Front camera on new iPad Pro 13 M4 super grainy

Yes, you can compare the images, but remember the rear facing iPhone camera has a 48MP sensor and will render noise much different. Size of sensor also favors iPhones. However, in low light with front facing cameras the solution is add light and reduce noise.

I have the same issue with my 11” M4 ipad pro. The front facing camera pictures are grainy, noisy and soft. Not as sharp and in focus as my old 2nd gen 11” ipad pro that I replaced. Hoping it is a software issue and Apple will fix it. Please do let us know when you hear back from Apple.

Based on the specs Apple released the front camera on both your new iPads and your previous 5th gen are the same with exception of the Smart HDR 4 on the M4 vs HDR 3 on the 5th gen. Which would lead me to believe it may be more of a software issue.

I would need to restore my previous iPad Pro to check and compare the cameras to my M4 (honestly can’t recall how well my previous front camera performed because I didn’t use it to take selfies {only do that on my iPhone Pro Max} and never had any issues reported to me about how FaceTime or other video chats appeared. I only checked the back camera and that was solely to see if there was any degradation with the Ulta Wide lens being removed).

Yup. OP complains M4 iPad Pro is worse than M1 (which also has the ultrawide Centre Stage camera). That shouldn’t be the case.

As it stands you can either wait to see what the response from Apple is, exchange your devices under the return/exchange policy while still being able to, or opt to return them and continue to use your previous devices (if you still have them). Hopefully if the issue isn’t hardware related Apple will be able to address it with a future iPadOS update but no one can say if that will occur quickly or if it would take time.

Previous comment states that Apple is aware and are working on a fix so it will be a waiting game. As far as why reviews not discussing it…many of the reviews available now were thrown together quickly which is always the case at launch (with some not being real reviews but repeating what others have said in their reviews). It’s possible that the issue doesn’t affect all devices. It’s also possible that many users haven’t noticed it yet because they don’t use that camera unless they have to participate in a video chat. I am one of those people. I didn’t check how it took pictures until this post because I may have taken 1-2 selfies on an iPad since 2018. I personally never found the iPad that great for selfies unless you are outside on a nice bright day or in the perfect lighting situation inside…but that’s a subjective opinion. I haven’t had any issues with the 2 FaceTime chats I have done so far and no one has told me that the video looks bad on their end of the chat. But the selfies are indeed grainy

Thanks, KaeBFly. I use my iPad for videoconferencing and immediately noticed the iPad Pro M4 camera was a big step down from the 6-year-old iPad Pro it replaced. I am doubtful of a fix. I suspect this is a “benefit” of Apple’s Centre Stage which uses an ultrawide lens on the front camera and then digitally zooms to the face. I have no interest in Centre Stage - I don’t bounce around the room when I’m on a call - I simply notice the quality is much worse than the 2018 iteration of the same device. :(

I’m having the exact same issue with my 13 inch m4 pro. At first I thought it was the OLED screen, but it’s not I’ve taken pictures with the iPad sent them to my iPhone and they’re still grainy. Take the exact same picture with my iPhone and it’s perfect. Definitely something to do with the camera itself when you line up the shot everything looks perfect on the screen. I went through Apple support and did a diagnostics and everything with the iPad was it should be hopefully a software update will address this issue.

Whilst the front camera of your 2024 iPad Pro's 12MP front camera has a higher pixel count than many older iPad and Pro models, the ultra-wide camera lens reduces the effective resolution.

The ultra wide front camera features Centre Stage, allowing the iPad to mimic pan and zoom in software; however, image quality of the digitally cropped picture will suffer. Disabling the Centre Stage feature simply provides an ultra-wide camera field - but will not improve the effective resolution of the camera.

While a software update might be able to reduce image noise, a update fundamentally cannot improve the resolution of the camera itself.

Perhaps note that in addition to other models, the ultra wide 12MP front camera has featured on the fifth and sixth generation iPad Pro 12.9" - and now the iPads Pro M4.

I think that the reviewers do not discuss this issue because they are using their iPads in the studio environment with good lightning or outside. The pictures come out really grainy in a normal lighting environment, I have noticed that pictures taken outside are much better, however not as good as I would want them to be.

That’s normal for small physical size sensors. iPhones and iPads have very small sensors and like every other small (miniature?) sensor device does poorly in low light.

The issue is purely physics. Noise can be made more visually pleasing in software, but it becomes a fine line between reducing noise and images looking plasticky like a Barbie Doll in low light.

Jeff Donald,

Yes that’s right and I totally agree, however iPhones are taking much better pictures than the new iPad. To me this quality is terrible on such expensive device. I thought that iPads have better quality than what I have faced in the new m4 model. Hope apple will fix this issue, as currently it is unusable for video calls.

The iPads main focus was never on the camera system. Trying to compare it to the cameras on the iPhones is not the way to go. It is a bit of an exaggeration to say it is unusable for video calls. Unless your camera is truly faulty of course but otherwise it is absolutely usable and it’s likely that the person you do a video call with wouldn’t claim the image is so bad that it is impossible to do the call. It’s also likely not worse than a video call they may take with someone using a non Apple tablet (not comparing high quality external cameras or even the iPhone….just true tablets). Again, this is assuming you don’t have something wrong with your camera that needs to be addressed versus just expecting the cameras to be just like your iPhone.

I went back to check the camera on my M2 iPad Pro as well as a 2nd gen iPad Pro 11-inch we still have (the front camera on it was just 7 megapixels so of course you would expect that one to look “bad” in comparison although for video calls it actually isn’t bad at all). The M2 and M4 honestly don’t look any different on video calls I just did according to the person viewing me on their end. Selfies have always been “bad” to me on the iPad but “bad” meaning I would never choose to use it over my iPhone unless I had to. Only exception seems to be in perfect natural lighting situations or optimal artificial lighting conditions. Not including apps that enhance the cameras that are usually paid apps or subscription based of course. But I digress.