5k iMac poor very camera quality - general issue?

[laasehn]

Hi,

I just purchased my 5k iMac, and are quite happy with it apart from the quality the camera is devlivering. The Pictures / video are not Sharp, blurry and washed out. I can see tht it indeed does record in the 720p resolution, so it is HD allright, but the quality is simply poor. When comparing this with my +2 year old MB Air in the very same light/position, the MB air shows a significant better Picture.
I went to the local retailer [not an Apple store], and did the very same comparison with the laptop and iMac thet had in the store and the very same issue showed - poor quality on the iMac and good quality on the MB Air / Pro.
The oens at the store never heard of this before, and were actually shocked to see this.
I called Apple, and they seem to care very Little about this as they only would focus on my iMac and replace it if neded - however it seems to make ittle sense if I will ge the very same issue with a new iMac...

Anyone who have knowledge within this area or an advice as to what I should do next?

how is your Picture qulity on your 5k iMac?

Kind regards
Lasse

 

[boast]

Yeah, I can agree it is not the greatest. It is better than my early 2013 MBP but seems worse than my iPad Air 2. But it is good enough for me for facetime/skype.

I would say if quality is important, get a 720P logitech webcam with autofocus.

 

[Korky]

Agreed it isn't the greatest but have to admit whilst FT etc have asked the other person and they say the pic quality is quite good.

 

[redheeler]

Camera quality has never been their highest priority for Macs. The 480p camera on the Retina MacBook is laughable in 2015.

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It's good enough for video chat, at least.

 

[laasehn]

but how come the quality be soo much worse than on a 2013 MB Air - there is a significant difference.

anyone who have tried to commpare this?

 

[aevan]

Camera quality has never been their highest priority for Macs. The 480p camera on the Retina MacBook is laughable in 2015.

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It's good enough for video chat, at least.

All camera equipped Macs from 2011 and up (including all Retina MacBooks) have FaceTime HD cameras that have 720p.

I'm not saying they are the best cameras ever, but they are quite fine for what they are intended to do. And they are certainly not 480p.

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but how come the quality be soo much worse than on a 2013 MB Air - there is a significant difference.

anyone who have tried to commpare this?

They should be the same (they have the same specs, but it is possible Apple changed suppliers).

I cannot see the difference between the camera on my iMac 5K and MacBook Pro Retina. And they are almost identical to the one I had on my 27" iMac 2011 model. I doubt a MacBook Air has a better camera.

Are you sure you don't have a faulty camera? Or perhaps you're using it in different lighting conditions?

 

[roadkill401]

I have a 5K imac and found that the camera on it is pretty much useless. The first imac that I got the image was always well out of focus unless you sat a good 6-8' away. The second replacement imac was much better but still not nearly as clear as I have on my ipad air.

But I bought the iMac for computing, and not for selfie video, so I just put up with it.

 

[kgapp]

All camera equipped Macs from 2011 and up (including all Retina MacBooks) have FaceTime HD cameras that have 720p.

I'm not saying they are the best cameras ever, but they are quite fine for what they are intended to do. And they are certainly not 480p.

Actually, the new 2015 Retina Macbook will indeed come with only a 480p camera (presumably it had to do something with the size of the device). Apple has this information posted under the tech specs for the machine (link below).

https://www.apple.com/macbook/specs/

 

[redheeler]

All camera equipped Macs from 2011 and up (including all Retina MacBooks) have FaceTime HD cameras that have 720p.

I'm not saying they are the best cameras ever, but they are quite fine for what they are intended to do. And they are certainly not 480p.

From Apple's website (page linked in the previous post):

480p FaceTime camera

Like I said, laughable for a $1599 product. Everything else in your post I agree with.

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I have a 5K imac and found that the camera on it is pretty much useless. The first imac that I got the image was always well out of focus unless you sat a good 6-8' away. The second replacement imac was much better but still not nearly as clear as I have on my ipad air.

But I bought the iMac for computing, and not for selfie video, so I just put up with it.

I agree the focus is not quite as good as my rMBP, but the exposure/noise is a little better. I don't use the iMac's camera much so I don't really care.

 

[aevan]

From Apple's website (page linked in the previous post):



Like I said, laughable for a $1599 product. Everything else in your post I agree with.

