13" MBP - iSight blurry??

[someguy]

A friend of mine recently bought a 13" MacBook Pro and his iSight camera seems to be grainy, blurry, and generally poor in quality, this is the case no matter what the lighting in the environment is, bright or dark. Has anyone else had similar issues with their new MBPs?

 

[uberamd]

A friend of mine recently bought a 13" MacBook Pro and his iSight camera seems to be grainy, blurry, and generally poor in quality, this is the case no matter what the lighting in the environment is, bright or dark. Has anyone else had similar issues with their new MBPs?

Is it clean? Have you tried wiping it off? The iSight is 0.3 Megapixels so its not an amazing camera to begin with at 640x480. If you try to blow it up, it won't look great.

 

[someguy]

Is it clean? Have you tried wiping it off? The iSight is 0.3 Megapixels so its not an amazing camera to begin with at 640x480. If you try to blow it up, it won't look great.

Thanks for the response. It doesn't appear to be dirty or anything. I mean, it's a brand new laptop! Do they ship with a protective film or something over the lens that is supposed to be remove?

 

[iLog.Genius]

Thanks for the response. It doesn't appear to be dirty or anything. I mean, it's a brand new laptop! Do they ship with a protective film or something over the lens that is supposed to be remove?

No. What you're seeing is how it's suppose to look. Like uberamd said, the iSight camera isn't the greatest at 640x480 so what you're seeing say in photobooth or video chat, the grainy yet still very tolerable image is perfectly normal.

 

[someguy]

No. What you're seeing is how it's suppose to look. Like uberamd said, the iSight camera isn't the greatest at 640x480 so what you're seeing say in photobooth or video chat, the grainy yet still very tolerable image is perfectly normal.

I hear you, it's just that I have a MacBook Core Duo and my friend has a MacBook Pro (pre-unibody) and both of our iSight cameras look amazing. Why would a brand new MPB (unibody) look awful. If I get a chance, I'll take a picture with it and post it. In the meantime, thoughts?

 

[iLog.Genius]

Really hard to say since there's nothing backing the functionality of the iSight itself, either it's working or not. Two things I could suggest are that one, could be defective (doubtful) or it's the lighting. Other than those two ideas, can't really say without pictures comparing.

 

[someguy]

Really hard to say since there's nothing backing the functionality of the iSight itself, either it's working or not. Two things I could suggest are that one, could be defective (doubtful) or it's the lighting. Other than those two ideas, can't really say without pictures comparing.

Hmm. I'll see if I can get pictures sometime soon. In the meantime, just to reiterate, the picture is as bright as can be, but simply looks wayyy out of focus. It's very blurry/fuzzy/whatever no matter where or how I use it.

Thanks, everyone, for the input so far.

 

[FcNo]

im experiencing the same issue with the isight being blurry/crappy...i had bought a refurb umbp and i remember it being alot clearer....but i returned it due to dead pixels it had and bought a brand new 2.66ghz mbp back in sept. now this one i feel like the isight takes longer to boot up and its crappy in quality.

 

[someguy]

Alright, I was able to produce a few test images. The first is a shot taken from the older MacBook Pro. It looks great! The second, obviously, is from the new machine. I think anyone can see that the difference in quality is pretty substantial.

What do you think, MR?

 

[someguy]

Apologies for the bump. Anyone have any thoughts, comments, ideas..?

 

[Jazojas12]

Maybe it's just me but I think they look pretty close in quality and the 2nd one looks slightly better.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Alright, I was able to produce a few test images. The first is a shot taken from the older MacBook Pro. It looks great! The second, obviously, is from the new machine. I think anyone can see that the difference in quality is pretty substantial.

What do you think, MR?

While I do agree there seems to be a difference, it could be down to the different lighting conditions (a light fitting is evident in the second picture)

As the iSight compensates automatically for different lighting conditions, a fairer test would be to repeat but put the second computer in the position the first was in..

 

[jedivulcan]

I noticed that too... between my 15" Non-Unibody and my 13" uMBP... the uMBP looked like it had a softer image for some reason.

 

[Frosties]

I can't seem to find it now at Apple's site but I do remember Apple describing the isight camera at the top of the screen as smaller behind the glass during the introduction pages of the new Macbook pro line. The description is gone now though.

 

[someguy]

Thanks so far for the input everyone. It's definitely not an issue with the lighting. The quality of the image in general is just poorer. My friend looks like a mannequin, for crying out loud!

I can't seem to find it now at Apple's site but I do remember Apple describing the isight camera at the top of the screen as smaller behind the glass during the introduction pages of the new Macbook pro line. The description is gone now though.

So am I to understand that they changed the camera somehow? I was waiting for someone to tell me that the firmware was different or something, but I wonder if the camera is simply not as good as the ones they used to use.

Frustrating, and also a shame because the quality we are used to while using our previous gen machines was really quite nice.

 

[NikFinn]

Maybe it's just me but I think they look pretty close in quality and the 2nd one looks slightly better.

I concur.

 

[Frosties]

So am I to understand that they changed the camera somehow?

The camera doesn't need to be different, perhaps the opening was made smaller compared to the old one. As the description is gone now it could be my memory playing tricks but to prove or disprove just take a ruler and measure how big the openings are on the two versions. Many of these types of in screen mounted chat cameras have a wider opening than the lens is, perhaps Apple just made the opening smaller.

 

[Azathoth]

To me the 2nd picture shows a high level of noise reduction being used to 'smooth' out the noise (and details). Perhaps a different version of the software (or the firmware). Colour balance/saturation is also different (this can effect apparent noise).

Lastly, the focus seems to be slightly off in the 2nd picture. I dont know if the iSight has AF, if it is FF, then this could indicate a misaligned element. The camera modules Apple uses are the same as any consumer mobile phone, these can also vary greatly in their performance from unit to unit, because they cost about 2usd to make.

 

[Joeisnotmyrealname]

A friend of mine recently bought a 13" MacBook Pro and his iSight camera seems to be grainy, blurry, and generally poor in quality, this is the case no matter what the lighting in the environment is, bright or dark. Has anyone else had similar issues with their new MBPs?

I was having the same problem and I made a joke to my girlfriend that maybe I accidentally came on the lens... sure enough spitting on a handkerchief and wiping it did the trick.

 

[BarracksSi]

I was having the same problem and I made a joke to my girlfriend that maybe I accidentally came on the lens... sure enough spitting on a handkerchief and wiping it did the trick.

Man, I sure hope the thread starter figured this one out in the seven and a half years since he originally posted.