iPhone 13 Camera is blurry

isazavakos wrote:

oh my gosh thank you for validating this. thank you.

You are very welcome isazavakos! 🙏

⭐️📩If other users noticed this

we can try to send our feedback here: 📸➡️ https://www.apple.com/feedback/camera/ ⬅️📸

I asked for:

1️⃣_Being able to shoot without this Oil paint effect/ software noise reduction added by the software (pic on the left)

2️⃣_Being able to shoot without HDR (like in previous iPhone models)

(pics from isazavakos - pls note differences in hair, eyelashes, make up. Picture on the right is a RAW using camera on Lightroom for iOS, as a workaround to avoid this effect)

Left: iPhone native camera app Right: iPhone Adobe Lightroom Camera iOS

Yes, and that noise reduction is all but eliminated when you shoot in RAW, that’s the whole point of RAW.

Take a photo in RAW, send the 27 MB or so over to your Mac or PC and open it in Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic or anything else that can process a DNG and adjust noise reduction and other settings accordingly, do not use an app or otherwise process it on your phone.

Note also that without a good processing engine like on the Mac when you post a photo you’re doing multiple conversions, often from HDR to SDR, RAW to JPEG and whatever lossy processing the platform you post to does, likely a downres and lossier JPEG compression to reduce file size.

Mine was pretty bad too, In light other than direct sunlight outside, my front camera was horrible. Added like a watercolor beauty effect and was just bad. My iPhone 8 Plus front camera was better!!! And the post processing for all photos, holy moly is it bad! Had camera issues with it focusing in and out, took way too long and would switch too much. I went to the Genius Bar, didn’t seem like they believed me at first. I showed photos. Using the front camera that left white splotches over the photo in some areas, and also one had a super grainy film over it, still didn’t pay much attention, tried to convince me it was fine. That it’s normal it’s just the way the cameras are now ( though I did show a side by side video taken on the 13 pro and 8 plus and how bad the quality was on the 13 and then they started believing) anyways, they ran some of the tests they do, and guess what? I had multiple failures with the device. Just a week old, and of course with technology you’ll get bad batches. That’s life ( should they charge this much and have that happen, no. But it’s always a risk.) the first failure to pop up was ambient light focus ( or something like that) and the person said that could definitely cause what I was describing. So… If any of you who are having similar problems can go to the Genius Bar I suggest that. They are gonna ship me a new phone. Completely free. Fingers crossed it’s a good one! Hope everyone’s phones get fixed or replaced on here :)

This is a very dumb check, but I had a screen protector that was the full screen into the camera module and made my pictures blurry at times. When I removed it, photos were perfect. I now get screen protectors with the camera cutout. Hopefully it is not the camera module itself and I apologize if you have already tried this

ProRaw image unfortunately doesn’t produce an image without this processing.

Oversaturated color of the sky was there on PRoRaw too, as well as blurred outline of some buildings (due to SmartHDR that can’t be turned off like in previous models)

some third party apps do produce image without this processing (often you have to pay for these kind of app - subscription or one-time payment)

(did my tests with iPhone 7, 11pro, 13 pro - tripod - native app, Lightroom mobile app camera. Also tried to edit later with snapseed, apple native image editor, Lightroom desktop and mobile, VSCO, photoshop desktop and mobile).

BTW is one of the greatest camera I tested in a smartphone even if I feel that is going to a different direction compare to previous iPhone’s cameras.

I used all iPhones starting from iPhone 3 and until 11pro (included) I feel that the camera was oriented to produce images with high consistency with reality.

This gave me the possibility to choose a wider range of editing later in postproduction step.

Currently it seems to be oriented to product “perfect” images using AI and automatic processing. The idea of perfection btw is set on a model and visual style that is subjective .

HDR that can’t be turned off and sometimes produce more saturated/unrealistic sky, sometimes skin are smoothened up etc.

with x3 telephoto I also didn’t like the oil painting effect (recently notice that it’s not there using telephoto+ portrait mode ) because before zoomin in was showing a grain similar to professional cameras instead.

There are also positive things about this AI processing: e.g. in the test I made texture of fabrics and clothes always look amazing and sharpen. I m also happy that compared to other brand s devices I tested.

this kind of image is less faithful to reality so some information I want to highlight in postproduction are often gone with the AI processing (wrinkles, shadows on faces). also color of skies has been much better than reality, but not faithful.

Don’t get me wrong: I think is a great camera especially if compared to other Phones camera. Also the device , Os, battery are the best I ever tried , but as Robert Pearson I can’t us iPhone 13 pro camera for my use case anymore.

I prefer grain instead of oil painting when zooming in.

I need the possibility to shoot without HDR on.

I need to take portrait preserving wrinkles and skin details.

i need to point and shoot very quickly with native app and so on.

I know I m very demanding but it s important to outline that these things I can’t currently do with iPhone 13 pro.

Hi, I was noticing this too. Wondering if the auto-adjust for lens distortion is causing this? Just turned that off in settings, I think it looks crisper now, curious if anyone else sees a difference with that setting.

