iPhone 7 Plus Camera - Pictures are bad

i can also reproduce the problem and think i know WHY it is happening... but not how to fix it.

on my 7 plus it only happens in 2x lens mode using Apple's Camera App... when taking the same picture with a 3rd party app at 2x lens mode i noticed that the JPG produced with the Apple Camera App is ⅔ to 1/2 the file size (not pixel size... but size in MB) of the JPG produced with any 3rd party app.

I think for some reason the Apple Camera app is compressing the image too severely.

this is completely repeatable.

Yes, you are right that only hardware can reproduce the wider color profile. Yet, i think using photoshop can somehow decode the DCI P3 to viewable sRGB on the monitor to reproduce the actual color. You can try to use 'Change to Profile' in photoshop to change the profile to sRGB and save as jpg, afterwards, the color will become accurate using any browsers including Windows default one. I tried that and it works!

my wife has an iphone 6s plus and it's just as bad. She has been complaining since day one. The 5s might have been grainyer but at least not as smeared. I have a 7plus and when using with lightroom and DNG the pics are not smeary anymore. I did also switch off the "optimize for storage" option in the iphone settings. Lightroom is less intuitive than the iphone camera app but at least the pictures are not as bad. I think its a software / compression thing. Strage that those large "shot on iphone" posters don't have that effect. Makes me wonder.. ?????

So have gone into the Apple store twice now. The first time they said the photos coming from the camera were "blurry" and they replaced the camera on the phone. Got the phone back. Same problem. Went back a week later. The guy there said he couldnt tell if there was an issue because "now that i had told him the images are kind of watercolor-y he might be inclined to see it more that way" At the end of it they replaced the phone entirely, but the photos came out the same. Even the test iphone 7 pluses in the store had the same bad camera quality....

Got the phone back. First it was "repaired" on a local service and they didnt do nothing to it (they originally said that they would replace the phone to a new one...) and then they send it to Ireland (Apples international service). Phone was more than two weeks away....

And what they did?? Replaced the screen! Of course this didnt solved the problem and now the screen sounds loose when pressed from the right upper corner. So dissappointed because old days whole service process was so much faster and reliable.

Now I have downloaded Adobe Lightroom mobile from App Store and took pictures in raw a format (saved to camera roll in a jpeg after editing in Lightroom) and image quality is superp! Of course you get a lot of noise, but image detail levels is so fantastic so I dont mind it. So this is definitely a software problem, not hardware. Taking pictures like this and editing takes a alot of time so this is not a fix to my wife and usual consumers:(

When taking pictures with iPhone native camera application software is compressing images too much and is adding way too much noise reduction and also image manipulation. Could it be that Apple uses same algoryhtm with DCI-

P3 Wide Color Gamut than old phones and it makes this watercolor effect?

I've had this same issue since I got my phone a month ago. I took it in to the Genius bar at my local Apple store this morning. They made no comments on the quality of the photos or anything at all. They were very "dumb" to the issue especially when I told them the stats of the cases I found online on this exact thread. They simply ran a diagnostic test and said we will replace the camera for you. Upon picking the phone up, they said they replaced one of the two cameras due to it being "bad". So far I seem to see a slight difference (better) in quality but haven't got out to test it yet.

Noticing this on my iPhone 7 plus. Seems like excessive noise reduction. I notice it mostly on images shot indoors where the light isn't as strong. Especially on skin. Some area are reduced to flat color.

However, I notice this doesn't seem to happen when using the new Portrait (depth effect) mode. I took three shots of person -one with wide , one with telephoto , another with Portrait. The wide and telephoto shots had heavy noise reduction applied to skin. But the Portrait shot had no visible noise reduction -- you can clearly see the grain (noise) when magnified and detail is intact. So there seems to be a heavy handed noise reduction rule being applied unless in Portrait mode. Can anyone else confirm?

Here's a perfect example of how bad the noise reduction really is....

JPEG straight from the Camera app:

RAW from Lightroom:

The heavy noise reduction that iOS is applying is destroying the fine details, need an example? Take a look at the towels and the faucet, the RAW sample retains way more fine details opposed to the one taken straight from the Camera app which is applying an insane amount of noise reduction.

