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!
It is obvious that new laptop will not help but you can try - if not at least that will be yet another return and possibly tick the metric around # of returns on Macbook air and may trigger someone to do a recall program or do something!
Viewing an iSight image on a Retina display will indeed have a little graininess to it; it's not a super high-res camera and it's likely not designed to be.
I imagine that a 1080p or higher resolution sensor would require more space and/or power consumption than would otherwise fit in a thin notebook display.
I have the same problem. I agree with Tutoreskate24 and silvershower, this is offensive. I'm taking mine back. Did the comparison between 2015 and the 2020, two different worlds. What were they thinking? We paid a lot of money for a subpar camera? Such a waste of time.
I've also just recently purchased a 2020 Macbook Air and the camera was one of the first things I checked out since its one of the best I've seen( also a big reason why I've stayed with Apple instead of switching to microwsoft) This camera is HORRENDOUS. Its about the same quality as a 2010 HP laptop I have at my mothers house. I don't understand the colossal difference between my 2015 Macbook Air and this one. It has nothing to do with my connection or fingerprints :-) Over $1000 I'd expect to absolutely love this.
I just bought a MacBook Air a couple of weeks ago and the camera it's horrible: grainy and dark. It doesn't matter what type of light you use, the image will be be grainy and dark. The one thing I like the most about Mac computers was the camera: clear and accurate images. My old Mac laptop got water damage and stopped working so I had to buy this new model. The camera is absolutely horrible, don't have a USB port, and they changed the charger port. I really want to return it. What is going on with Apple?
It's not the internet connection or dirty camera. It's the crappy camera Apple has put on every laptop. It's a shame you pay a good amount of money for a MacBook Air just to realize you have been robbed. My old MacBook had a way better camera that the one I just bought 2 weeks ago. Shame on Apple!
I'm experiencing the same thing with my MBA 2020, but I figured out a small fix for Zoom calls.
The video quality seems to be worse for Zoom calls because the system (Apple? Zoom?) automatically zooms in the picture, usually so that the top of my head is cut off when I am sitting right in front of my MBA. I couldn't figure out a way to fix this by changing the settings, but this seemed to do the trick:
Begin video call on Zoom (video will be zoomed in)
Open Photo Booth
Video magically zooms back out to normal on Zoom!
You can then close Photo Booth, but it seems like changing any video settings on Zoom will send it back to default (zoomed in).
Does this trick work for anyone else? Do others think that the camera quality is worse on Zoom vs other programs?
I have the same issue. For Zoom calls and general low-light video the 2020 Macbook Air is atrociously grainy. I have my old 2015 Macbook Pro and did a Zoom call between the computers. The difference is night and day. So strange to have the old computer outperforming the new one. How did they downgrade in cameras? And this new Air cost $1600!
I am a-lot a-lot a-lot disappointed with the camera quality in FaceTime/Zoom in the latest MacBook Air 2020 edition. I have a MacBook Air 2018 and the video quality is heaven compared to the new MacBook 2020's video quality. Its really horrible. I would call apple customer care tomorrow to know more about this issue. Apple better do some software upgrade for this blunder.
Really not satisfying. Bad experience.
I just joined this thread to verify the problem. When I first saw this grainy image on a brand new 2020 MacBook Air I felt I travelled back in time when we had DSL connections and crappy laptops. Anyways, on all other matters I am perfectly fine with how the Air feels and performs. For any kind of video calling or conferences I use my iPad Pro or my iPhone, so this isn't a real deal breaker for me personally. But yes it is frustrating, because you can get a decent camera on ANY notebook nowadays... It just feels cheap. Not good Apple...
We are having the same problem. It's very disappointing. I can't believe that they released a product with a camera this bad. It is possible that there was a bad batch of cameras in some of the computers or are all 2020 MBAs this way? We'll be fighting Apple over this one.
And yes, to a prior post, the issue is apparent in Photo Booth. That's what we've used to compare the 2020 to the old 2014 MBA that the 2020 was supposed to replace. It's just horrible.
Don't expect anything in terms of a fix. Apple seems uninterested in doing the right thing. If it's not too late you can return it, or buy an external webcam, which is ridiculous when a person pays so much for a small laptop. I also suggest going to support.apple.com/feedback and telling them how bad it is. Hopefully, someday they'll make it right and if you've shown that you had an issue, even if it's past the warranty date they should honor the fix.
Found this on Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/j74hp7/2020_macbook_air_camera_worse_than_2015_macbook/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
We should all Tweet at Apple too.
Just got my new apple air Mac 2020 the The camera is horrible it is very grainy These are not fingerprints it’s a bad camera my fire tablet have a better camera than this is showing me endurance is very poor I am very upset with this this is my first Apple Mac book I needed that camera for zoom and FaceTime and I thought this would be a good notebook to get now I can’t even use it to do the FaceTime or zoom my Internet is great it shows Netflix and Disney+ fine but the pictures are horrible that it takes what can I do to fix this
the camera quality is really poor , this is not the experience we use to have with mac . the camera looks less worst only in sunlight or morning time . during night even if we have more than sufficient light it does not work good ,too much grainy image. I contacted apple and they are telling me it is expected behaviour plz have more light. Really? i am having good light even then it is pathetic during night. if we have to substitute this poor quality with extra light or extra web cam no use of this face time camera. instead of acknowledging the problem and rectifying it they are telling us how to substitute it and saying it is expected behaviour . so sad to purchase it.
Grainy Image on MacBook Air 2020
