iPhone 13 Camera is blurry

If you’re really that unhappy, return it.

Life is too short to spend your time all upset about your phone’s camera.

(Seriously.)

If you find something else that works better for you, you’ll be much happier in the end.

Apple has not made any comment and very likely will not; they rarely do.

Great insight!

It's VERY evident that there is something wrong with the processing on the iPhone 13. Especially the front facing camera, which is way worse with video. It's took me just seconds to notice after powering it on and calling my wife in FaceTime.

I then searched if others are having the same issue. Which led me here. Two make sure it wasn't a fluke I started a 3 way FaceTime call with my 13 Pro Max and my iPhone XR work phone. The result? The iPhone XR's video is much better quality wise. I submitted my feedback and have will be bringing the phone to my local Apple Store. Hoping that this gets resolved since I do want to keep the phone for the ProRes video recording.

Thank you!

I am pretty sure it is a combination of overprocessing and who knows what else. I know that when I would take pictures and zoom in with my phone, the quality would stay the same, but now I notice when I zoom in the quality gets increasingly worse and more blurry and pixelated… and then it will correct itself to a different lens or something.

But, I went to the Apple Store and spoke to some people about the camera issues. I believe I said this already but, I had them bring out their only 12 Pro from the back. I took a photo with the 13 Pro and the 12 Pro of the same subjects in the store. I tested it on a well lit area, such as the “iPhone” text on their wall that is a light itself, and I tested it on my shoelaces. I know that my iPhone 11 Pro would not have done what the 12 and 13 did to my shoelaces BUT.

My best friend has a 12 Pro and recently got it, and the pictures they’ve taken with it look really nice. Not the 12 Pro in the store. Same over-processed stuff. I asked the guy I was speaking to, “has this been updated?” He said, “I don’t think so?” I checked with him as my witness. Yep, it was on the new iOS 15.0!

Definitely a software issue in terms of over-processing, BUT. I still don’t see why when I zoom in videos, or even take videos at all that they look like straight up garbage.

I am really hoping that it is indeed a software issue. :(

isazavakos's comparison photos are NOT zoomed in (digital zoom) in the sense that you are implying. She posted the images at 100% of their resolution. Meaning, that each pixel of the image is shown as 100% of a pixel on screen. If they were "zoomed in", both pictures would look pixelated. Even is that was the case, why is it that the photo taken with the Adobe Lightroom Camera iOS app is significantly better and doesn't have the aggressive AI post-processing?

What we can see on the iPhone 13 photo is what many others have been saying. It's the botched ‘Oil painting effect’ processing. Saying that this is not a widespread issue is just patently false. Searching this issue on Google currently has 184,000 results.

You have an issue with the processing, far more do not.

But beyond that, I’ve said over and over that if you don’t like the processing shoot in RAW and process afterwards, which is effectively what Lightroom does.

I wasn’t commenting on the photos, but rather on the statement:

…when I zoom in the quality gets increasingly worse and more blurry and pixelated… and then it will correct itself to a different lens or something.

Talking about this topic here has given the possibility to find and share workaround to this "issue", for example shooting with Lightroom app for iOS.

Lobsterghost1: Try to be positive!

Here people are not sharing their unhappiness but explaining issues they are having and finding solution.

For sure denying that this "issues" are even existing, generates infinite loop, turning the discussion into a negative one.

Please read previous comments if you like to find out this.

It has been useful to many users i talked with.

Many users are also sending their feedback here: 📸➡️ https://www.apple.com/feedback/camera/ ⬅️📸

I m not caring about numbers of phones sold, number of people happy with a camera, numbers of comments, level point of users of this forum

I come from a culture where quality is more important than quantity.

if 1 single comment, product, person in the world stands out and have quality, i care for it.

I can also agree with you but when i described in detail this "issue" (always putting in quotation marks to outline that is a software post processing thing and that some user may prefer automatically remove wrinkles etc), the replies i got from user like you where about denying that this "effect" was even existing.

You can check this review https://www.dxomark.com/apple-iphone-13-pro-camera-review-outstanding-video/

and download hi res version of picture below for example. I m not posting to compare with Huawei P50 pro but only to show this effect i talked about. Also shots i took with iPhone previous models were not having this effect.

You can check hi res image on this review and see by yourself.

Still inviting other users to send their feedback here if they agree: Feedback - Camera - Apple

mac_head36 wrote:

I’m having the same issue on my new iPhone 13 Pro. Most images appear to be over sharpened and have that distinct “watercolor” effect to them. Apple, please look into this!

Asking Apple to look into anything here on a user to user only forum, which Apple doesn't participate in is as useful as shouting into the wind.

If you want Apple to hear you, this link will let you provide feedback, which will actually be read (but not responded to) --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple

Then you may want to take your phone in to be examined; I’ve never had this issue with mine so it would seem to point to a focus issue with yours.

I don’t care what is on Google; a substantial number of people in those threads don’t even own an iPhone, they just love to trash Apple.

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

As an aside, I never said you were a newbie, but even people used to shooting with iPhones are finding the reduced depth of field due to the wider aperture of the iPhone 13 default wide camera (ƒ/1.5 for the iPhone 13 Pro Max vs. ƒ/1.8 on most older iPhones) is forcing them to adapt different techniques.

Certainly you wouldn’t compose or shoot the same if someone swapped a ƒ/1.5 26mm prime for your ƒ/1.8.

It definitely looks like a software issue.

from an hardware perspective I think that the camera is amazing.

even automatic processing sometimes it work really well, but not most of the time for the kind of shot I used to take with my previous iPhones.

are you also able to avoid the oil painting effect shooting RAW from the native Apple camera app? I wasn’t able to do so.

my only workaround was shooting raw but from the Lightroom for iOS camera.

Happy to hear that someone else is hoping for an update! 🤞🤞🤞

Go to https://www.apple.com/feedback/camera/ and complain there as well. Mention this thread URL address as well. 1500 people like us having the same issue in just a month is huge.

I wish the first post would show the link to the Camera feedback site or at least the most useful answer should include this link. OP, if you still read this and you can edit your post, it would be very helpful.

Of course, but that's also why I advise those who may be bothered to leave feedback, as leaving comments here in no way figures into Apple's engineering decisions; leaving feedback does.

Feedback - Camera - Apple

If you're not doing this, tap your iPhopne screen on the area of focus and it should remain where you want to be. It would likely only move if you haven't tapped the item on your iPhone screen, so your phone doesn't know exactly what you're focusing on.

I see some of what you describe but I also see better colors and better contrast but also effects from downsampling an HDR original into lossy SDR at least twice to post it here; I don’t see that type of thing when viewing HDR originals on the iPhone 13 display.

Regardless, as always, no one here can do anything about it, and Apple Engineering does not read these forums.

Rather, if you have a complaint, leave feedback for Apple here; they do read and act upon them:

Feedback - Camera - Apple

Perhaps you should; I see none of these issues with my 13 Pro Max, so if you don't want to have your camera checked:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

you should get a refund while you can and choose a device that will make you happier.

I don't have a bias here; the important thing is to have a phone that takes photos the way you want them to look.