iPhone 14 Pro My iP14pro camera is crap

[Spacegray]

Hi everybody,
i received my new iP14pro two days ago.
Everything seemed to be fine at first. No dings or scratches, no dead pixels or colour tint - nice.
Then i took the first photos to check the image quality.
Arrghh - the quality of macro shots is terrible. They all look some kind of blurred in detail (like compression artefacts).
Even my old iP 5s makes better macro shots.
I tried all the settings of the camera app, made a clean install and even reinstalled iOS 16.2 completely with my Mac.
The result remains the same and is absolutely annoying for a 1300 € device.
As i'm doing a lot of watch shots, her are two details - one shot with the iP 14pro, the other one with my old iP 12pro.
Both taken with the original camera app. Same settings, same lightning conditions.
The sharper image is from the 12pro (of course)

 

[mistercoffee1]

That looks bad, like it’s not even working correctly.
Pardon my lowly SKX, but here’s how mine look.

The focus is on the center on the first, and on the "7s26" on the second one.

 

[Spacegray]

That looks bad, like it’s not even working correctly.
Pardon my lowly SKX, but here’s how mine look.

This is the picture quality i would have expected and it is not due to the watch brand - i have the same bad results on my Seiko Monster
Did you take it with a 14pro or a 14pro max?

 

[mistercoffee1]

This is the picture quality i would have expected and it is not due to the watch brand - i have the same bad results on my Seiko Monster
Did you take it with a 14pro or a 14pro max?

14Pro

 

[You’re not me]

Exchange your phone.

 

[guesswho183]

Activate macro mode for this...

 

[Spock]

I have to say, the only reason that I updated from my iPhone 12 Pro to the 14 Pro was the improved camera system and I am very disappointed. I can't say that I see much change.

 

[Spacegray]

Activate macro mode for this...

I tried with and without macro modus activated, of course.
As i wrote, i tried all possible settings but result ist always the same.
The only way to get a little better result is manually setting zoom to 0.5, but the result is still worse the 12pro pics.

 

[kiranmk2]

Marques has just posted a video about what's gone wrong with iPhone cameras.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

iphone 12 was peak camera for me

no oversharpenning like on 13 and 14 , much better hdr than the 11 series , dv video , bigger sensor on the max

now the sharpenning in post processing is just getting beyond ridiculous

 

[Shadowbech]

Marques has just posted a video about what's gone wrong with iPhone cameras.

Just saw this video on youtube~

 

[nortonandreev]

I’m unhappy with the camera on 14PM as well…

 

[contacos]

I even hate it on my 12 PM. Taking a close up shot is almost impossible. The damn thing is always blurry. In fact, one time I had to verify my ID in a Videocall and I just couldn’t do it! I had to pull out my old 7 Plus to get it to focus

 

[An-apple-a-day]

OP forgot to include “My” at the beginning of the thread title.

 

[diamornte]

Every year Apple shows off what their new iPhone can do but when it comes to IRL use, the camera produces sub par images, and Apple overpromises+underdelivers.

 

[WoodTableFromIkea]

Return it instead of making this forum your personal daily blog?

If it keeps happening, ask for your money back and buy an older model. Easy.

 

[djcerla]

I get really good images on the 14 Pro Max. Especially in macro mode, no comparison with the 13 PM.

Your unit is faulty.

 

[Fred Zed]

I’m unhappy with the camera on 14PM as well…

13PM ( for me ) was better.

 

[PsykX]

Exchange it, it's broken. Mine produces much sharper (clearer) images with the macro lens and I love it.

 

[Rradcircless]

I get really good images on the 14 Pro Max. Especially in macro mode, no comparison with the 13 PM.

Your unit is faulty.

Exactly. I went on a nice walk in a park and tried all the photo and video options. I didn‘t find any issues.

 

[Shirasaki]

I can attest the suspicion that iPhone 14 Pro camera is not as great as Apple always brag about. I took a small figure to a nearby Apple Store to take photos with. Among all models, I can barely see noticeable differences, not even details and sharpness, except iPhone SE, which is the worst of the pack. Surprisingly enough, iPhone 13 mini has the overall best Shot, even though all smartphone cameras are so heavily toned by software it doesn’t Have much resemblance of what sensor actually see anymore. The annoying part is even iPhone 14 Pro Max, when taking photos of random people in the store, cannot provide more details than iPhone 13, 12, 13 mini and whatnot. And doesn’t feel much better than my iPhone XS Max.

MKBHD video attached above has a better explanation on whats going on and his opinion.

 

[Wizec]

I took a few with my new 14 Pro. I think they are pretty reasonable. You might just have a defective unit:

 

[Tyler O'Bannon]

This is the picture quality i would have expected and it is not due to the watch brand - i have the same bad results on my Seiko Monster
Did you take it with a 14pro or a 14pro max?

Doesn’t matter if it was pro or max. Same camera system.

 

[Abstract]

Macro on my 14PM works very, very well.


I only have an AW7 on right now, so I took photos of the back of it, trying to focus on the engraved text on the back. I hastily cleaned it, but in macro mode, the back still looms dirty. 🤷🏻‍♂️

In both instances, I focused on the “7”.

Photo 1: Using the iPhone’s default camera app. Lens is 0.5x, of course. SOOC JPEG.

Photo 2: Same watch, but used Halide to take the photo. Obviously, I was able to focus much closer with Halide. Set to MF mode, and also set on “Macro” mode to help with the manual focusing.

 

[kstotlani]

All of you guys are taking the photos wrong LOL

The primary cause is the increase in resolution of the main camera. Please watch this video as it explains the minimum focusing distance has changed with latest iPhone editions and it’s worse with the 14 pro. Some people on the thread have rightly suggested to use macro mode for such closeups. Please watch the video below for focusing distance explanation.