iPhone Air I love the iPhone Air, but the camera is just bad

[DMG35]

I have glowed about the iPhone Air and what a great device I think it is, but there is a major drawback in it, the Camera. One of my favorite things about it is that I can slide it in a suit jacket pocket and its like Its not even there. Great for going to formal events where you don't want a big buiky phone sticking out of your pocket.

Because of that I took it to a wedding last night and what a mistake that was. If this phone doens't have perfect lighting then just forget about it. It really struggles in anything but perfect lighting. Here are a few different types of photos I took.

Selfie of me and my wife. Not too bad, but good lighting.

Here is another of my wife. Not bad again, but really good lighting:

And then there is this, which is pretty awful:

I honestly can't remember when I've owned a smartphone that's taken photos that are this terrible in less than perfect lighting. Someone else had a 16 Pro Max that also took a photo of us that I'm going to have them send me to compare, but this is pretty pathetic. The lightning wasn't nearly as bad as the photo makes it look and it just does a terrible job of trying to discern the colors that are in the wedding reception hall and just gave everything a purplish hue. All of my photos look like this. They are absolutely terrible and it highlights the biggest flaw of this phone.

I still love the Air, but am not taking it to things like this again because the photos are just plain bad.

 

[Htsi]

It’s not great but can’t say without comparing with the other phones. The main camera has been the same for the past couple of gens, air’s is worse than 14P but not much and it gets latest processing. I don’t think it’ll be too much of a difference when you’re using 1X camera on either phone apart from RAW.

 

[digimc]

As others have said this is probably the biggest issue that is really holding the Air back. It's also probably why it's not selling more units at least here in the US. I love the idea of the Air and I have picked one up in the Apple Store and I definitely think it has the 'wow' factor that is missing from the Pro series this year.

But not having the better camera's of the Pro lineup is definitely going to be a deal killer for some.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I don't think I have seen a photo that bad in a long time. Looks like it used flash and then overcompensated for extra light caused, in addition to the subtle light going at you from the side angle.

As an Air user, I would have been very disappointed as well. Is this an ongoing problem for you, or was it just the wedding?

 

[DMG35]

I don't think I have seen a photo that bad in a long time. Looks like it used flash and then overcompensated for extra light caused, in addition to the subtle light going at you from the side angle.

As an Air user, I would have been very disappointed as well. Is this an ongoing problem for you, or was it just the wedding?

It was just at this wedding, although I will say that I haven’t taken a lot of shots at indoor events with this phone yet. I have a 17 Pro Max and have used it mainly for those.

 

[mathiasinthe314]

The camera was 1 of 2 reasons I returned it and got the Pro (the other was I prefer 6.3" over 6.5" on the screen, but that was minor). I too went to a wedding and took pictures. It struggled to keep up with my wife's 14 Pro and I knew my 16 Pro Max would have fared much better if I still had it. In the following week I also noticed that it wasn't as quick and crisp when there was motion involved and that led to blurry background features much of the time and sometimes primary subjects, too. I also noted that the images in general, regardless of lighting were not quite as sharp/clear as the Pros. To be clear, the images weren't bad, but they were not as good. As someone who enjoys taking great photos, is relied upon by the family for photo taking, and doesn't like lugging a DSLR around... I returned for the Pro. It was a hard decision, but one that I have been satisfied with this last week when I've needed to take photos, especially at an orchestra performance for my daughter.

 

[dantay]

The camera is the reason I returned the Air for the 17 Pro, loved the look and feel of the Air and the screen size was perfect but the camera is noticeably worse than the Pro. I really didn’t think it would be a deal breaker for me as I definitely don’t take a huge amount of pictures but when I do I want it to be decent and the Air (although sometimes perfectly acceptable) wasn’t great in slightly more challenging indoor situations as the OP said.

 

[joshwithachance]

Despite the fact that I use the main 1x camera 90% of the time, I too found it a bit lacking in anything other than ideal lighting situations…

But the Pro wouldn't fare all that much better in this scenario either. Small sensors are small sensors at the end of the day, even if the one on the Pro is a bit larger.

