Have just purchased a new MacBook Air (2020 model). Have bought to use for home working (Zoom meetings, etc) and the image is really grainy when using Zoom or FaceTime. Is this normal with Macs?
MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.15
yes. I had purchased exact same 2020 MacBook Air model and it had worse camera than 2015 MacBook Pro. After a lot of research I figured out that since 2018 Apple changed the MacBook design and made the lid slimmer and put in the same camera they’ve used on older macbooks but made the camera hole much smaller. If you compare both camera holes side by side and look at the size you’ll see the new MacBook has small tiny camera hole which leads to less light and all photos and videos look grainy in low light thus your new MacBook has grainy and low quality camera. It doesn’t actually have a worse camera but due to this flaw in the design the camera sensors get less light and makes it blurry. The only fix is to add more brightness with better lighting but it doesn’t help much or to pay for an app and download it to enhance your webcam to apply filters over it and increase the brightness of the image. There doesn’t seem to be any other fix. Just return the MacBook if you aren’t satisfied and wait for new one or buy an external wireless camera or use your phone as the camera or iPad. A lot of users on here have this issue but on reddit and other places most people have ignored this issue and instead blamed the users for not knowing how to use the MacBook properly and not doing their “research” for calling this a downgrade in camera quality. They’re ignorant of the fact that in 2018 this design change happened. The brand new users who don’t complain are either upgrading from latest macbooks or those who never bothered paying attention to camera quality or don’t care or new MacBook users. Only people with older macbooks like 2015 or 2012 are the ones complaining and if you google 2018 MacBook camera issues or 2018 MacBook low quality grainy camera you’ll find tons of posts and stories and even YouTube videos and some general advice or fixes. That’s the best advice I can give you. Google that maybe you’ll find something there. That’s how I found out about this whole issue. You can even google check my webcam resolution and I compared the resolution and sensor of 2015 MacBook and 2020 MacBook side by side and the 2020 has same exact model of camera same exact resolution just worse contrast and brightness due to low light. But do the experiments to find yourself. Good luck!
No I had to buy a webcam.
Buy an external cam.
i've just taken delivery of my MBA 2020 and the camera image is so terrible I am not sure what to do about the machine now. I paid to have a ton of upgrades so overall this was a £1800 machine. The camera is about the worst i have seen since laptops started coming with in-built cameras. I hope, Apple, you find that damning... but i suspect you won't care. The web is awash with similar complaints. To see someone commenting saying wipe the screen and check your internet connection; it's just offensive. The camera quality is so bad in low light that i can barely even recognise myself. I joined a video call the other night and everyone was commenting about how bad it was, unprompted. I genuinely don't know if I will keep this macbook... i feel like it will be my last, at least, if this is the type of thing we can expect. Apple support were meant to call me back this evening to discuss it but what a surprise, they didn't.
The only way I can get a decent image is to place a lamp or a direct light source very close to me while video chatting or using the camera. That’s the only “fix” I have found so I decided to keep mine since I love everything else about it but it’s still really inconvenient :/
Cute pictures 😀 📸
At a glance, the top one (newer) is clearly more susceptible to lower lighting (e.g., smaller aperture, ccd, etc.) than the bottom one--no argument there; however, the reason(s) for that difference can be a series of engineering compromises and tradeoffs.
For example, I can see here may be everything from sensor size to power consumption, especially considering the differences between the '14 and '20 Airs (e.g., Retina screen, bezel size, CPU performance, etc.) yet the latter has equivalent if not greater battery life than the former.
With that in mind, I think a fairer comparison would be in brighter, more direct lighting. ☀️💡
I can share with you that my aging '17 MacBook Pro looks a lot like your top photo in similar lighting but in bright lighting looks excellent for my screencasts and Zoom meetings.
I’m not gonna lie to you, all the MacBook Airs have crap camera resolution and video resolution compared to the pro.
i own the 2018 MacBook Air, even returned it out and asked for another one. They’re just not made for the visuals of the camera and watching videos. Trust me, everything looks better on the Pros and I love my air. Never again will I get an air as much as I love the way they are light, feel great and etc.
ok so basically i was saying that my MacBook Pro 2017 looked just as grainy and weird as my grandparents old 2008 to 2009 mac desktop (i really should've given more context), and so does my late 2011 macbook pro, and both of my grandparent's macbook airs, BUT this generally only occurs when its moderate to low ish light, if your in a well lit room and stuff you don't see any fuzz at all. (even this sounds a little bit weird with wording (this reply) but you get what i mean)
I have the same problem with my new MacBook Air (2020 model) too. My internet connection is definitely alright and no fingerprints on my screen. I even placed my old MacBook Air side by by side to the new one. The old one is a lot sharper.
I thought it was something wrong with the camera too, so I brought it to the Apple support to get it fixed. I was informed that it is normal for MacBook Air 2020.
Dudettes and dudes, not wanting to reign on anyones parade here, if you get a refund please say so. BUT, all reporters and tech articles were ******* about the camera since Jan/Feb of this year about the front camera. Still, it doesn't make up for the low quality but since its for all models... I doubt there can be anything done about it...
Thanks guy's!
Finally, I ordered a little camera for my MacAir which can be put onto the screen separately and grants clear image during FaceTime or Zoom sessions. Got it for 50€. Big 🍏 could avoid 😡.
We as family are all hardcore users of all APPLE PRODUCTS since many years. Our Case ID: 101207405965 dated 13th October 2020: I have purchased the latest MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020) on 8th October 2020 as a pre-birthday gift to my daughter - KRITTIKA, but we both were absolutely disheartened to find such A LOW RESOLUTION WEB-CAM on it. We purchased this laptop as an upgrade to our earlier MacBook Air-2015 (even that had a better resolution Web-Camera as my wife still uses another one). This Webcam seems like the Old i-Pad 1&2. Very sad and highly dejected to buy this product. Why has Apple downgraded its product? It is an earnest request- Either provide us with another better MacBook (Free of Cost) OR kindly fix this WebCam issue on our MacBook Air 2020.
Read through the comments. There is no fix. Return, get an external camera, complain to Apple and hope they do something about it. (Do not mean for this to sound sarcastic or snarky. Just the way it is, unfortunately.)
As I said in a previous comment, I have the same problem with my MacBook Air 2020. Today I went to Costco, and I went to the laptop section to check the quality of the cameras. The light in the warehouse is quite good, so the image quality looks okay for someone who wants to buy a Macbook. But if you hover your hand 5 inches away from the camera to just provide a little shade, you can see that the quality of any 2020 MacBook, Air or Pro, is really poor.
I just called Apple support because of the bad image quality. They recommended me to upgrade to Big Sur. This could improve the camera performance. Also, you could adjust the monitor settings a bit. So from "True Tone" to something else. Let's see...
yes, and there is nothing we can do to fix it. I went through the lengthy process of explaining the whole
issue and how I love Apple, etc. They are going to send me some ear buds. No recall. The company
needs a recall. These cameras are horrible. So unprofessional . The only option for us is to, and
the technician told me this in so many indirect words, is 1. buy an external camera 2. write a letter
to management, and 3. be more careful next time about buying Apple products.
Grainy Image on MacBook Air 2020
