OP is just refusing the reality.
The camera is amazing for a phone. I think we are not getting the full story here but who knows. Lets see what september brings.
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iPhone XS Max I don't get why a $1000+ phone takes such HORRIBLE pictures!
- Thread starter spinedoc77
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The camera is amazing for a phone. I think we are not getting the full story here but who knows. Lets see what september brings.
Mine takes amazing photos, fwiw. I would suggest to keep at it. Photography really is a skill like anything else. Don't expect just because a phone has a best-in-class camera to be the 21st century Ansel Adams. Don't blame the phone.
OP is just refusing the reality.
The camera is amazing for a phone. I think we are not getting the full story here but who knows. Lets see what september brings.
I can only go by the reality of the pictures I've taken, and indoor pictures on my XS suck. Main complaint are the artifacts and graininess, which I don't encounter on my Pixel. I see plenty of great pictures with ideal lighting, and of course outdoor pics are awesome, but anything indoor and dim is horrible. I looked through the pics at that thread and they are beautiful, but I haven't seen any that are indoor and in dim light, but I've only gotten through about 25 out of 63 pages. The majority of those pics are outdoors and in bright light, which do not apply to my complaints. The rest are outdoor night shots and a few indoor shots under bright lights, once again not applicable to my complaint. Those pictures are irrelevant to my argument, although as I said I haven't made it through all of them. Finally there are no comparison pictures with a Pixel 3 to compare picture quality, but that wouldn't matter anyway because I'm not disputing those types of pictures.
My opinion hasn't changed, more so because it's actually based in the "reality" of the pictures I posted (and also on dozens more I've taken in similar conditions). Find me an indoor picture in dim light with 4x zoom and then we can talk, otherwise you continue to make the wrong points, or no point at all.
Edit: Now on page 30, I did find a somewhat applicable picture in post 742, looks like it was indoor and fairly dim, not sure if any zoom. Looks very grainy and is what I'm talking about. So far in 30 pages that's the only semi applicable one I've found.
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Amazing for a phone does not negate the fact that XS camera really does not take great quality photos showcased on Apple ads, and I can relate cause I don’t find XS camera that amazing under various less ideal lighting conditions.OP is just refusing the reality.
The camera is amazing for a phone. I think we are not getting the full story here but who knows. Lets see what september brings.
I understand but ZOOM is your first killer. You should never use zoom unless you are using optical. Thats the first rule of photography (when it comes to digital pics). Digital zoom will always mess up the quality. Usually, you take it with the highest possible optical zoom and then you crop later. Also, try to get stabilizer as that will help.
Anyway, if the quality is really that important then get a bloody DSLR!
I have D750 and don't use it much as I use my phone but when I go to occasion that I really care about I take my D750 with me.
I don't come to forums and complain how HORRIBLE my phone camera is. I blame myself for not taking the right gear for the job. Simple as that.
You are not millenial, you should understand my logic (even if you can't understand my english
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The pixel photo that @spinedoc77 posted wasn't great either. Maybe it was better than the max, but a less than ideal picture that is better than another less than ideal picture is still not great.
I understand but ZOOM is your first killer. You should never use zoom unless you are using optical. Thats the first rule of photography (when it comes to digital pics). Digital zoom will always mess up the quality. Usually, you take it with the highest possible optical zoom and then you crop later. Also, try to get stabilizer as that will help.
Anyway, if the quality is really that important then get a bloody DSLR!
I have D750 and don't use it much as I use my phone but when I go to occasion that I really care about I take my D750 with me.
I don't come to forums and complain how HORRIBLE my phone camera is. I blame myself for not taking the right gear for the job. Simple as that.
You are not millenial, you should understand my logic (even if you can't understand my english
Yes but THAT is the point, the pixel picture with the same zoom was much better. The quality isn't that important to a certain degree, in other words if the only camera I have on me is a smartphone camera and I don't have time to setup the camera or play with the settings then I'd like a halfway decent picture, but certainly my expectations are that it will still be fairly bad. That's exactly what the pixel pictures are in indoor dim conditions, something that still looks pretty good on my phone or tablet when I'm showing it off but nothing I'd consider for anything else. I appreciate the advice from others about zoom and have definitely been taking that into account going forward, but at the same time I still get crappy pictures indoor with the XS with no zoom, I still often get that grain/artifact on most pictures in those conditions.
BTW you are complaining as well, so I suppose you come to forums to complain about others complaining, right?
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Definitely no disagreement there, but at least the pixel picture was adequate enough to save the memory. I don't intend to print it or do anything else other than just have it available on a phone or tablet to look at in the future. I think that's what some on here are misunderstanding, even though I've stated several times I'm not expecting DSLR quality or anything even near it, just the opportunity to save a memory when all I have on me is a smartphone and a few seconds. The iphone picture is just unusable, the grain/artifacts are so bad you can barely make anything out, even on a smartphone screen. The pixel picture looks pretty good on a smartphone.
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The biggest problem, compared to the pixel, is that on the iPhone you used the long (tele) Camera, with an even smaller sensor (1/3.4 “ vs 1/2.55”) and slower (f2.4 vs f1.8) lens and then even zoomed that. You simply underexposed that shot and then the software tried to smooth all the artifacts out.
