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I am long into photography and know I can fix these. I did a lot more comparison shoots and the Air was always delivering the better looking results straight out of camera. And no photographic style was dialed in. People (faces) in particular looked somehow strange on the Pro. Maybe I got a defective unit, but when the Air gets the shoot right the first place, the Pro should be able to do these as well, right? Nevertheless the Air also has the good Samsung OLED whereas the Pro Max had the green tilt LG one. After I had the comparison I could no longer use the Pro Max. In the end the Air is such a beautiful phone whereas the 17 Pros are so ugly. By far the worst phone design Apple has ever done. I hope they improve the design somehow in the future.
Ok. Yeah I suppose you may have a defective unit. Many of them from launch day/week had issues as seen in this thread. I bought mine in late December after the rush of getting them out was over and QC had improved. I actually have two silver 17 pro max phones because I love photography as well. I started back in the film days, converted to digital in 2001 with a Nikon D1x.

I hope you didn’t find my post offensive or off, I didn’t know your photography background. Both of my 17 pro max iPhones are equally the same regarding the cameras and display. I picked them up at the Apple Store. The style has grown on me, the 16 pro’s and below look basic now in comparison. Did you get the 17 pro max on launch day? I didn’t know there are faulty displays out there or different manufacturers. I did see the thread on the screen lottery that was posted, but I didn’t look at it. I must have the OLED Samsung as well on both. No tinting at all & both are equal.

I came from the 16 pro max & upgraded to the 17 PM. Mainly because the 16 pro was getting very warm with basic functionality and warmer still when editing in Lightroom. As a long time photographer, I can easily see the difference in image quality. Distant faces and fine details in tree limbs seen on my 17’s has been great. I love the quality I’m getting. I’m glad you like the air, it’s a unique iPhone for sure and the white one has the “Bling” look to it.
 
No everything is fine. Yes got it at launch over my carrier - this makes returning the phone harder as you have to recall the contract as well. And I would have waited 6 weeks for a replacement unit.
 
A subtle difference for my two iPhone 17 pro max models. The camera did well before the update, but I can see a small improvement. The main improvement is with the 4x camera during the day with distant objects, trees mainly, now have a less softer look. Also the 4x camera did well in lower light at home after dark. The image cleans up faster with HEIF & ProRaw. The HEIF 24mp looks even better. Less noise & mush in shadows.

I updated one 17 pro max & left the other alone to compare. The 4x showed finer details of the same object taken with both iPhones. But it was subtle but noticeable. Now both iPhones are updated.

Next I need to see if any improvements have been made with night mode photography, 10” & 30”. I’m glad this update came along, it was unexpected. Probably because 26.3 won’t be here until mid February.
 
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I am definitely noticing the improved focus in the latest update as well. I’ve kept everything on 48mp for awhile to help fix the issue slightly but now I’ve switched back to 24mp and can see the difference from prior photos.

Hoping it only gets better from here!
 
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Yeah… that’s cool. I meant to add that I have seen better focus & less hunting when using the 4x & 8x camera.

A couple of photos of the moon I just took at dusk. I used the Moment Pro Camera II
Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moment-pro-camera-ii/id6748837351

To take the photo of the moon at 4x & 8x. That 8x camera option is really nice even though the output is 12mp. Moon shots taken with the 17 pro max look better than my S25 Ultra. Photos were taken in ProRaw with Lightroom edits. I think it’s great that I can see the craters at 8x!

Using manual focus in the Moment Pro Camera app, I used exposure compensation of -2.75 & manual focus on the 4x at .73 on the manual slider. The setting is the sharpest for the 4x & 8x.

4x with heavy crop

IMG_1583.jpeg


8x heavy crop, beyond 100%

IMG_1584.jpeg
 
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