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
Basically what it means is that they are very very aware of this issue.
Their process is to classify issues as either expected or unexpected. If it's expected it means it's "our fault" for not knowing the camera image quality is impacted by poor design not allowing for enough light to enter the lens. That they have no recourse to fix it. It is hardware and it's a design flaw. It actually has nothing to do with the camera quality. Not something they are currently able to fix. I said its false advertising and they said prove it. That's why your camera quality is better on older models. More light coming into the camera. Its beyond stupid they let this happen. haha Someone got fired for sure I imagine.
I have a Macbook pro 2019 I just purchased in Dec for 5500.
Its way better in natural light.
Who the **** has access to natural light in their office lol. I am lucky to have some and can see the clear difference, but at night it is unusable.
When I bought my computer for the Macbook pro this was still not classified expected behaviour. It became expected as I was negotiating with them.
This is why they sent me free accessories.
Now, they have changed the classification to "expected." This means you have no recourse whatsoever with Apple other than complain and hope they offer something in the future who those who did.
All you can do is return it and buy something else or wait for their next release otherwise.
Yes, you and all of these other people have fallen through the cracks. (As of Feb 25.) If "Apple cares" they would immediately fix this issue. They just pretend too like the others. Not a special company lol.
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
