FaceTime Camera Images Look Poor on New Macbook Pro Retina Models

I fear the solution is not going to be found through these forums. As we know Apple does not officially monitor the forums (which is frankly a bit limp), so if you really wan them to 'hear' what your saying about the poor quality of the Facetime cameras in these expensive machines, you need to find another strategy. I'd suggest bombing the social media sites and get the chat going there, forget this forum as a place to vent your spleen or to get things changed at Apple!You need to be speaking to the great unwashed who may be considering buying a new Mac, not the existing Apple fan club.

Oh and BTW my Facetime camera on my new iMac is rubbish too and does not work with Skype (unless I turn Facetime off and then it does - and that's a handy tip BTW).

I completly agree with you ajophoto.

Apple sent me an email after I bought the laptop asking me to give them a review of the mac I bought. I did that and I wrote about the facetime camera. That email said that they will not answer to me directly, but they will for sure read the comments.

But I agree with you that by letting other people know about this then probably Apple can eventually pay attention.

I also turned off the Facetime software and I used iGlass. The result is OK, but it's just software, so that you can see that it was artificially enhanced, but still does not look like a high end computer webcam at all.

Cheers.

You are right ajophoto. These days it seems the "Squeeky Wheel" needs to roll on social media in order to get any action (oil 🙂).

Yep

I bought a new Macbook pro retina last week. I realized the Facetime image is very poor. Comparing with the old pro the colour is so bad....it's too dark ...

I really regreted to buy the new one

I faced same problem the day i got rMBP 13' but I did manage to chnage camera exposre with following app that cost 8$. Thanks to MacUpdate !!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/webcam-settings/id533696630?mt=12

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/43828/webcam-settings

I just purchased MacBook Pro w/Retina 15" this past Sunday for developing software which uses the camera and was very disappointed to see how poor the quality was with both sharpness and color tint. I stopped by the Apple store two days later and asked to compare the image on my Facetime with the image displayed on their Facetime (MacBook Pro w/o Retina) and it theirs was crystal clear. I then asked for a replacement and tried the new one right there in front of them and it too had the same problem. I'm scheduled to have the genius bar take a look tomorrow, but after finding this thread I don't hold much hope. Looks like I'll be returning and waiting until they they have a solution. 😟

Same problem with MBA 2012. Camera quality is poor (grainy, violet pixels) compared to my old MBP 2010. I've done all troubleshooting guidelines here, nothing works so I went to the service center to have it fixed. If it's not a software problem, I hope the LCD they install will have the crystal clear Facetime HD cam it's suppose to have. I've also posted a feedback about this in the apple feedback page. Will wait for the 2013 release if nothing works, just have to extend the warranty to be sure.

Same problem here with my MBPr 2013. The camera is not as clear as the previous versions of MBP. The image is grainy and the lighting is bad. Overall, the camera is just below expections. I am disappointed. I hope Apple would consider an update/fix on this. Really disappointing.

I have both rMBP and MBP. MBP camera is way better than rMBP. Though on apple website, it states that both have HD cameras. I dont agree!

The first and major disappointment from rMBP (received today) 😟

Same problem here (rMPB 15). Disappointing.

I have a MBPr 13" (2013) with the same problem. Quality isn´t HD at all.

Hope it´s a software problem and that we´ll see a solution soon.

Hello its been a few months since the last post. I wanted to bump this topic again. I've just purchased my first Macbook and so far I'm pretty happy with the computer. But I am not happy with the Facetime or anything to do with the camera!

The camera is poor and not in HD what-so-ever. What I don't understand is why this has been an issue for almost a year. I thought Apple was a top brand company that took care of their customer and build well rounded machines.

Who do we need to e-mail or call to get this fixed? I don't understand why this has not been fixed.

Apple please come out with a fix and not tomorrow.

Thanks

Justni wrote: ...Who do we need to e-mail or call to get this fixed? ...

Link->Apple - Support - MacBook Pro - Contact Support

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac OSX 10.8.4

Hi, just posting here my experience in trying to get this problem "fixed". So I went to an authorized service center and complained about the poor camera quality. They installed a new LCD in my MBA (they have no spare parts for just the camera) and to my surprise....it's still the same poor quality I mentioned above in my post 2 months ago. I called Apple Support and was assisted by a Senior Tech Support for my case. After a series of going back and forth to 2 more service centers in my country, we've found out that the CAMERA QUALITY IS NORMALLY THIS BAD. I also visited several authorized reseller stores and quality is same for all of them, even rMBP's camera is not that good (MBA is still worse).

I think this is a case of FALSE ADVERTISEMENT. There is nothing HD about the quality of photos produced by their internal cameras. Very far from what the ads show you in their website if you go to the camera part. I came from using a 2010 MBP and I really thought the camera quality has bumped up (iSight --> Facetime --> Facetime HD). I asked the Senior Tech to escalate this as it is clear that the ads they have in the Apple site is misleading. Naming the camera Facetime HD, having these descriptive words as the camera's supposed quality...

720p FaceTime HD camera.

Stay sharp.

Let your friends and family see more of you with the 720p FaceTime HD camera. Every smile looks bright, even halfway around the world. And the widescreen format means everyone can fit into the picture without having to crowd around the display.

.....is misleading as well as the ad imagery which seems to be giving a promise of a high quality camera at first glance. I love apple products but this is really disappointing.

It might help if all of you who share the same sentiments as mine would submit a complain through the Apple support link above. Just let them know you're not happy with your unit's camera and mention this false advertisement going on. I wonder if there's a better way to 'escalate' this issue?

After I bought it, I felt really ripped off as I expected a high quality HD camera from a company I normally trust. This post has over 15k views so there are obviously a lot of people noticing the defect and researching it. I want my camera replaced or some kind of compensation.

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