Ah, sorry, I read that as "MacBook Pro Retina" (and ignored the 2015) part - ok, that I did not know. I'm guessing it's because of the thinness of the display/cover.

 

[colodane]

The more things like this I see, the more I'm leaning toward replacing my iMac with a Mac Pro next time. Will be liberating to select my own peripherals such as camera, display, etc.

 

[Torontomec]

I recently bought the 5K Retina 27 in late 2015 iMac and the photos from it are garbage. I just compared it to my MacBook Air 2013 and it's crystal clear. For shelling out of four grand Canadian for a computer I want a clear image to the same quality as my old Mac and Laptop. This really sucks purely from you should get what you pay for point of view.

 

[ericgtr12]

I recently bought the 5K Retina 27 in late 2015 iMac and the photos from it are garbage. I just compared it to my MacBook Air 2013 and it's crystal clear. For shelling out of four grand Canadian for a computer I want a clear image to the same quality as my old Mac and Laptop. This really sucks purely from you should get what you pay for point of view.

I haven't tried this yet but has anyone compared the iMac images/video side by side on the MBP or vice versa? I only ask because it seems like anything that isn't designed for 4K or 5K doesn't look so good on that monitor with a lower resolution.

 

[maflynn]

Both are 720P AFAIK.

I haven't had any issues with the camera, seems ok for my humble needs. Maybe its defective

 

[idoccurt]

why they cants put in a camera the quality of a phones, I have no idea.

 

[maflynn]

why they cants put in a camera the quality of a phones, I have no idea.

They can of course, but they choose not too. Why put in a 12MP camera who's only usage is for online meetings and/or face time.

 

[294307]

I have a 27-inch iMac too and I was a bit surprised by the camera quality too as it isn't as good as I was originally expecting. You can either conclude that your experience is the same as ours, or that the camera in your iMac is defective (in which case, I'd suggest taking action before the return window is over). However I think you've heard from enough people to conclude the camera in the 5K iMacs are simply not that great - I'm not impressed with it either, but most importantly it works and let's me keep in touch with my family. It's an OK camera.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Why shell out $x,xxx? No matter what the product, it will have some limit on its capabilities, because there is a price-point to hit and a finite cost to each and every component and feature. The manufacturer has to balance the cost of each feature and component against what it thinks consumers will find attractive. In the end, you buy the product for what it can do, not what it can't. The manufacturer is betting that what it can do outweighs what it can't, for the vast majority of consumers.

I see this kind of comment for each and every product Apple makes. Effectively, "It costs more than the competing brand, so it should be everything I want." Get a clue - an unlimited wish list comes at an unlimited cost, not a somewhat higher cost. You must have a better camera, someone else must have more RAM, someone else must have a better GPU... Either every unit is build-to-order (which has its own added costs), or the off-the-shelf configurations have bundles of features that no one person would be willing to pay for.

In the end, you either buy it because it suits your needs, or it doesn't. There will be compromises, it's a question of whether they're painful compromises or minor inconveniences.

 

[cityboy-100]

The 2017 iMac. The camera is astonishingly bad even in good light. Out of focus and pervasive fringing and glow around every transition from light to dark. It's absurdly bad for how much space there is in the iMac and how much the thing costs.

 

[Prizm4]

The 2017 iMac. The camera is astonishingly bad even in good light.

I just got a 2017 iMac as well - it's my first Mac. Love it so far, but the camera is such a POS!

Apparently the iMac casing hasn't been updated in years, so I'm guessing they have warehouses full of old casings which include the crap camera. And they just change the rest of the innards.

I was wondering why they didn't mention the camera in the iMac product info on the Apple page. I had to read the fine print in the tech specs. Now I know why, the quality looks worse than 480p.

Oh well.....at least it comes with a microphone for voice commands

 

[jjd]

I just got a 2017 iMac as well - it's my first Mac. Love it so far, but the camera is such a POS!

Apparently the iMac casing hasn't been updated in years, so I'm guessing they have warehouses full of old casings which include the crap camera. And they just change the rest of the innards.

I was wondering why they didn't mention the camera in the iMac product info on the Apple page. I had to read the fine print in the tech specs. Now I know why, the quality looks worse than 480p.

Oh well.....at least it comes with a microphone for voice commands