If you want a better, camera to camera, comparison then don’t use the long lens on the iPhone, use the regular shorter (main not the 2x) camera/lens
If you want a better, camera to camera, comparison then don’t use the long lens on the iPhone, use the regular shorter (main not the 2x) camera/lens
Some XS Max ambient light photos. Only the stage performan
ce is extra lit...
ce is extra lit...
I think low light levels are the only bad point on my 6s camera.
During the daytime it's really good, and this ain't even close to the XS Max, XR tech.
Wether the weird idea of 3 lenses will make things even better I can't say, but hey at least they'll sell a few more cases this year!
During the daytime it's really good, and this ain't even close to the XS Max, XR tech.
Wether the weird idea of 3 lenses will make things even better I can't say, but hey at least they'll sell a few more cases this year!
This thread should have been wastelanded a long time ago, it just keeps going around and around in circles and the OP isn't going to budge or open his mind any, so why bother?
Agree. Seems like unless you’re saying “absolutely! The camera sucks and Apple is at fault. You should sue them for making a camera that is so crappy it can only be used as a phone”, nothing will get through.
Your phone has nothing to do with that.
You’re the one that decided to use the long (tele) lens instead of the main (snort/wide) lens.
No, the phone has everything to do with in this particular situation that as it is what chooses the settings. As I've said repeatedly this is a point and shoot situation, I didn't have time for changing settings. What you say illustrates my point exactly, the iphone chose the wrong settings. With that in mind I certainly appreciate the advice and will take it into account in the future. From what I understand f-stop is only adjustable in Portrait mode in relation to background blur, if I did have time to adjust settings should I have switched to portrait mode? For the lens I could have easily chosen the better lens with a quick tap, so that advice I will definitely take going forward, but once again the Pixel chose the correct lens with no user input required. As for sensor size I'm not sure how to adjust that, can you elaborate?
Once again for those not understanding, my issue is that if I was to try to adjust settings many times I would end up losing the picture as I might only have a split second to get the shot. I totally agree that there are things I can do to improve the picture if I do have the time, I appreciate that advice and will take it into account going forward. But my main point remains that the Pixel takes much better pictures in this particular situation, that of a point and shoot shot in an indoor environment with dim light with only automatic adjustments. Yes this is a situation that most may not encounter much, but still it was the main issue I had since the beginning of the thread.
Edit: Doing some research and in regard to the telephoto lens I was reading the following: As long as you're shooting in a brightly-lit area, the Camera app will automatically select the 56mm-equivalent lens when you switch to 2x magnification; if you're in a dimly-lit area, however, you won't be able to use it, and the app will automatically switch to digitally-zoomed wide-angle shot.
It seems to apply to my situation being in a dimly lit area, so I'm not sure how to adjust for that or even know that the camera switched to digital zoom. In further researching this I see many users/sites saying that in dim light situations choosing the telephoto lens actually makes the shot worse due to the digital zoom being forced, and there is no indication on the camera app that this is even happening. Any thoughts?
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Were you using Live Photo’s?
If your taking any fast moving shots you should use focus and exposure lock on the iPhone, that would help.
You could also use burst mode.
Good luck op
That’s a horrible photo btw.
Meaning if you zoom into an image where there is insufficient lighting, and you zoom to 2x, there is no indication if the software is using digital zoom or the other lens is selected. That is a valid criticism. However, if you zoom to 1.9 or 2.1, you should know it's a digital zoom.
Yeah I've been reading up on the exposure lock, seems really good and I'm going to start using it. I at least always use focus on the subject of the picture, and did so in that picture.
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From what I understand the iphone calculates which will look better, the telephoto lens or a digital zoom, so you have to trust the iphone. If you do catch it digitally zooming what do you do? Do you trust that the iphone's algorithms know better than you, or trust that manually you can get better results? Much of these shortcomings do not become apparent until after you take the picture. And if I do catch the digital zoom being on, then I'm back to the same situation I was in originally.
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I agree 100%. However, photography is not 100% point and shoot there is some learning involved in spite of manufacturers "point and shoot" advertising. This thread is a good start for people to understand there is a bit of a learning curve to take the best of a picture in the worst of lighting scenarios and what the camera can and can't do. The experts make it look easy.
I'll trade you, I have a Galaxy S7 that took fantastic photos. Send me your iPhone and I'll send you my S7. It even has a 128GB SD card in it.
I totally agree, but at the same time there is a point and shoot aspect to smartphone pictures, much much more so than a pro camera. For one there are the times when you just have to get that shot or you will miss it forever, granted maybe this isn't that often, but it does happen especially with kids. Two I'll bet that consumers have some kind of expectation for point and shoot, your average consumer does not want to fiddle with settings and the entire reason Apple automates these processes are exactly because consumers want them this way. Once again I'm not saying all consumers as their will always be a subset that will want to tweak and get the best pictures, but I'm willing to bet the vast majority of smartphone users simply point and shoot. With that said I learned some good stuff from this thread and look forward to incorporating some of this stuff.
IT's NOT a $1,000 camera. It's a phone that has a camera in it.