Yeah, I also agree with the thread title! My 5s took much better pics than my 6 as my 6 pics are grainy and dull compared to my 5s pics. I bought the iPhone 6 camera hype/marketing hook, line, and sinker and am disappointed. Thought I was doing something wrong so I decided to do a Google search on the iPhone 6 camera and found this thread and learned others have this issue too. Hope Apple fixes this soon!
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iPhone 6 Camera worse than previous models?
- Thread starter BuffordT
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The TIFF photos look good on my 6+ using 645Pro. The stock camera photos look good as well.
645Pro
Stock
i think it takes better pictures. In order for this to actually be tested the pictures need to be taken with same lightening and in same exact position.
Is everyone forgetting the reviews that took pictures with both and showed the 5s has blurry effect on pictures.
The problem with the camera on the 6/6+ is not over-compression. We're not seeing compression artifacts. It appears to be over-zealous noise reduction. It's something that Apple could change with a software update, but it seems to me that it was an intentional decision to go this direction so unless there's a lot of outcry I'm not too hopeful that it will be changed. I do however disagree that it's worse than previous models. In certain situations it might be worse, but overall it's clearly better than my 5 was.
I'm a professional photojournalist working for a small daily newspaper, and I'll just say that many of my best photos in the past month have been snapped with the iPhone 6. And gone into print.
I disagree. There pictures are much more heavily compressed than the 4/5/5S/5C. I agree the noise reduction is very aggressive. But how do you account for the exact same picture taken with a 5 or 5S being 50% larger than the 6/6plus? I don't think there have been leaps and bounds made in jpeg compression algorithms in the last year.
I haven't done any comparison of file sizes. It may in fact be that it is more compressed, but I don't believe that is causing what people are perceiving as differences in quality. If you over-compress a JPEG you don't get the effect that many are complaining of.
Someone from another thread mentioned that there is a job posting for a camera software engineer at Apple so I did a little digging and...
Seems like Apple might be looking for someone to help fine tune some things, but probably not before iOS 8.1 drops.
Apple's website under job posting said:
Seems like Apple might be looking for someone to help fine tune some things, but probably not before iOS 8.1 drops.
Pixel peeping doesn't make one a professional photographer. It's a damn camera phone. You all are acting like it's killing your livelihoods. People on Facebook and Instagram aren't gonna care. Your gonna destroy it anyway with a stupid filter.
I'm not sure why you think it's just an enlargement. The sample I posted are both at 100% magnification. The one taken with the 645 app is vastly superior.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/20016247/
I spoke with the developer of the 645 app. As it's been pointed out by others, these 3rd party apps can not access the raw image file. They can only receive the image after it's been processed by the Apple chip.
Yes I understand that. I have not had the time to extensively test it, but from the few samples I took, it looks like it at least bypasses Apple's heavy jpeg compression and noise reduction.
It'd been something that Apple can really boast about if they allowed full RAW capture.
No, the image is compressed and noise reduction applied before the 3rd party app receives it. They increase file size in an attempt to claim hi-quality jpg or TIFF, but the image is not improved.
I certainly see what looks like overuse of despeckle? I loved taking macro images of eyes, when I take one with the 6+ the iris (colorful part of the eye) is kinda bland and sometimes blurry.
When I take a picture with my 5s it's just perfect, very colorful and clear, great color compared to the 6+
The interesting part is the white part and red vessels are somewhat sharper.
I think we are seeing more aggressive processing to remove speckles etc, so in low light it looks better, but in bright light it's just over doing it.
Colors also seem slightly bland on my 6+
Each model has it's pluses and minuses.
When I take a picture with my 5s it's just perfect, very colorful and clear, great color compared to the 6+
The interesting part is the white part and red vessels are somewhat sharper.
I think we are seeing more aggressive processing to remove speckles etc, so in low light it looks better, but in bright light it's just over doing it.
Colors also seem slightly bland on my 6+
Each model has it's pluses and minuses.
So this thread is a few days old, but just wanted to chime in. I have noticed the same thing with my 6, coming from a 5s. The photos look nice on the screen, but at 100% things are quite smudgy.
The photos I am looking at were taken on a day with literally perfect conditions - looking at the face in the picture there is no detail at all. Some words written on a newspaper stand also have no detail.
Comparing this to some photos taken with my 5s a few months ago, in less ideal conditions (higher iso) there is much more detail in the subject. You don't see the same smudginess until you are looking at a 200% crop.
My guess is that it is a software issue, but I really hope apple turns down the noise reduction in 8.1.
The photos I am looking at were taken on a day with literally perfect conditions - looking at the face in the picture there is no detail at all. Some words written on a newspaper stand also have no detail.
Comparing this to some photos taken with my 5s a few months ago, in less ideal conditions (higher iso) there is much more detail in the subject. You don't see the same smudginess until you are looking at a 200% crop.
My guess is that it is a software issue, but I really hope apple turns down the noise reduction in 8.1.
Any fix on 8.1? I still can't believe the camera being worse than 5s based on professional reviews and compariso. Pics.
I have to say, I really don't agree that it's worse than the older phones overall. There may be some issues in certain lighting conditions -- and if you're pixel peeping -- but I took some photos recently that we just stunning. Much better than I've ever gotten from a phone in the past.
Well 100% zoom definitely looks pretty bad. With our phones already having lower resolutions than others, that just adds insult to injury.
Even with 50% zoom it looks bad. No detail whatsoever. The pics only look good on the phone screen not zoomed. Way too much jpeg compression.
Camera+ just released version 6.1. It includes a Pro quality setting. It says photos are stored and processed in TIFF format with lossless compression. I've been a big Camera+ fan for years and just installed the update...will see how it goes.
FYI a pic with the Pro setting enabled was 9.5mb and High setting was 4.5mb...I realize size doesn't always indicate better quality but need to drill into it more.
FYI a pic with the Pro setting enabled was 9.5mb and High setting was 4.5mb...I realize size doesn't always indicate better quality but need to drill into it more.