 

[achappy]

Interesting. I compared an Air, 17 Pro and my 15 Pro Max for a while with all kinds of different lighting situations and I found the Air had no real differences in quality when using the main cameras. Not enough where I would say I would give up the feel, thinness and size of the Air for the Pro. I know I’m giving up the telephoto but I don’t feel the telephoto lens are high enough quality to use as a selling point for the pro. I did numerous comparisons between my 5X optical and Air 5X digital and although the optical was slightly clearer and had more details, they were still pixelated and not printable.

So I stuck with my Air and have started taking my DSLR for times when I need distance.

Here’s a sample from the Air that I had compared with the others (already deleted those). Only light was from a TV and a small lamp:

 

[Zensō]

The main camera on the Pro and Air are nearly identical, so your bad photo example is not something unique to the Air’s camera.

 

[dantay]

Interesting. I compared an Air, 17 Pro and my 15 Pro Max for a while with all kinds of different lighting situations and I found the Air had no real differences in quality when using the main cameras. Not enough where I would say I would give up the feel, thinness and size of the Air for the Pro. I know I’m giving up the telephoto but I don’t feel the telephoto lens are high enough quality to use as a selling point for the pro. I did numerous comparisons between my 5X optical and Air 5X digital and although the optical was slightly clearer and had more details, they were still pixelated and not printable.

So I stuck with my Air and have started taking my DSLR for times when I need distance.

Here’s a sample from the Air that I had compared with the others (already deleted those). Only light was from a TV and a small lamp:

Nice pic……your dog is adorable.

 

[thatJohann]

What? I find the camera to be great. Even capturing this difficult sunset alright.

 

[nepalisherpa]

These phone sensors are so tiny that any phone will struggle in low-light. The lighting on your 3rd pic just looks extremely bad and the blue light is not helping either. Plus, from your examples, only one picture under bad lighting looked bad and, just because of that, the whole camera is bad?

Here's an example from Air with good lighting.

 

[DMG35]

What? I find the camera to be great. Even capturing this difficult sunset alright.
View attachment 2569907

That’s not remotely comparable. Capturing a sunset and capturing people indoors in difficult lighting are two completely different kinds of shot. Really any phone will be able to give you a decent shot like yours above.

 

[GDF]

That’s not remotely comparable. Capturing a sunset and capturing people indoors in difficult lighting are two completely different kinds of shot. Really any phone will be able to give you a decent shot like yours above.

Totally agree with you on the Air indoor pics. They are way inconsistent compared to my wife’s 17 Pro Max. Definitely the camera is the downfall of the Air and probably one of the main reasons it is not selling well. I still like mine, but considering selling it and going to the 17 Pro. The 17 Pro just feels so clunky this year compared to past Pro’s.

 

[jntdroid]

Whatever is said about the Air’s camera also applies to the 17’s camera - they’re practically identical when it comes to standard photos, this isn’t an Air specific thing.

And we also shouldn’t pretend the 17 Pro is going to be magically much better. Yes it could have some improvements in lower light due to the larger sensor. But there are a couple of extensive threads here talking about the shortcomings on the 17 Pro as well, especially focus / sharpness.

I had a 17 Pro for a week or so and honestly I was underwhelmed by lower light shots as well - especially with the focal length as it didn’t take much distance at all to put faces out of focus. My wife’s 16 has performed better in those scenarios.

My hunch is that Apple has simply changed their processing algorithms on the entire 17 line. It’s a give and take when limited by small sensors, and they chose to give in some areas and take away in others, because there are plenty of scenarios where the 17/17P/Air take phenomenal photos as well.

 

[James6s]

This isn’t specific to the Air.

I briefly had a 17 Pro before deciding to stick with the Air and whilst the Pro obviously has the better overall camera system, I was underwhelmed by some of the 17 Pro shots indoors with challenging lighting.

Every phone will take a bad photo now and again.

This shot had sunlight from one side.

Multiple light sources with poor detail

Air shot with same lighting

 

[acblue94]

I have glowed about the iPhone Air and what a great device I think it is, but there is a major drawback in it, the Camera. One of my favorite things about it is that I can slide it in a suit jacket pocket and its like Its not even there. Great for going to formal events where you don't want a big buiky phone sticking out of your pocket.

Because of that I took it to a wedding last night and what a mistake that was. If this phone doens't have perfect lighting then just forget about it. It really struggles in anything but perfect lighting. Here are a few different types of photos I took.