Turn Lens Correction off and on

On iPhone 12 models and later, the Lens Correction setting adjusts photos taken with the front camera or Ultra Wide camera for more natural-looking results.

Lens Correction is on by default. To turn off Lens Correction, go to Settings  > Camera, then turn off Lens Correction.

I think I’ve found a workaround for some of us.

try to turn off full HDR in photo settings.

that solved in my phone what seems to be a aggressive (and slow) post production software issue.

Hope it helps

I had the same issue when i received my 13 Pro Max and after speaking to Apple and having all the usual diagnostics done they determined it was a hardware fault with the camera module itself. Luckily i could return it to my carrier and my new one is flawless.

Today, I took some Close-Up and Macro Shots in RAW. The result was far far better and almost that, I expected. So the issue seems to be the automatic image editing of the iPhone. Hoping that there will be an update available soon, I will take my pictures in RAW for now. I knew, I should have taken the 1TB Version... ;-)

Your second photo shows the over processing done probably by the Deepfusion[*]: I can see the cartoon face effect on the TV person face and clothes. The same effect I see on my 13 mini on people faces.

The 13 series model have increased the pixel size on the sensor in order to get more light in low light. This means less real world information captured by the sensor = less sharp image. Apple think they can outsmart this with their Deepfusion image enhancing algorithms but is my perception that overall the 13 series can not produce better images than older models except in low light conditions.

I have had authorised service replace the camera and no change!

At this moment everyones' affected options are one or more of these:

• return if within the return window
• sell the phone
• wait and hope for adjustments of Deepfusion processing in a software update but remember you cannot beat the laws of physics (the pixels are larger on the sensor!)
• wait and hope we are a small number of people with a defective camera (I don't remember where I've read that they had shortage of supplies for cameras made in Vietnam) *AND* Apple acknowledges and initiates a recall program.

I personally have stopping using it and will try selling my mini at an obivous loss.

[*] https://www.howtogeek.com/445014/what-is-the-deep-fusion-camera-on-the-iphone-11/

«According to Apple, the new mode uses the iPhone 11’s new A13 Bionic chip to do “pixel-by-pixel processing of photos, optimizing for texture, details, and noise in every part of the photo.” In essence, it works similarly to the iPhone camera’s Smart HDR, which takes several shots at varying exposures and combines them to maximize the clarity in the finished image. Where they differ is in the amount of information that needs to be processed.

What Deep Fusion is doing in the background is quite complicated. When the user presses the shutter button in medium light, the camera immediately takes nine pictures: four short images, four secondary images, and one long exposure photo. It fuses the long-exposure with the best among the short images. Then, the processor goes pixel by pixel and selects the best elements from both to create the most detailed photo possible. All of that takes place in one second.»

[Edited by Moderator]

Then use a third-party application that has access to the raw camera sensor like Lightroom Mobile, Halide or Snapseed to take a true DNG RAW shot.

Those applications have access to the sensor before even ProRAW processing is applied.

ItWasBetterBefore wrote:

Sadly I've had zero success with neither methods.

Local service has replaced the camera without any change, Apple Support did not give a solution.

Then your camera is working as designed.

You should be able to bypass image processing using a third-party camera app such as Lightroom Mobile, Halide or Snapseed that has direct access to the sensor data and can produce a RAW DNG file you would need to process after the fact in software that can read DNG files.

Anyone looking at the small images in your screen shot would declare the iPhone 13's to be the best photos of the three based upon the overall image.

Again, ProRAW still processes to some degree, but third-party camera apps like Lightroom Mobile, Halide and Snapseed have access to the sensor and can create true RAW DNG files.

If you want true RAW files try using one of those instead. You can't just shoot with one of the apps above, you have to have it create a RAW DNG file that you post-process with software later as you would with a RAW file from any other device.

Note what you cite about a preference for photos that look good as opposed to true accuracy were first lodged against the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Note also HDR in itself will not blur edges per se, though some may occur if not using a tripod if multiple images are combined to create a final image due to HDR and camera shake occurs, just as can happen with manual photo stacking techniques.

It's interesting that you like Portrait mode photos, as substantial processing is occurring there to simulate the bokeh of typical large camera lenses.

Just to give everyone an update. Went into Genius Bar and they confirmed there was an issue with the camera focusing. He said it’s the third one that was returned due to camera quality.

I exchanged it and the new one I have had no issues.

Same issue. The reduced plane of focus as a result of the "better" aperture combined with the automatic switching of Macro Mode to the extremely aggresive over sharpening in post, all comes together as an infuriating photo taking experience and more sub-par photos than on previous models. Especially since everything else about the phone is so nice, this feels like a huge miss on Apple's end. In a way, it feels like Apple is trying too hard to "improve" their cameras year over year by using software and- to be frank, gimmicks like Macro Mode, to sway customers over into upgrading from previous models. Increasing sharpening does not make better pictures. Apple used to know this! At least shooting in raw solves some of these problems, but it's sad that it's something you have to resort to as the default.