oh I thought this was my shelves haha. my resulst are similar to yours. my 13 pro takes better pictures than my 1700 euros 17 pro..
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iPhone 16 Pro Max Issues with ProRAW 48 and stock camera app
- Thread starter jajo.j
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hey can you test the two units you got (or more if you have) in heic (stock camera) at 12mp? see if there's a difference . thanks. maybe it's ois
I got on the phone with apple support because I don't have an apple store in my city, nearest one is close to 2hrs away. So I told support that my image quality is bad and after explaining more, they got my permission to connect to my iPhone. They see what the cameras sees. I demonstrated live how the camera wasn't focusing correctly and I opened a third party app (ProCamera by Moment) and manually focused the camera and took the photo. The rep definitely saw what was going on. I made an appointment at the apple store in Houston and they replaced the camera module in my 16 pro max.
To those shooting in RAW (not ProRAW) to get around this, are there any apps that have solved the exposure simulation problem (where what you see in the "viewfinder" is Apple's processed capture, which may have a wildly different exposure than the RAW capture)?
I see . I've checked in store and mine seems worse than 1 out of 2 unit I tried . Seems to be lucky draw . I ****ing hate this . Spending nearly 2 grands for such a camera is disappointing
I know what you mean. The other issue that I had with my 16 Pro Max was that every time an iOS update was released, it messed up camera image quality, and I had to do a full restore to fix it. So I restored my phone, probably 6 times before getting the camera module replaced. Now I've switched to Android Galaxy S25, ultra and never have been happier. Cameras are fantastic. I still have my 16 Pro Max, though. I'll be keeping it for a while.
How exactly was it messing us after update? What part got messed up?
I have an issue with OIS that seems to be somewhat fixed after a reset on my 17 pro but that might mean I'll get it every month after update ....?
I got similar focus points with my 16PM and 17PM’s.
The image pipeline and processing profile are very different.
The 17PM tends to be much softer/lack of clarity, in various parts of the image, but that doesn't mean the photo isn't well focused.
You can see that in the previous post and photos from this thread.
The image pipeline and processing profile are very different.
The 17PM tends to be much softer/lack of clarity, in various parts of the image, but that doesn't mean the photo isn't well focused.
You can see that in the previous post and photos from this thread.
Actually one reviewer mentioned photos are softer this year which makes them more moody😅 He specifically recognised it about telephoto lens.
Saw that one too. I think he refers to softness in the context of less sharpening and not a total loss of detail and bluriness, as myself and a lot of other users are experiencing. He is a pro photographer, so he would have noticed, which leds me to believe that this is hopefully a software issue.
Gener
The thing is, every m43-chip offers MUCH better images than the iPhone does, and so Apple (as well as Samsung, Google etc.) have do to computational trickery to offer better results. I sometimes think that for Sony, Canon and Nikon this is the way to go in the future with better and faster chips, blending the far superior optics with AI and algorithms to get better results. This will probably also be more for the folks who shoot JPG (and Video), not for RAW-Shooters.
That said, the 1x cam and mobile LR is a good mixture, especially when you use good presets (like from Mastin, which work on mobile Lightroom) and spend a few minutes. The 4x is not quite as good, but much better than the 16PM tele was. The thing is that Apple should open the RAW-formats to third party apps.
Generally, in a RAW, softness is not a bad feature. It just gives you room for your own sharpening, as long as the image information is there and can be pushed and the image is not simply blurred or out of focus. You edit it in Lightroom to your liking and that's it. What you need is a high-res and honest RAW, the rest is Bir
The thing is, every m43-chip offers MUCH better images than the iPhone does, and so Apple (as well as Samsung, Google etc.) have do to computational trickery to offer better results. I sometimes think that for Sony, Canon and Nikon this is the way to go in the future with better and faster chips, blending the far superior optics with AI and algorithms to get better results. This will probably also be more for the folks who shoot JPG (and Video), not for RAW-Shooters.
That said, the 1x cam and mobile LR is a good mixture, especially when you use good presets (like from Mastin, which work on mobile Lightroom) and spend a few minutes. The 4x is not quite as good, but much better than the 16PM tele was. The thing is that Apple should open the RAW-formats to third party apps.
