iPhone 13 Camera is blurry

I saw a review that showed a more natural picture that is not over processed by using the Apple raw format which you can change in settings

The problem is with the regular camera app, if you use any other app to take photos everything is fine

you can choose Lightroom, halide, moment all make good shots but not native app 🤦‍♂️. I use shutter app because easy functionality and free 👇

it literally happened because of the screen protector. i took mine off and viola, the quality 📈

Take the phone to your Apple Store Genius Bar for evaluation. This is a user to user only forum. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. If you're not pleased, let Apple see your phone.

[Edited by Moderator]

This is known as "depth of field. "

In photography, the more light the lens lets in, the less of the image not at the precise focus point will be in focus.

As Apple has worked to improve night mode, they've also gone to lenses with higher light sensitivity, with the downside that depth of field is slightly reduced.

So when you say that areas far from the focus point of the photo are sharper on your iPhone XS, you are actually somewhat correct:

iPhone 13 Pro Max Wide: ƒ/1.5 aperture

iPhone XS Wide: ƒ/1.8 aperture

This isn't completely accurate, but it's a rough simulation.

Say you focused on a model 9 meters from the camera; this shows approximately how much of the image would be in perfect focus based upon distance:

iPhone 13 Pro Max:

iPhone XS:

If the model is further away, 25m, you can see that for the iPhone 13 Pro Max, objects closer than about 9.5m would start to blur:

For the iPhone XS, objects wouldn't start to blur until they were closer than about 8.5m:

The bottom line is all these devices are photographic tools, and whether it's an iPhone or a $3000 professional camera with a $2000 lens, for best results you need to work within the optical parameters of the system you have in hand.

Why do you read “my pictures on (phone three generations behind) looked better” and assume people are inexperienced photographers or somehow wrong in their perception?

Here are two sections of the same photo, same magnification, about equal distance from the center of the frame. One has a really surprising amount of detail, the other is a pixelated nightmare of post-processing.

I can surprisingly get same/slightly better results from my wife’s Pixel which is at least 3 generations behind (and less resolution):

And it’s not that the 13 takes *awful* pictures, rather the pictures look off in a really unnatural manner (especially skin/faces).

My working theory is the larger aperture lenses are less sharp, especially at the edges (not a surprising result), and Apple, to compensate has relied heavily on AI post processing (my guess is something built on GANs) to improve results. However, like all generative algorithms, the results can depart widely from expectations and end up looking “weird”. The HDR processing can’t be toggled off either, which may end up flattening out the photos in a way that isn’t expected or desired.

Like this photo of my kid: amazing detail in the shirt/darker areas of the image, face (especially the forehead) has been smoothed to death.

So maybe listen?

Catean wrote:

Still the same photos quality even after 15.1. I am starting to think we may have a hardware issue.

look at this picture that I took at breakfast this morning. No focus, no detail, nothing.

I pulled down the full resolution image from the post. It is a 12 MPixel jpeg, roughly 4000x3000 so it looks like it is probably a fair representation of the camera's capability. I took it into photo editing software for a closer look. With only a zoom in to about 400% (no enhancing the picture under review) the pepper grains around what would have been the top of the pile are sharp, and appear well focussed without compression defects when viewed (estimate) about 10x -15x life size. The depth of field is fairly shallow, as expected at close range with a f/1.x lens but this is down to physics, not a defect in the camera or image digitising.

Overall assessment of the photo: No Fault Demonstrated. If you can't see any detail in it I recommend trying to view on a different display.

I take photos use the Lightroom app. (LR has a camera app! Sorry to burst your bubble on that one.) It gives a little more control, and is looking a bit better than the Apple camera app. Still not good enough on the colours though.

Do you agree that this "Oil paint effect" is the blurry effect we are talking about in this thread?

I tried to send my feedback here. I hope that this could be improved soon.

Maybe if we all are sending consistent feedback will be helpful.

What do you think?

It's very digital and far from the grainy natural effect that iPhones used to have (and this was one of the reasons i always preferred Apple's devices since i always noticed this oil paint effect on cheaper mobile phones).

I also noticed that create problems with circular shapes and text (you can see it clearly on the wheel on the example below.

I also talked about this at a Barcelona's genius Bar and they confirmed that this effect look like a downgrade and really weird.

To simulate an exaggerated version of this effect You can try shooting at the maximum zoom available and quickly opening the picture.

After one second this "Oil paint effect" will appear.

In a Pro device it would be awesome at least being able to turn on and off this effects, HDR included.

https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/qftcj3/can_we_please_have_less_ai_in_iphone_13_pro/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

I also send feedback that is brightening faces when detected form the AI.

It was a hardware issue for me but after i spoke to Apple they suggested i speak to my phone carrier. EE instantly replaced it the following day and my new 13 Pro Max is amazing. The camera is awsome!

I agree raffcol!

Such a pity that the user who take this pic didn't reply yet.

This is the problem i faced with iPhone 13 Pro camera.

Some users are talking about blurry pics etc. but my concern was about this Oil Painting effect that seem to be applied to reduce picture's noise.

I heard that also Halide camera app can shoot a RAW without this oil painting processing (Apple pro Raw still does).

Maybe someone can try and share some shots with this app to find out more about it.

I think that 11 pro and older were had a different kind of noise reduction that looked more PRO and moe similar to film photography than paintings.

Not a problem of compression here. It s visible also in apple pro raw.

Zooming and cropping show the oil painting effect more.

You can go back (page 27) and find where this conversation started.

you will also find the original shot by MelaniePhotographer and compare.

I faced strong ai processing with iPhone13 pro, especially with telephoto and mid light conditions.

it s something that happens only in some condition obviously but I m trying to understand how to find some fix, like Halide app for example.

google “iPhone oil panting effect” and you can see what I m talking about.

cheers

@Dogcow-Moof, it has nothing to do with expectations. First thing I noticed on my wife's new 13 Pro Max is how the photos look like they have some sort of filter on every image, in comparison to her Xs Max. I have and use higher-end DSLR and mirrorless ILC gear, and even w/o processing the images are sharper and clearer. But even compared to my Galaxy Note 9 the images are not as sharp & clear. Apple most certainly did munge something with how the photos are being processed. Glad I found this thread as it confirms my suspicions that something is awry with this new phone. We'll be visiting an Apple store, but my guess is it's going to take an update from Apple.

Mark

I agree. i got my iPhone 13 pro and tested it for 2 weeks. the device was awesome, camera performed amazinlgy many times but in some condition comparing with iPhone previous model i found lack of detail and no chance to shoot without HDR.

Hope that will be improved soon with a future update.

Did you try shooting with 3rd party app like Halide? i found a workaround shooting in raw via the Lightroom for iOS' camera.