Selfie of me and my wife. Not too bad, but good lighting.
View attachment 2569766

Here is another of my wife. Not bad again, but really good lighting:

View attachment 2569767


And then there is this, which is pretty awful:

View attachment 2569768


I honestly can't remember when I've owned a smartphone that's taken photos that are this terrible in less than perfect lighting. Someone else had a 16 Pro Max that also took a photo of us that I'm going to have them send me to compare, but this is pretty pathetic. The lightning wasn't nearly as bad as the photo makes it look and it just does a terrible job of trying to discern the colors that are in the wedding reception hall and just gave everything a purplish hue. All of my photos look like this. They are absolutely terrible and it highlights the biggest flaw of this phone.

I still love the Air, but am not taking it to things like this again because the photos are just plain bad.

It’s the same camera for the exp

I have glowed about the iPhone Air and what a great device I think it is, but there is a major drawback in it, the Camera. One of my favorite things about it is that I can slide it in a suit jacket pocket and its like Its not even there. Great for going to formal events where you don't want a big buiky phone sticking out of your pocket.

Because of that I took it to a wedding last night and what a mistake that was. If this phone doens't have perfect lighting then just forget about it. It really struggles in anything but perfect lighting. Here are a few different types of photos I took.

Selfie of me and my wife. Not too bad, but good lighting.
View attachment 2569766

Here is another of my wife. Not bad again, but really good lighting:

View attachment 2569767


And then there is this, which is pretty awful:

View attachment 2569768


I honestly can't remember when I've owned a smartphone that's taken photos that are this terrible in less than perfect lighting. Someone else had a 16 Pro Max that also took a photo of us that I'm going to have them send me to compare, but this is pretty pathetic. The lightning wasn't nearly as bad as the photo makes it look and it just does a terrible job of trying to discern the colors that are in the wedding reception hall and just gave everything a purplish hue. All of my photos look like this. They are absolutely terrible and it highlights the biggest flaw of this phone.

I still love the Air, but am not taking it to things like this again because the photos are just plain bad.

User error bud.

 

[Hajj.david]

Given that the Air and 17 Pro have the same selfie camera and main camera how would this be any different on the Pro?

 

[ratspg]

It was just at this wedding, although I will say that I haven’t taken a lot of shots at indoor events with this phone yet. I have a 17 Pro Max and have used it mainly for those.

I tried it twice, it's so nice and thin (an amazing phone) but it felt like such a compromise on battery and cameras for me. Stayed with my 17 Pro Max.

 

[neuropsychguy]

Given that the Air and 17 Pro have the same selfie camera and main camera how would this be any different on the Pro?

The main camera is different. There have not been objectively bad cameras in any iPhone though. The cameras in newer iPhones are better than those in old iPhones, but all have been good for the time.

Edited for clarity. My reply got messed up when I was switching from a phone to my laptop.

 

[DMG35]

The 17 Pro just feels so clunky this year compared to past Pro’s.

I couldn’t agree more with this. The 17 Pro Max is literally the first iPhone I’ve hated carrying with me. Slippery, bulky, and heavy.

 

[jntdroid]

It's not different. There have not been objectively bad cameras in any iPhone. The cameras in newer iPhones are better than those in old iPhones, but all have good for the time.

The Pro does have a larger sensor. So it’s not identical. But as seen and mentioned above, it struggles in those scenarios as well.

 

[uacd]

It was kind of...expected. It shoots more or less the same as all iPhones before - 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11. Your examples actually remind me about my 11 Pro, I get similar photos in such light. I would call it "modern phone quality", a reason that I no more like to take photos with a phone. Your shots are not inherently bad, but the third one - yeah, thats definitely a weird HDR artifact + aggressive noise reduction.

Few workarounds that might or might not work for you:
- ProRAW
- Different resolutions (12, 24 or 48MP modes)
- Photographic styles (especially "Neutral", you can make it a default profile too - helps with sunsets a lot on 16 Pro)

 

[winxmac]

iOS 26.x is still fairly new, the latest is iOS 26.0.1

I don't remember how older iPhone models on the first iOS release performed but I guess any iPhone from 2016 and older will be worse than the 2017 and newer releases.

A better comparison would be shooting with an iPhone Air and shooting the same shot with an iPhone 17 Pro or any Pro from the last 2 years.