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Possibly a faulty device/camera? Different camera I know, I have the regular 14 and I’m very impressed with the camera system. Previous was an iPhone 11.
 
Exchange it, it's broken. Mine produces much sharper (clearer) images with the macro lens and I love it.
+1. I get great pics with my 14 pm with macro enabled..
 

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As the video in this thread says, the minimum focusing distance on the 1x lens has changed for the worse, from 150mmm to 200mm (two inches further out). You'll have to use the 0.5 lens to get closer, and yes, this is annoying.
 
Last week I had the opportunity to make a side-by-side comparison (my iphone 13 mini vs. 14pro). I made a low light video in a room and the thing was that the autofocus on the 14pro wasn't working properly - not so the AF of my iphone 13 mini , which was working fine. The 14pro was much more often a bit blurry.

So beside all the low distance shots mentioned here, shouldn't the 14pro with lidar have much better AF than the 13 mini (and all the other non-lidar iphones)??
 
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
There is a reason for this it’s something to do with an increased focus distance in comparison to previous models, iupdate spoke about this in a recent video…

 
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FWIW this smeary, noise reduction problem also happens on the 15x side of the 14P digital zoom. I hope MKBHD is right that, like Google, Apple will sort this problem out with another years worth of experience with this new sensor.
 
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.
Gee what do you know...it works fine for someone who is not trolling for attenion. Color me shocked.
 
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I think it’s a bug because I had over sharpening on the 11 Pro, 12 Pro, 13 Pro Max, and iPhone 14 Pro Max up until iOS 16.0.2 released.

After all these years, I don’t get that effect anymore and my shots come out nicely in focus like I see in photographer reviews and YouTube videos.

I truly think it’s a bug where something is wrong in the image processing pipeline and may or may not present itself in a phone based on currently unknown variables.
 
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:mad:)
Honestly this looks like you shot it by hand and were wiggling. If you're shooting macro of an object, you need to be using a tripod and remote trigger. Then compare those shots.
 
The result remains the same and is absolutely annoying for a 1300 € device.
Well, there's a reason a halfway decent macro-lens and a prosumer-camere sell for $3500+

Have you tried changing the photo-codec in settings? Is it just as bad when you take a raw photo?
 
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

But that's not surprising because the 12 and older don't have macro modes.
 
Also, try something other than the stock camera app. I use it often but if I need DSLR level control, I use the Moment app. It's free but it has a paid level as well that I think unlocks a Macro mode and several other things. But you also need to experiment and find where the focal range is.
 
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.
Same. 8+ -> 13PM. Try a 3rd camera app like ProCam. Halifax also overprocesses a lot
 
Well, there's a reason a halfway decent macro-lens and a prosumer-camere sell for $3500+

Have you tried changing the photo-codec in settings? Is it just as bad when you take a raw photo?
Switching to RAW (48 or 12 MP) makes no difference.
Today i checked it agains a 14pro of a work colleague.
There was a clear difference in picture quality with macros.
I decided to get the phone exchanged and hope the next one will be better.
 
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Switching to RAW (48 or 12 MP) makes no difference.
Today i checked it agains a 14pro of a work colleague.
There was a clear difference in picture quality with macros.
I decided to get the phone exchanged and hope the next one will be better.
I get the best closeups with the 0.5 camera lens on my 13PM. Just took this with the stock camera app.

Edit 1: Just added some more attachments. Some taken with ProCamera, some with stock camera app. All taken with the 0.5 camera lens sensor.

Edit 2: Just to be clear, the 0.5 camera lens on the 14PM is the exact same as the one on the 13PM. The only new camera the 14PM has is the 1.0 main camera. The 0.5 camera sensor on the 14PM should take the exact same wide angle and macro shots that the 13PM does.

Gems.jpg
 

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I briefly skimmed this thread but I thought if something last night. A lot of my customers (I work for a major US carrier) I see have more issues with the camera If they use one of those “protectors” using the camera protector like those screen protectors can affect the focusing etc. just thought I’d throw that out there. I’m at work now and didn’t read through all these replies but I wasn’t sure if it was addressed yet. I just came in here to make the mention that something like that can affect your pics
 
There is a reason for this it’s something to do with an increased focus distance in comparison to previous models, iupdate spoke about this in a recent video…

Yes, the main lens has a further/longer focusing distance than before, but that only means that the iPhone switched over to the 0.5x lens a bit earlier than before. 🤷🏻‍♂️

It shouldn’t be a big deal since the 0.5x lens is, by design, meant to be the macro lens. This was even the case on the 13PM.

Another thing: In photography, it’s harder to get sharp macro photos using a camera with larger sensor. Smaller sensors, with their smaller lenses, actually give greater “Depth of Field”, so point and shoot cameras have always been “better at” (i.e. easier to achieve) sharp macro photography than SLR or DSLR owners.
 
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