iPhone 13 Pro Disgusting Photos

Still could be a hardware issue however- these are effects commonly placed onto low light photos. There’s a possibility of defective sensors or lenses and intensive editing to make up for the higher ISO’s (I’ve noticed this sensors dosent get much light). Another possible issue could be the phone uses way to high of a shutter speed and prefers to jack up ISO, this will cause noise filled poor quality images which of course automatic editing will try to fix.

It could be a corruption in HDR support as well! There is an obvious issue here that I assume is software but could be hardware.

Im glad you enjoy the camera app, however it does not capture realistic images. That’s objective, my example proves it.

Thankfully, due to Apple's 14 day return policy, you can return your phone for a full refund and purchase something else.

Reviewers and magazines continue to be impressed by the iPhone 13 Pro Max's cameras.

Just so you know, I am a huge fan of all things Apple and have loved and been an advocate for your products, I have worked on numerous NDA TV commercials for the company and it gives me no joy to find myself in this position. The iPhone 13 pro is amazing in every other respect. The camera technology or processing software is not good. I hope it's a software fix further on down the road where we can turn on or off the aggressive oil painting style filter. As you say, most will not notice it. But those of us with a critical eye and the ability to compare images in Lightroom or Photoshop to previous iPhone versions can see the quality decrease in the iPhone 13 pro over the iPhone 11 Pro. You can sing the corporate tune all you like but the iPhone 13 pro camera technology gives a worse result than the iPhone 11 Pro. Fact.

These aren’t low light photos that I have a problem with. The worst offender was in daylight. I agree, if it was just low light, I could accept a poorer result.

And the detail isn’t better, it’s visibly worse. if you’re doing stacking, you should be able to reduce noise without any detail loss (in areas that are not moving), and can even use super resolution techniques to add detail. This is all doable, but instead…

This is the same watercolor look I’ve had on my small-sensor P&S cameras for many years. I think this is simply heavy-handed noise reduction. It seemed to me years ago that maybe it was a fad, but it’s is not going away. It’s an obsessive attempt at having zero noise, but it’s counterproductive.

In that case, there should be an option, a switch, between two choices -- 1) Crappify Filter for Instagram, or 2) Low Noise Reduction.

Most people will be fine with it, and many will appreciate the lack of noise. Like I said, it's just like what you found on inexpensive cameras for over a decade, so it's not unusual in general, but I'm just surprised to see Apple go out of their way now, today, to do this.

So, yes, I'll probably be using RAW and third-party apps a lot from now on.

AvidGameFan wrote:

It doesn't matter what other smartphones do, premium or otherwise.

It's what customers have indicated they prefer; by providing ProRAW and unprocessed sensor access to third party apps they've given the ability to obtain a less processed image to those who want it while keeping regular customers and photo reviewers happy.

RAW is good if you want the ultimate control over how your photos come out, but if you want the best photos right when you click the button, use a camera app. There are so many, it's hard to make sense of what's good, so you may want to check out reviews. I've used a few over the years. Lately, I've been using the "Camera+ 2" app, and I like its photographer-centric features, and it doesn't have the excessive watercolor effect. (See my comparison above.) It's still not going to replace a normal camera for ultimate quality, but if something seems special, I'll want to switch to RAW or ProRAW, and I'll edit later (and probably using the computer, where you can use much more powerful and expensive software). I have yet to try ProRAW, so I need to take time to test my workflow and confirm what works for me, but I was fairly pleased with RAW as something that you can edit later and hit it with more processing. Note that computer applications for this can get pricey, but I use them anyway for my normal digital camera photos.

Anyway, I think the answer for me now is to use the Camera app and its various modes. At this point, my main concern is usability, and getting used to the UI. Apple does such a great job with making their apps easy to use.

Over 40 million iPhone 13s were sold world-wide over just the holiday season.

The number of people complaining here? A percentage that is effectively a statistical error.

If it's an issue for you, I get it, as I said not every device is perfect for every user and again, a Canon EOS R3 wouldn't be the right choice for someone who just wants to take quick one-button post to Instagram photos.

Every product targets a market segment and you're still complaining about processing that can be completely bypassed simply by using a third-party app rather than Apple's Camera app.

You need to turn off the lens correction button under your phone settings in the camera tab

The thing with the iPhone 13 is that you can’t turn off smart HDR anymore, it’s build in the camera app… so the picture are bad and you can’t do anything … my iPhone 7 Plus photos were a lot better.

In good light, the effect you describe is usually negligible.

If the relatively small amount of smoothing that does occur is an issue, you'll need to use ProRAW or a third party app.

I didn’t pay more than 1k for a device only to sit and wait to fanthom updates that might or might never come:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/really-bad-photos-with-iphone-13-pro-max-merged.2315188/

Agreed. I've returned my iPhone 13 Pro for the same reasons. Soft images, over-saturated colors, over-processed, aggressive de-noising. I always preferred iPhones because they had the best color science, now I just feel disappointed, if not angry.

Taken at the same exact time with a slightly different position since I’m not a robot that can perfectly recreate the same exact frame.

Its EXTREMELY clear there’s a software issue just off that picture no?