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iPhone 16 Pro Very dissapointed with photo quality

R

RestUnknown

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 25, 2011
180
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First, I’m not a photographer, but for work I often have to take a quick photo to show it later, where I have to be able to read some text on it. I had four cases last week where the photo was just unreadable, or the subject was just hazy, even though it was taken at a stable position.

I tried checking out some settings I looked for on internet, it might be slightly better now, but it still looks out of focus a lot of the time. But my question is, why TF do I have to adjust settings to get better image quality (and tbh I’m not even sure it’s better, cause it still looks grainy, out of focus, like its my old Samsung flipphone from 2006 with 1.3mp).

I come from a second gen iPhone SE and finally took the plunge to spend a lot of money on a phone that really isn’t worth it at this moment. I just looked at old photo’s I took with it, when zoomed in ofc they lack detail as well, but they feel crisper and more detailed.

I know it’s not a professional camera, but after seeing some examples I really thought this thing could take a pic that looked really decent most of the time, especially coming from my old phone.
 
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You do know that the iPhone 16 Pro has 3 different cameras. You might want to double check that you are using the proper Camera for your pictures that have text that you want to read.

Dave
 
You might want to watch this video regarding taking photos of documents... It discusses minimum focus distance and camera changes between models... You can also go to Settings and check for Macro Control...

iPhone 14 Pro and newer seems to share the same 48MP main sensor... Or probably different 48MP sensor but same issues...

 
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I’m not impressed either
 

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RestUnknown said:
First, I’m not a photographer, but for work I often have to take a quick photo to show it later, where I have to be able to read some text on it. I had four cases last week where the photo was just unreadable, or the subject was just hazy, even though it was taken at a stable position.

I tried checking out some settings I looked for on internet, it might be slightly better now, but it still looks out of focus a lot of the time. But my question is, why TF do I have to adjust settings to get better image quality (and tbh I’m not even sure it’s better, cause it still looks grainy, out of focus, like its my old Samsung flipphone from 2006 with 1.3mp).

I come from a second gen iPhone SE and finally took the plunge to spend a lot of money on a phone that really isn’t worth it at this moment. I just looked at old photo’s I took with it, when zoomed in ofc they lack detail as well, but they feel crisper and more detailed.

I know it’s not a professional camera, but after seeing some examples I really thought this thing could take a pic that looked really decent most of the time, especially coming from my old phone.
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Yeah I think the actual quality peaked maybe 3 years ago and now the photos are a bit over processed. iPhone is fine for general snaps. Worth picking up a proper camera for more detailed shots.
 
shady16 said:
Nope 16 pro max

It was the 5x telephoto I didn’t digital zoom in
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If the scene was too dark for the 5X camera, can you swipe up on the photo and check the information and see if it was taken with the 120 mm or if it was digitally zoomed in on the 1 X camera to make it look like the 5X due to low light. That has actually happened to me before I believe and if I use night mode with the 5X and there’s motion, it’ll look bad as well.
 
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I gave my iPhone 12 Pro Max to my BF and I like its photos more than my iPhone 16 Pro. A lot of times everything just looks too fake, ESPECIALLY selfies. It looks fine until you actually take the photo
 
shady16 said:
It was the 5x telephoto I didn’t digital zoom in
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I posted in your other thread earlier and explained what probably happened. These photos were captured using the 1x main camera based on the ƒ/1.78 aperture shown in the metadata on this site.

1729538482585.png

If it was taken using the 5x telephoto camera, I would have expected to see ƒ/2.8 as the aperture (as seen with the photos you included from the 15PM in your other thread). Since it used the main camera and you zoomed in, it ended up being a digital zoom, likely due to the low light conditions. Just because you tap 5x in the camera app, it does not mean or guarantee it's going to capture the photo using the telephoto lens. You can double check by tapping the 'i' button on the photo in the Photos app. It'll show which camera/lens was used.
 
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iStorm said:
I posted in your other thread earlier and explained what probably happened. These photos were captured using the 1x main camera based on the ƒ/1.78 aperture shown in the metadata on this site.

View attachment 2440196

If it was taken using the 5x telephoto camera, I would have expected to see ƒ/2.8 as the aperture (as seen with the photos you included from the 15PM in your other thread). Since it used the main camera and you zoomed in, it ended up being a digital zoom, likely due to the low light conditions. Just because you tap 5x in the camera app, it does not mean or guarantee it's going to capture the photo using the telephoto lens. You can double check by tapping the 'i' button on the photo in the Photos app. It'll show which camera/lens was used.
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Yeah, that’s exactly what it looked like to me. In this case you have to use a third-party app so you can hard select the camera you want to use without the iPhone automatically switching on you due to lighting conditions, etc. I recommend Halide, ProCamera by Moment or ProCamera. I really like the moment at myself because of the superior manual, focus and focus peeking capabilities of that app. ProCam is a good one also. Thanks for the info, photos do look pretty crappy when the 1x camera takes place of the 5x. The 5x how’s a minimum focus distance of 53 inches, if you get closer than this, then the same thing will take place the 1X camera will take over because you’re too close. The 1x camera has a minimum focus distance of 8 inches. Any closer than that then the macro control takes over unless you have that turned off.
 
ToddH said:
If the scene was too dark for the 5X camera, can you swipe up on the photo and check the information and see if it was taken with the 120 mm or if it was digitally zoomed in on the 1 X camera to make it look like the 5X due to low light. That has actually happened to me before I believe and if I use night mode with the 5X and there’s motion, it’ll look bad as well.
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Same lighting but taken with my previous 15PM looks way better and was zoomed in closer even
 

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shady16 said:
Same lighting but taken with my previous 15PM looks way better and was zoomed in closer even
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I see that.. the iPhone didn’t substitute the 1x for the 5x like the 16 pro did. This is why I always recommend a third-party app so you can hard select your cameras without the iPhone switching cameras on you due to specific circumstances like low light or being too close to the subject, etc. I like the Moment app. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pro-camera-by-moment/id927098908
 
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Still proves my point where the 15PM handles it better than the 16PM. Also any good free alternatives to halide I don’t really want to pay for it as I’m only ever in those conditions maybe 3 times a year at most
 
shady16 said:
Still proves my point where the 15PM handles it better than the 16PM. Also any good free alternatives to halide I don’t really want to pay for it as I’m only ever in those conditions maybe 3 times a year at most
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But it's not much to worry about if it's something that can be fixed with software. Also this is just one data point with lots of possible factors, so I wouldn't think it's a big problem unless it's a recurring problem, especially for more people.
Also did you ever confirm which aperture those 16PM photos were using?
 
ToddH said:
I see that.. the iPhone didn’t substitute the 1x for the 5x like the 16 pro did. This is why I always recommend a third-party app so you can hard select your cameras without the iPhone switching cameras on you due to specific circumstances like low light or being too close to the subject, etc. I like the Moment app. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pro-camera-by-moment/id927098908
Click to expand...
I’ll have to look, but the moment app is $8.99 one time buy, no subscription. There are in app purchases but you’ll probably never need those. This is the lowest I’ve found for a pro app. The 15 pro max 5x is the same as the 16 pro max. I think the 16 pro series still has bugs. iOS 18.1 comes next Monday from what I’ve read, so hopefully there will be some camera updates.
 
but the problem here is these are out of box settings which is what majority of users will use, most won't use a 3rd party camera app. im aware that digital zoom is worse then using the actual telephoto lens. also on the 15pm i was zoomed in to x15 and still looked better. all my photos taken with 16pm look subjectively worse then 15pm even in normal conditions. btw i took those photos on 18.1 beta 7
 
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