Yes so far very mediocre performance with 17PM in ProRaw48 mode, much worse comparing to my 16PM or even my old 15PM…
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 17 Pro Unimpressed with 17 series camera quality
Yes i notice that when i zoom in ProRaw48 photos. I need to try the 24mp mode…
Hardware wise, not much of an upgrade over the last 4 years.
However, instead of updating the firmware for the camera department, Apple cleverly excuses itself for NOT BEING ABLE TO DO SO "because it is baked into the pipeline" which is BS to me to be honest.
Well what this guy apparently forgot or didn't know that the 4x has a minimum focus difference in order for the camera to work properly. The 16 pro max 5x camera has a minimum focus distance of 4.5 feet (give or take) and if you are too close, the 1x camera takes over. Same onnl the 17 pro, there is a minimum focus distance. I don't know what it is because I don't have that phone. The Halide app will tell you in settings. As he was taking a photo of his shoes, im sure he didn't meet that minimum and the 1x camera took over. The 1x camera has a minimum of 8 inches. So take that in mind.
Interesting... I figured the 1x & .5x were the same of the length of years. That's why I didn't upgrade this year from the 16 pro max, I got the Galaxy s25 ultra instead. Full control over the camera which is what I wanted using expert raw. Amazing camera quality.
The 48mp mode on the telephoto sensor is trash, Apple is overprocessing the images in low ish light (not night mode) or there are just hardware issues with the sensor.
left is 12mp and right is 48mp, only difference in settings is changing the mp mode.
Colour fringing on the edges, 48mp mode... 12mp mode looks fine
left is 12mp and right is 48mp, only difference in settings is changing the mp mode.
Colour fringing on the edges, 48mp mode... 12mp mode looks fine
iPhone 11 was the first iPhone having night mode and AI photo in general, there is no way it can improve a lot after seven generations, may be like 1% to few % every year now.
AI photo of iPhone actually started from iPhone 8, which mean like 10 generations already. There is just almost nothing left to improve if they keep giving us the same sensor again and again
I’m thrilled with the camera performance this year. images are ever so slightly softer since they seemed to tone down the sharpness they were applying before, and they are using a new demosaicing protocol this year which I personally think look more like film stock than older iPhone generations which were technically sharper but looked artificially so did. Color and detail capture are excellent, have taken about 1000 photos mixed between ProRAW and HEIC 48mp so far, all excellent so far. Even notice that it uses the telephoto lens more in darker situations rather than switching to the 1x like it used to.
To each their own!
To each their own!
To me the clarity and the definition, not the sharpness; are much better on my 16PM with Raw and ProRaw files.
17PM suffers from softness and blurriness, witch is not good. Im having at least 30% less quality and information. (Images above {16PM vs 17PM})
And i tested at least 200 photos in ProRaw format.
(Tested 2 personal units as well some from stores).
Got contacted today and the assistant told me that this a now a well known problem. He wasn’t sure if the next 26.0.1 will resolve this.
However i will be contacted again soon.
17PM suffers from softness and blurriness, witch is not good. Im having at least 30% less quality and information. (Images above {16PM vs 17PM})
And i tested at least 200 photos in ProRaw format.
(Tested 2 personal units as well some from stores).
Got contacted today and the assistant told me that this a now a well known problem. He wasn’t sure if the next 26.0.1 will resolve this.
However i will be contacted again soon.
Attachments
Last edited:
Having just 'upgraded' from 15Pro to 17Pro, I've come across this thread,
I had earlier come across this vid,
Any opinions or thoughts to share?
I had earlier come across this vid,
Any opinions or thoughts to share?
Are these crops zoomed in around 600%? The 17 pro is definitely soft. Does the quality improve if the camera is manually focused using a third party app?
I did notice in the reviews of 17P against 16P that the tele photos were somewhat softer. However it looked more like 16 was slightly over processing, in your example that's very clear that 17P just lacks clarity altogether...
90 percent of the time i use the main wide camera. Tele photo it’s irrelevant for me, for now.
Those photos were taken in proraw by ProCam.
17 presented softness and lack of clarity, destroying all the details and fine information.
(Same behavior from my previous 17PM that i returned).
24mp samples i still notice this, but much less.
Those photos were taken in proraw by ProCam.
17 presented softness and lack of clarity, destroying all the details and fine information.
(Same behavior from my previous 17PM that i returned).
24mp samples i still notice this, but much less.
iOS 18 introduced some blurriness of 48 MP outputs on the 15 Pro Max (and by extension this led to less sharp 24 MP outputs) compared to iOS 17, and it wasn’t until iOS 18.3 that this was fixed. So maybe a repeat issue
However this looks to me more like a sensor/lens issue, I assume half the image looks hazy like this when zoomed in to maximum? I had the same issue with a couple 16 Pro Max units. My 17 PM doesn’t exhibit this - it does look softer in some areas and less crisp vs 15 PM, but not out of focus like your samples show
