Grainy Image on MacBook Air 2020

Agree! I was hoping to find answers. It’s definitely not a simple screen wipe. I just purchased a 2020 MacBook Air to replace my 2015 MacBook Air and the camera quality is awful. I’ve tried zoom and FaceTime, both are just grainy. I WFH and needed more storage so I figured an upgrade would also get me a better camera. Highly disappointed in the camera quality, the 2015 quality was much better.

I called support to see if now they have some direction from higher ups on this - on a positive side support acknowledged right away that they know about this issue but have no solution! In past, they used to act as if they never heard of this and that used to tick me off as how could you not know if so many of us have posted here + posted in feedback + have taken painful time (2 hours on call) with support trying to solve unsolvable without design change!

I have suggested a solution that Apple swaps out our Macbook air as and when they come out with new one or have a creative way of fixing it.

I plan on going to the Apple store tomorrow and see what they can do. I’m hoping they have a solution or maybe I can try a new one. If not I’ll just have the battery replaced on my 2016 MacBook Air and use that because the quality of that laptop is amazing.

I have the 2015 and the camera is so much better than my 2020 that I just purchased and I am ******!!! How is my older laptop better quality than my NEW one that I paid big bucks for! I am a teacher so I am doing zoom meetings everyday for work and this was the reason I bought it ! Now I don't know what to do!! The camera is sooooo grainy and dark no matter how good lighting there is !

So! I went to the Apple store and they said that it’s the display screen and it picks up more imperfections so that’s why it’s blurry. But when I FaceTimed my friend I was clear to her....it doesn’t really make sense. But they are going to look at my old laptop and see how it’s running so maybe I can keep my old one and just get a new battery.

This couldn't be worse than this. So Grainy image, looks we are working on a 1900 produced laptop. What is the use of spending this much amount for this bad quality camera? Now we are dependent on these cams more than ever and we get this from Apple. Really very disappointed. What is the fix Apple?

My Macbook Air 2020 came yesterday. After I opened it and tested the camera I was shocked. My early 2014 Air has 20x better quality for its camera. Since I primarily use my computer for Zoom these days, I thought I must have gotten a dud. I called Apple support today and they let me know that the 2018, 2019, and 2020 models are all having this camera quality issue. They told me to use "ambient lighting" to improve it (lol). One tech support person told me that the issue developed at the beginning of 2020. Another person told me it's a hardware issue that only impacts the Macbook Air 2020. So, I'm not sure, but I can say that no one wanted to be direct about it even though they all said that there was information in their database about this problem and that others have called in with this same issue. They said it was built to be this way, but no one knows why. There is currently no fix for it. They told me I could either pay to upgrade to the Macbook Pro (which doesn't have camera problems) or return the Air and go for a 2017 or previous model... I am still shocked. Why would they make a decision to downgrade the camera? It is so bad!

I am having the same issue about the grainy camera of MacBook Air 2020. I just got my laptop this Monday. I spoke to three advisors about this concern and they provided with all the possible ways to fix the issue. None of those resolved the camera concern. Now, I'll be sending my laptop for service and Apple will check what's wrong with the camera and try to fix it. If it still does the same thing, they'll give me a new one which I am concerned since I am not the only who's experiencing this issue. For those who returned your laptop, what course of action did you do? Did Apple give a new one with a better camera? Did you upgrade to MacBook Pro?

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.

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 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.

This may be worth a read...

CNET: Why your MacBook webcam looks bad in Zoom meetings and how to fix it

Meanwhile, I think a small bright light will greatly improve your camera quality concerns.

I currently use one my wife bought for Zoom meetings, it's made by a UK company called "Daylight." I've used it several times for screencasts (e.g., Loom) and Zoom meetings, the difference is clarity is pretty striking.

I hope that helps! 😀

John

Last Saturday we bought for our daughter a new MacBook Air 2020 model, she was so happy as her MacBook Air mid-2012 models was getting old, until she started her online classes and got comments from fellow students that her camera gave a crappy image. I checked all her other video apps including FaceTime, made images with Photo Booth with the same result, grainy images, like going back to Windows95....

I just had a call with Apple Support, their new call script is beyond pathetic, the lady didn't want to understand the issue instead she kept on emphasising that there is a ambiance sensor next to the camera that improves the camera experience and the best result is to use ambience lighting. I do not accept this and will keep on complaining about it till they come up with a satisfactory solution! Obviously the current camera is not in sync with the technology they added, the camera cannot keep up....

Is there a group of MacBook Air users who are collectively raise this? a lonely user is considered not interesting for them, the laptop is already sold, even with two more ready to be replaced will not wake them up.....

gladysfromhadley wrote:

My brand new MBP arrived today and I just signed on to a zoom meeting. My image is very grainy. How can I adjust this?

Zoom (app) will absolutely wash the image a bit if the lighting isn't great, especially if video enhancements are turned on. Zoom will also lower the quality if the connection speed and quality are not ideal.

Ambient and direct lighting will have an impact on image quality, as well.