Q: iPhone 6s Camera Quality

have you accidentally set a filter on when taking photos? 3 circles in the camera app should be grey if no filter.

I upgraded from iphone4 to 6s and my iphone 4 photos were better than 6s photos!!! i'm debating returning the phone because i am so disappointed with the camera. 

I Am also considering returning the phone because the camera is crap and I've also had other issues as far as being able to stay connected to wifi once forced to do the system update to the 9. not pleased with Apple so far

Do you have the "Live Photo" option turned on?  Bad Low-Light photos have been linked to the Live Photo option.  Make sure you turn that off by tapping the circle up top and making sure it's WHITE and not YELLOW.

Are you using the option to "Optimize iPhone Storage" in Settings > Photos & Camera?  That makes it so when your phone is low on storage it will store low resolution versions of photos on the phone, and store the high resolution originals in iCloud.  So if your storage is low and you're viewing your photos off the phone, and posting them here using your phone (which your signature suggests),  then it's not the full resolution version.

But honestly it just looks like a badly taken photo.  The iPhone camera is known as a "point-and-shoot" but in reality requires a bit more finesse, proper angle, and proper lighting to take great photos.  The lens is the size of a pea and you seem to be expecting the quality you get on a dedicated camera 100x the size.  You're not a professional photographer if you're using an iPhone so you shouldn't expect professional quality no matter what the marketing tells you.  (You said you're not that stupid,  so I'd hope you aren't expecting the quality of the example photos in the press releases)

Quick shots of your cat in bad lighting aren't going to look that great.  But step outside in the natural sunlight and it takes amazing photos for the size of the lens and it also surpasses every other phone in low-light situations.  In the photo you took it definitely needs more lighting like an open window or something.  Anything better and you're going to need to invest in a nice SLR camera or start taking photography classes.

My intention wasn't to talk to you like a newbie.  But the photo you provided just looks like you walked up to your cat and hit the snap button.  But wow I didn't know there were awards for taking photos with an iPhone.  That's cool.   I guess I didn't figure that because there's not really much you can tinker with on an iPhone to really be considered "professional" photos.  I've always been impressed at the pictures for an iPhone but never in general versus a real dedicated SLR.

However... the photos from your iPhone 5 are definitely way better SHOT than what you just showed as an example of your iPhone 6S camera.  The iPhone 6S photo you posted seemed like a quick pic and you're comparing it to shots that are clearly well prepared shots that are post-produced with Photoshop.  Both photos have noise in them.  One is using manufactured lighting and the other is natural sunlight which are two factors that MAJORLY improve photo quality.  How about you take a photo with the same preparation and work you did with those photos you just posted and see if we can compare that?  At the very least go outside in sunlight and take a photo similar to the 2nd photo.

Are you also tapping on the screen to set the focus manually?  Always works better for me.  I even use a mini-tripod and lock the focus myself.

Literally just walked outside,  walked up to a flower in my backyard,  and snapped this photo in 2 seconds.  That's the quality you should expect. LIGHTING IS KEY!

I also linked the FULL RES version because this forum only allows up to 2MB and 12MP is bigger than that (which if you posted your photo then yours must be compressed version also like I assumed)

FULL RESOLUTION VERSION - http://i.imgur.com/m8LPjIx.jpg?1

Those two pics look pretty similar...both look not that great honestly. (Kind of grainy)  But thats because you're posting compressed images.  But also the iPhone 6S photo must be compressed and shrunken to be the same size as the 5S photos.  As the 6S is 12 megapixel and the 5S is only 8 megapixel.  Yet the images are the same size.  Host the originals on imgur.com

Compressing images changes image quality severely.  So you should have to post full res versions for a proper comparison.

I'm not a photographer and never won any awards and I took that photo of the flower.  Yours is better because you understand taking photos better.  But if I spent a little more time I could take a photo 10x better than what I took obviously.  But I was just making a point that I didn't have to do much to get a pretty good photo.  So if your phone is not able to produce a photo like that with little effort then maybe your lens is faulty like you suspected.

LOW LIGHT photos are better than most phones on an iPhone but are never going to look amazing.  I mostly take photos outdoors and sometimes I take photos of items to sell on eBay.  For those photos I always go in a well lighted room to get good quality shots and it's been that way from the iPhone 4S and every model since then.  But like I said... did you turn off "LIVE PHOTO" as this is a well known cause for bad low-light photos on the 6S?

It's always going to disappoint if you listen to marketing or journalists.  Watch YouTube reviews of products or unbiased reviews.  The iPhone 6S camera is not a crazy improvement over the 5S or 6 camera.  It's one of the best smartphone cameras on the market but is still not that great in low-light situations.  Smartphone cameras require lots of light to get into that tiny little lens in order to truly shine (pun intended).

Go try taking a low-light photo on the competition and you will probably vomit if you're a photography enthusiast.  iPhone is the BEST but still not perfect.  Maybe in a few years?  But I honestly don't ever see the camera getting much better as long as they keep insisting on making the phones thinner.  The lens is already sticking out which is a sign that it's TOO thin.

I decided to have some fun!  Here's another shot I took in low light situation and a better shot of the flower.  Definitely click the full res versions!  You can even see the fur on the bumby-bee   The focus on the iPhone is always very pinpoint & centralized.... do you know how to widen the focus so it focuses on a larger area?  I think that may be the issue with photos not looking PERFECT because the focus is sharpening a very specific object that you tap on to make the "focus square" focus on.  That's what I notice with all my photos that one area is super sharp and the surrounding area looks like a pastel painting.

FULL RESOLUTION ~> http://i.imgur.com/otDV6oF.jpg?1

FULL RESOLUTION ~> http://i.imgur.com/TdTFZ5c.jpg?1