On my second unit now. After a dozen image comparisons with my 15PM and the experience I had with the first 17Pro, here are my findings. First the good things:
- The yellow tint is reduced by a lot. I'm totally puzzled as to how two identical phones, with the same software can process the same image in such drastically different ways. My new 17Pro still has a warmer white balance than my 15PM, but not to a degree that makes me vomit (as was the case with the first 17Pro I had)
- The blurriness is much better and nowhere near the level of the first 17Pro. Some of it can really be attributed to the aggressive noise reduction and reduced sharpening. While the latter is fine, they really need to dial back on their attitude towards noise.
- Generally speaking, the 15PM 5x lens appears to be sharper than the 17Pro 4x. Not only from a image processing POV, but also the lens setup itself. I dont mind it much tbh. If more sharpness is necessary, then this can be slightly tweaked afterwards. And the 4x with the 17 Pro doesnt leave such a huge gap in image quality after the 1x. So, although I loved the compression with the 5x, I think this is a reasonable choice.
- I made all comparisons in the 12MP mode. The 17Pro is more aggressive when it comes to noise, but in difficult lighting conditions, the larger sensor on the 4x really shows and yields lower noise levels throughout. So, while the 5x on the 15PM really fell apart quickly when lighting wasn't optimal, the 4x on the 17Pro is more forgiving.
Now the bad stuff:
- My 17Pro unit makes a weird mechanical and clearly noticeable clicking noise when the camera app is opened. I haven't experienced this on either my 15PM or the first 17Pro. There is another thread here on macrumors. It's really weird. I hope this will not result in a hardware issue down the road. But since I have apple care+ and the image quality doesn't seem to be affected, I will stick to this unit for now.
- I think
@BlackrazorNZ has mentioned this somewhere else, but every now and then, the processing pipeline makes some really weird choices. For instance, I had one picture in medium lighting conditions, where the 17Pro used double the ISO and half the exposure time, resulting in a significantly worse image when compared to the 15PM. Taking the same image again resolved this issue, but it shows that Apple still has a lot of optimisation to do.
In summary, the 17Pro unit I have now is less affected by the blurriness as before, but still not perfect. As mentioned earlier, part of it comes down to less sharpening and heavy noise reduction. But I think the lens (on the 4x especiially) is just less sharp, too.
I still dislike the very warm white balance Apple opts for. It might be flattering for skin tones, but I would have preferred a more neutral white balance, and the warmer processing should have been left to the photographic styles.
I almost see no difference in the 1x when compared to my 15PM. Sometimes the 17Pro misses a shot because it makes totally weird choices regarding ISO and shutter speed (especially in difficult lighting conditions). This needs to be fixed via software!
The 4x is less sharp than the 5x, but it bridges the gap to the 1x much better and yields images with less noise, due to the larger sensor. So images in less than optimal lighting conditions become much more usable.
Also, I can definitely see an improvement in the 2x, when compared to my 15PM. So this is a welcome bonus.
I was totally happy with my 15PM, but got tired of its bulkiness, especially with a case. So the smaller form factor of the 17Pro, the better low light performance on the 4x, and the improved 2x and 8x are noticeable upgrades. Is it worth 1500-2000$. I don't think so. Not for the average consumer! But since I am a tech enthusiast, paying about 1k (after trade-in) was borderline acceptable.
P.S. Apple really needs to adopt the larger sensors like the chinese manufacturers have been doing for more than a year now. There is only so much this sensor can be tweaked and optimised. They might get a pass this year, given that Google and Samsung haven't improved their sensors either, but there is no way they can use the same main sensor (which is 4 years old now) for another year.