I agree with everything you said, but the issue that I, @nunolikeapple and a few others are experiencing can‘t be fixed via LR. It‘s present in the main 1x images in both ProRaw and HEIC (haven‘t tested unprocessed RAW from 3rd party apps yet), and leads to a total loss of detail, that can‘t be recovered. the bluriness reminds me of images before OIS was introduced and looks as if stabilisation isn’t working or exposure time has been substantially longer. But both can be ruled out as I see the same issue when the phone is mounted on a tripod, and exposure times between the 15PM and 17Pro images are identitical. See my image comparison under post #422
So both are 17Pro images, one from your device and the other one from the store!? Which one is which?
Sebastiaan de With also mentions softness in his review, specifically for the telephoto. He frames it positively, as if Apple has finally decided not to over sharpen everything.
I think it would be a big stretch for a photographer like him to spin the issues in this thread as "lack of heavy handed sharpening" or "downright atmospheric", so I'm guessing his phone is working as Apple intended and ours are not.
So you’re phone is worse. Since most phones are running on the same software build, and hence will be using the same imaging pipeline, software seems to be unlikely in this case (unless the phones in the store run on some beta version). So hardware issues seem more likely. I wonder though, when setting up the phone, did you restore from a backup? If so, which one, iCloud or phone to phone? Since some serious pros like Tyler Stalman and co. didnt mention any issues, I‘m thinking if this is somehow related to restoring from an old phone and porting over the camera settings. It usually only affects your picture settings, such as HEIC or Raw formats, MP count etc. and shouldn‘t impact the imaging pipeline at all. But you never know…
I did restore and I seem to be getting better results now that I've done a partial reset (reset settings , is that enough)
Your assumption might be right
Is there a chance that restoring from a backup also damaged the sensor ?
Can I send you a private message with pictures ? There's some personal data on those pics and I'd rather not share them here
No there will be no damage on the lens from restoring. That is simply a snapshot of your previous settings that will be restored. My question was simply, given the observation that the in-store model produced sharper results, what is the difference between that one and yours? It could be the software version. It's unlikely that the in-store models run on a beta. Most likely, they run on the latest stable build, which yours should do too. In that case the imaging pipeline should be identical. So unless its a hardware defect, the only other option that remains is some settings that are affecting the imaging. The cleanest test would be to reset the phone. Only sign up via iCloud and set up as a new phone. Don't restore from a backup and dont do a transfer from an older phone. take pictures and see if there is any difference.
There is little hope that this works given that @nunolikeapple tested some devices in store, and they didnt show much better imaging results, if I remember correctly. But it might be worth a try, to rule out some scenarios.
What a weird set of issues… 🤨 Today I did quite extensive testing outside in a VERY bright sunshine, and surprisingly all photos from my 17 Pro looked really good in ProRAW – regardless of the lens used. Didn't see any of the previous issues I've experienced.
Tested the 14 Pro alongside as well, but this time the differences between the two devices were relatively minor and indeed mostly probably down to slightly less agressive sharpening on the latest imaging pipeline which is just fine. Some image quality drop in the absolute corners on both devices but that's expected with lenses this tiny. If the 17 Pro cameras behaved like this all the time, I'd have no complaints.
The fact that all the the previous issues have been in more subdued light is probably hinting that the issue boils down to either image stabilization (not really needed with shutterspeeds in 1/1000…1/6000 range I saw today) or noise reduction / image stacking behaving erratically. Which I guess is a relatively positive signal as it seems to be leaning more towards this being a software issue, which could be fixed with an upcoming dot-update.
I'll be opening a support ticket to Apple with all this info, let's see how it goes.
Tested the 14 Pro alongside as well, but this time the differences between the two devices were relatively minor and indeed mostly probably down to slightly less agressive sharpening on the latest imaging pipeline which is just fine. Some image quality drop in the absolute corners on both devices but that's expected with lenses this tiny. If the 17 Pro cameras behaved like this all the time, I'd have no complaints.
The fact that all the the previous issues have been in more subdued light is probably hinting that the issue boils down to either image stabilization (not really needed with shutterspeeds in 1/1000…1/6000 range I saw today) or noise reduction / image stacking behaving erratically. Which I guess is a relatively positive signal as it seems to be leaning more towards this being a software issue, which could be fixed with an upcoming dot-update.
I'll be opening a support ticket to Apple with all this info, let's see how it goes.