors are closely the same size. Will some of you test this please?

When the resolution is set to 24mp, the 4x will provide 24mp instead of 12, which nobody wants 12mp anymore

That's a good point.
I need to test that out. I hardly ever use the telephoto lens, and when I do, it's always in daylight, so I haven't noticed that until now.

I use both ProCam apps. But my best telephoto results are from ProCam from Ashutosh Billa.

Im supper happy with this unit, splendid results from the wide camera at 48MP.

 

[Abstract]

I haven’t seen the recent Apple keynotes, but when the 48MP sensors were announced (in the 14PM), it was intended for the (output) photos to be 12MP, with 48MP only available in RAW, and only if you shot at 1x (i.e. didn’t zoom).

So basically, using the main (wide) camera, shooting at 1x meant that your 48MP sensor would be used to capture the photo, but would be processed so that the data from 4 pixels (2x2) would be used to create 1 pixel in the photo. When you zoomed to 2x, it wouldn’t do any of this interpretation. It would simply use the sensor’s central 12MP to capture and produce a 12MP photo (no interpolation).

Either way, you don’t get a 48 MP photo, but the photo taken at 1x (no zoom) should technically be better because of the interpolation. Having said that, a photo taken at 2x should have no distortion or corner sharpness issues because it’s taking the photo with the central part of the lens.



Anyway….iPhone 17 and Air use the same main sensor, and this sensor is smaller than the one in the 17 Pro. From reading the posts here, it sounds like the LiDAR may be the issue because the more basic “contrast-detect AF” should result in perfect sharpness all the time!! The 17 and Air only use contrast-detect, so isn’t seeing these issues.

 

[schnitzel-pretzel]

Anyone having trouble with this might want to give Adobe Project Indigo a shot. It's free (for now, I guess) and creates very natural looking photos IMHO.

 

[cjsuk]

I worked out how to get half decent photos out of the iPhone 17 Pro at least.

Open whatever garbage fell out in Adobe Lightroom Classic. Crop it into something interesting. Fix ballsed up white balance. Set clarity to -20. Mask the whole damn thing. Turn sharpness down to -45. Feck with the contrast until it looks nice. Turn the colour temp up +5. Export at lower res than the original shot.

Works every time.

 

[schnitzel-pretzel]

I worked out how to get half decent photos out of the iPhone 17 Pro at least.

Open whatever garbage fell out in Adobe Lightroom Classic. Crop it into something interesting. Fix ballsed up white balance. Set clarity to -20. Mask the whole damn thing. Turn sharpness down to -45. Feck with the contrast until it looks nice. Turn the colour temp up +5. Export at lower res than the original shot.

Works every time.

You really should try Project Indigo. It basically makes photos that look like that... No sharpening, reduced contrast, etc.

 

[cjsuk]

You really should try Project Indigo. It basically makes photos that look like that... No sharpening, reduced contrast, etc.

I’ll take a look at that.

I have consciously decided to just lug a camera around with me if I want to take photos and ignore the iPhone though.

This is an 11 year old camera with a 20 year old lens that cost less than the difference between the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro. I was also absolutely hammered and had a kebab in my hand when I took that.

 

[adrianlondon]

I was also absolutely hammered and had a kebab in my hand when I took that.

If you need alcohol and a kebab each time you take a good photo, you have to include the cost of those in your calculations 😁

 

[cjsuk]

If you need alcohol and a kebab each time you take a good photo, you have to include the cost of those in your calculations 😁

I'm doomed. That is all.

 

[ToddH]

You really should try Project Indigo. It basically makes photos that look like that... No sharpening, reduced contrast, etc.

I tried that app yesterday, I didn’t care for it, only 12mp resolution. There’s not much to choose in the settings either. I prefer strait up ProRaw. Then I sometimes use RNI Films if I want a retro look.

 

[schnitzel-pretzel]

I tried that app yesterday, I didn’t care for it, only 12mp resolution. There’s not much to choose in the settings either. I prefer strait up ProRaw. Then I sometimes use RNI Films if I want a retro look.

Hey, fair enough. I also love ProRAW shots... As long as I export the DNG to Lightroom, turn the sharpening down to zero, etc. It can turn out a pretty great shot, but it's annoying to have to do that every time. For just everyday snapshots, I use Project Indigo on my 17 Pro now, and, yes the 12MP is annoying but... It's just a snapshot.

Carrying around a camera isn't something I'm willing to do regularly tbh.

 

[ToddH]

Hey, fair enough. I also love ProRAW shots... As long as I export the DNG to Lightroom, turn the sharpening down to zero, etc. It can turn out a pretty great shot, but it's annoying to have to do that every time. For just everyday snapshots, I use Project Indigo on my 17 Pro now, and, yes the 12MP is annoying but... It's just a snapshot.

Carrying around a camera isn't something I'm willing to do regularly tbh.

Agreed! I import my raw files to Lightroom also. I use presets I’ve purchased and made for the photos. I really like Tyler Stalman’s preset set, I set my sharpening to 25 and adjust from there after applying the preset. I like the Procamera by Moment app, it’s a good one. Manual focus with peeking is great when I need to use it.

 

[nunolikeapple]

I dont have any issues so far with iOS 26.2.

Great results so far.

 

[alastorfra]

I dont have any issues so far with iOS 26.2.

Great results so far.

I still have the same issue.

Iphone 14 pro is much sharper than my new 17 pro

 

[ToddH]

So far I am very impressed & happy with the 17 pro max cameras. The clarity is the best I’ve seen lately on an iPhone. The battery is also fantastic. Apple did well on this iPhone. I bought mine (x2 pro max Silver) last week. I usually wait for several months after launch to buy the new iPhone so that the rush to manufacture them has slowed to provide better quality control. Both of my 17 pro max iPhone cameras are exactly the same in image quality.

ProRaw on these editing made to look somewhat retro.


1x

4x

8x

 

[nunolikeapple]

I had issues with my previous three units; all of them suffered from a lack of clarity and definition in 48MP ProRAW on the wide camera. Plus, they were equipped with poor LG screens. This new unit, however, has a superb Samsung display and a main camera that delivers fantastic results. The detail is amazing—it’s right on par with my super sharp 16 Pro Max.

Main wide - ProRaw48 (ProCam).