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iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro image stabilization worse than 14 Pro? Examples included.

M

mastercheif91

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 7, 2011
203
149
As I was doing a quick comparison of my iPhone 15 Pro's camera with my 14 Pro, I noticed that the 15 Pro's images had much higher levels of distortion around the edges of the frame.

I created one of those slider photo comparison things, check it out: https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxt...html?uid=ade9c290-5976-11ee-b5be-6595d9b17862

I used a (cheap) MagSafe tripod for these two photos. When shooting handheld, I saw the same results. Both photos were shot at 1/121s shutter + ISO 125, using the photos app. Used tap to focus on the cat and tried to induce as little vibration into the phone as possible when pressing the shutter. I'm able to reproduce this.

Cropped comparison for easy reference:
14p.jpg
15pf.png


My theories:

A) My iPhone 15 Pro has a hardware issue.
B) The new Photonic Engine pipeline struggles in high-contrast low-lighting situations.
C) The new auto-portrait mode depth map is somehow creeping into the photos even when it's not applied by the user.

Thoughts?

Edit: Direct download link to original HEIFs
iPhone 14 Pro
iPhone 15 Pro
 
Last edited:
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Fwiw, I've actually been impressed with the new Smart HDR 5 performance. The 15 Pro is far less prone to completely blowing out highlights, and I think it's making better color temperature decisions. Photos I've taken today have less green/yellow tint.
 
mastercheif91 said:
As I was doing a quick comparison of my iPhone 15 Pro's camera with my 14 Pro, I noticed that the 15 Pro's images had much higher levels of distortion around the edges of the frame.

I created one of those slider photo comparison things, check it out: https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxt...html?uid=ade9c290-5976-11ee-b5be-6595d9b17862

I used a (cheap) MagSafe tripod for these two photos. When shooting handheld, I saw the same results. Both photos were shot at 1/121s shutter + ISO 125, using the photos app. Used tap to focus on the cat and tried to induce as little vibration into the phone as possible when pressing the shutter. I'm able to reproduce this.

Cropped comparison for easy reference:
View attachment 2276281View attachment 2276306

My theories:

A) My iPhone 15 Pro has a hardware issue.
B) The new Photonic Engine pipeline struggles in high-contrast low-lighting situations.
C) The new auto-portrait mode depth map is somehow creeping into the photos even when it's not applied by the user.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
I think it was my iPhone 13 that I had a similar issue that I noticed right after getting it...I brought it into Apple and they replaced it under warranty. They didn't tell me the cause, just that yep, that's not right and here ya go.
 
So this is maybe simmillar as with my android phones (each new was worse with photography) and there was time needed to fix all bugs, so i think it is like with wine - older is better :D
 
Would love to see if anyone else is experiencing this before I make a genius appointment.

Looking at some other pictures… I don’t see the blurriness vs identical 14P shot.

That’s not encouraging, I’d almost rather this be a hardware issue with my phone.
 
Which (cheap) MagSafe tripod? Just curious. I'm coming from an 11 Pro Max so this will be my first MagSafe-enabled phone... though not till next month, since pre-order day store.apple.com website pains added 25 minutes to my order experience and lumped me into that mid-October delivery timeframe.

I'm not sure if I hope that's a hardware or software issue though. I'm leaning towards the latter since new major versions are a crapshoot these days and wouldn't be surprised if this is one of many 17.0 bugs. Hopefully someone else will chime in with another data point or two.
 
I can’t even tell where your 15 Pro is focusing on. The cat’s bed?

Your 14 Pro is focused on the cat but even the background and lamp are in focus as well.
 
MrAperture said:
I can’t even tell where your 15 Pro is focusing on. The cat’s bed?

Your 14 Pro is focused on the cat but even the background and lamp are in focus as well.
Click to expand...
I’m going to try turning off the auto-portrait mode capture to see if there’s a difference with the focal point + DoF.

Only problem is getting my subject to cooperate :)
 
Auto portrait includes pets I think - is it showing the f and triggered auto portrait?

Related question - if it does shoot auto portrait and you edit & turn off depth - is that equivalent quality to a non portrait or is there some fundamental difference in the source?
 
mrklaw said:
Auto portrait includes pets I think - is it showing the f and triggered auto portrait?

Related question - if it does shoot auto portrait and you edit & turn off depth - is that equivalent quality to a non portrait or is there some fundamental difference in the source?
Click to expand...
If you do not click the “f” button before taking the photo, Apple suggests that it should be equivalent to taking a standard non-portrait photo.

I’m trying to figure out if this is true. Going to do some testing with disabling the option in settings today.
 
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What did you end up doing? My images are 100 percent blurrier and less sharp than my 14 pro was. Especially indoors.
 
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