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

All the reviews I've seen including my own comparisons from 17 pro and air show the main rear camera is pretty much identical. The 17 Pro would have almost certainly been just as poor in those settings.

I have the air and I have been impressed with the single camera quality. Sure, I'm missing some of the other feature but I compared my brother's 17 pro like for like and it was identical with the main camera.
 
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Even APS-C cameras struggle in low light so forget these phone sensors that are much smaller than APS-C sensors. At the least, you need a full-frame sensor with f1.4 or f1.2 lens to properly expose in low light. So, Pro/Pro-Max may have slightly bigger sensor than Air, they all still suck in low-light or bad light because of how small they are.

Maybe Apple can introduce at least a 1-inch sensor next year in their Pro lines. I would rather have one or two focal lengths with bigger sensor than three focal lengths with smaller sensor.
 
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GDF said:
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.
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Yep, 17 Pro with case and wallet is a proper dollop! I do miss the Air, hope they improve it next year with 2 cameras and a silicon carbide battery.
 
Konvictz said:
All the reviews I've seen including my own comparisons from 17 pro and air show the main rear camera is pretty much identical. The 17 Pro would have almost certainly been just as poor in those settings.

I have the air and I have been impressed with the single camera quality. Sure, I'm missing some of the other feature but I compared my brother's 17 pro like for like and it was identical with the main camera.
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Air has the same main camera as the standard 17, Pro line has a different module, I can definitely notice a difference in detail in darker environments with better detail in shadow areas and dynamic range. It’s not mind blowing but noticeable and then obviously you have 2 other lenses.
 
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The awfulness of the third picture seems to be due to post-processing more than anything else, so I would blame Apple’s software here, not necessarily the camera.
 
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DMG35 said:
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.
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I agree with this as well. I actually dread taking the 17 Pro Max out of my pocket when I’m out and about. It’s heavy, chunky and much more unwieldy than my 15 Pro Max.

I may go back to the Air. I may have to just deal with the single speaker and lesser camera lenses. I did love the way it felt in the hand. The 6.5” display is the perfect size imo.
 
there is something going on with the computation of these photos, or post processing ... I'm new to the 17PM (came from 13PM) and have learned a few things over the past month, in low lighting conditions, the camera takes multiple shots that then get processed for the "final" one, in your examples there is clearly some mis-processing going on.

Can you share camera settings, eg what format? heir? jpg? ProRaw (the might not be supported on the Air)? resolution?
Also in low light conditions, the camera app does "pixel binning", combines multiple pixels to obtain better lights, again, this is Apple's "computational" photography, software, not HW.
There have been multiple posts re phot quality, I expect we see some SW update coming.
 
DMG35 said:
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.
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I suppose you do not use a case? I've had every iPhone ever in a case, mostly leather cause they always have ben too slippery for me. my 17PM is in a case (Techwoven) and it feels just like the 13PM it replaced.
 
I find the Air takes 2-3 seconds to adjust for white balance.

I do love the screen. I would want this size screen in the regular Pro.

-
 
light on the side of the lens and a lens full of finger prints will always be bad
wipe it sometimes!
 
jz0309 said:
I suppose you do not use a case? I've had every iPhone ever in a case, mostly leather cause they always have ben too slippery for me. my 17PM is in a case (Techwoven) and it feels just like the 13PM it replaced.
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Off topic, but I think the Pro and Pro Max look great in the Techwoven case. If I had a Pro this year I would definitely have it in the Techwoven case, but I have the Air and it is in Apple's frost case.
 
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Couple of more examples under good lighting.


IMG_7795.jpg


IMG_7797.jpg
 
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Not sure what you expect, you see how much space they have to work with.. despite tech magic, laws of physics still apply..
 
DMG35 said:
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.
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17 pro max owner checking in: Every phone I have would take something similar or worse lol. If you used a camera app that got rid of all the post processing and computational photography tricks you would probably avoid that weird blue light thing that happened... but you'd get an incredibly grainy picture. It looks like the phone took 2 pictures and merged them in a weird way.

What phone cameras are great for are close ups of dogs, cats, and flowers in bright daylight, so everyone can fawn over all the detail in the animal fur or whatever.
 
Kjabean said:
Not sure what you expect, you see how much space they have to work with.. despite tech magic, laws of physics still apply..
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No I get that. Despite its flaws I stll love the phone. I think it just comes with a few caveats, which all phones do anyway.
 
Been trying to upload low light pics taken with the Air but this forum says image is too big when I try uploading them.
 
thatJohann said:
Trying this way, I’m not mad at the quality. IMO, perfectly fine for texting or social media if that’s your jam. This is using the Amber photographic style, tone -50, color +30. Compressed pics below:



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beautiful photos.
it shows that people who understand photography and use whatever tools that are available can always take better photos than us who just point and shoot.
thanks for sharing this.
 
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DMG35 said:
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.
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I can see why people would compliant but if you take 2-3 seconds longer you can adjust the exposure and quality of the camera quickly … it may not be “pro” but it’s a fantastic camera one of the best if you use it right, the difference with the air is it’s like older phones where you have to “use” more than the pro phones which I appreciate after having the pros for so long
 
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