Keep in mind that these two shots are zoomed in to show the differences.

Camera+ (from Tap Tap Tap version 8.02 is latest and my mainly used camera app) doesn't take raw pictures it takes TIFF with stripped EXIF data but it is great for JPEG as you can get full size with no compression or jpeg 95 if you like.

Either way your post is first one that states not even raw does away with it when another user posted his raw file which clearly shows the detail lost from over compression and over sharpening on the jpegs which based on posts here lead one to belief its the algorithm used in Apple stock camera app not the photo app.

Others mentioned why reviewers didn't mention it and highly touted ones like the photographic standard DXO... the answer is not everyone is afflicted with it as they put the camera portion of phone through the wringer.

The other poster with the Forbes link is a rehash on AppleInsider story by their "Photo Expert" and shows examples of shots that show the Google Pixel with either the lens flare approx 1/2" from tree on left in sky or the effect one gets from too much saturation in sky.

I don't think you would find and engineer that would say any example shown is anything but over use of sharpening and noise reduction.... adding sharpening to jpegs is wrong.

Just another users 2 cents as issues with these expensive phones are no fun. Good luck to all. I would guess Apple once this is actually documented via Genius Bar visits and contacting AppleCare along with opening SPAC cases.

Correct, this is NOT a iPhone 7 Plus or 7 issue alone, this is a iOS issue. This happened before on my 6 all the way up to my 6S until iOS 9.3 was released, that's when they toned down the heavy noise reduction algorithm only to jack it back up for iOS 10+ and the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

Here's another example of mine, the first picture is from Lightroom shot in RAW while the second is straight from the Camera app:

http://i.imgur.com/w9tlo0y.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/MLJ4XNo.jpg

What you'll notice on the leaf is how much detail is lost from the heavy noise reduction, which again, is a iOS issue that Apple needs to address sooner rather than later. People that say they don't have this issue clearly aren't zooming in to see how much detail is lost and/or have no idea how to shoot RAW. If it looks pleasing to the eye from afar then they seem to think they're not having this issue when they clearly are.

I took my phone to one of the stores here in Hungary. I did took pictures with the store's phone and mine and showed them and they agreed that mine looks worse.

However I just realized I think there are two separate issues are going on with my phone.

Once there's this noize reduction, watercolor effect etc. I can see this on the store's phone too.

But my phone also tooks faded, colorless pictures which the store's does not.

I include pictures for you to see:

Sorry about these not so pretty pictures but i think you can see my point. And same settings were applied to both phones. The service guy came to the same conclusion when he took shots.

They're going to replace the camera in the phone for a new one and we'll see how that goes.

but the watercolor effect still saddens me

any thoughts?

some understanding of Apples choices that seem to not be understood in this thread..... a good read for Apples choices http://www.macworld.com/article/3121661/apple-phone/blow-up-iphone-7-plus-uses-d igital-zoom-instead-of-optical-more-often-than-youd-expect.html

THnx piotrek!!!!

i was very sceptical, but resetting all settings did indeed fix this! also fixed the rediculous white balancing issues i had.

you are a lifesaver, now i can finally start loving my iPhone 7 over my old 6.. those awefull photos and rediculous looking facetime calls almost made me go back to 6.

Hi,

I had the same issue with my iPhone 7 camera,

Go to: settings>Photos&camera>HDR>keep normal photo - switch it to "off"

Now I have great photo quality even with zooming in.

Hope this will help you!

I have bought iPhone 7 256gb in Finland (Phone did cost 999 euros ~1000 US dollars

) to my wife as a present because she takes lot a pictures. Think it was among with the first phones delivered in here. Her old phone was 6 plus 64gb and the images were brilliant compared to her new phone images! Also my old iPhone 5s take so much better images:/

Have tried every solutions on this thread and nothing have helped. Images are missing all the detail and look so compressed (watercolor-effect /viewed phones display).

Now the phone is changed under warranty to a new one (hopefully get it in the end of the week). I'll report it here, that it helped or not.