iPhone 7 Plus Camera - Pictures are bad

We at ProCamera have been analysing the issue. What is being described as "waterpainting effect" is caused by OIS and SIS. Optical Image Stabilisation is always using multi-image-fusion to create the final image. This can cause patchiness in the image and create a "water painting" look.

When capturing RAW, no OIS/SIS is used as RAW files guarantee unprocessed sensor data. Therefore most users are reporting that RAW files look 'better'.

With apps like ProCamera you can disable AIS (automatic still image stabilization), which means it deactivates OIS/SIS on iPhone 6(S) Plus, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and SIS on devices that only offer SIS (e.g. iPhone 6S).

However, this of course can lead to more motion blur. There is a tradeoff: either you use AIS (OIS+SIS) and get "sharp" photos that may exhibit patchiness and waterpainting like artefacts, or you get possible blurry photos when disabling AIS, but you will not see waterpainting effects.

There is also another alternative: apps like ProCamera offer an Anti-Shake capture mode which uses the device motion sensors to capture the photo once the device is held steady. This also reduces motion-blur without any multi-image-fusion. This is what we recommend when capturing RAW or TIF/JPG without OIS enabled.

When SIS was first introduced, we made an in-depth comparison between photos captured with/without AIS:

https://www.procamera-app.com/en/blog/image-stabilization-in-procamera8/

The post is a bit dated, however, it is still relevant as OIS uses SIS as well.

We recently made a post about capturing RAW which also talks about some technical details in regards to OIS:

https://www.procamera-app.com/en/blog/procamera-raw-dng-ios10/

Conclusion:

I believe there is nothing wrong with the camera hardware. Actually, we at ProCamera are very pleased with the quality of the camera hardware. However, we learned that many professional/discerning users prefer shooting photos without OIS/SIS (AIS).

AIS is great for snapshots and when you are not able to hold the iPhone totally steady. Also, many user seem to prefer "over-sharpened" images (at least on their iPhone screen) over blurry images. Therefore I understand that Apple prioritizes sharpness (which comes with a cost).

Tip:

If you are a professional/discerning user, check out third party apps that allow to disable OIS/SIS.

Thank you for the analysis. It would be great if you enabled capturing raw plus jpegs that include the live feature all at once.

Also, any idea why many of us did not have as blurry pictures when using OIS on our 6s+ phones?

Pardon my French, but what the freak?

This doesnt make sense at all.

OIS - is to stabilise to image to minimize motion blur and such, to produce a sharper image

Now you're telling me that OIS results in water paintings? sounds like OIS has no added value and better be left out.

Why add OIS when it results in worse pictures than without?

Other phones which also have OIS do NOT have this extreme waterpaint effect, and produce razorsharp photos.

Having to use 3rd party apps to get even decent results (if youre lucky) also goes against what Apple stands for and what you expect: it should just work and have superb results, especially compared to previous generations.

The 4s,5,5s,6 and 6s all have more details in every pic, without OIS and with a much smaller aperture / less sensitive sensor. The 7 with OIS and more light sensitive sensor should produce superior shots every time, with more details, less noise and less motion blur.

But, it does not. And no analyses makes this fact any different.

I can not agree here. Whatever I try, photos are just garbage. I went thru my nexus 5x photos and 99% of them are very good quality. When zoomed to 100% they are perfect. I know there was no stabilizatiob there but whatever I do with your iPhone and it does not matter which app I am using I get the same result - photos painted and not taken. The only way is to shoot raw and then make jpgs which is a hassle I am just not willing to do 😉 Apple? Are you ok with this quality? 😢

Have a look at some of my ex-nexus photos. I already miss my previous phone 😉

http://imgur.com/a/jCzYe

I have looked at images taken by iPhone 7, 6s and 6 and they all have the same effect. I downloaded some images from flickr and went back to iPhone 6 photos in the search and it all looks the same which means that this has been like that for 2 years or more 😉

https://www.flickr.com/search/?camera=apple%2Fiphone_7&dimension_search_mode=min &height=1024&width=1024&advanced=1&media…

Moving back to android 😉

Well correct in nothing wrong. And good advertising as you software has a very good rating.

So you had 3 generations of the iPhone and are now just aware of this? Please correct me if I am wrong.

Those pics look no different than any taken in iPhone 7

Has anyone given thought to why out of 21 pages in this thread one well regarded 3rd party app developer bother to respond and give an explanation that hopefully most would understand. Only one?

Apple isn't going to changed what millions have no issue with. And no argument here just logical reasoning that I said no less the 3 times already you have the industry standard rating the camera hardware/software and the results in an industry accepted way and it came out rather good when you compare all results. End of story. There is Android as the previous user alluded to a"&

@chevysales

I moved to iPhone 5 or 6 weeks ago. I went thru 6, 6s and 7 photos on flickr to see for how long this issue was present. I think this is where the confusion comes from. The issue I raised has been there for a long time which means this is how it is supposed to be. Period. Comparing photos from my previous phone which was google's Nexus 5x, photos I get from my iPhone 7 are below average with some "painting effect". But I assume as long as they are good on the screen and print well in a postcard format it is all ok and I think that this is something 99,9% of users expect. So I am backing down with my investigation 😉

I now understand what you meant. I had thought you had all those phones and never noticed it. Sorry about any misunderstandings.

Same issue.. 7+ just came out of the box yesterday but everything was pixelated! very disappointing. Regret this purchase

I have this issue as well. I compared iPhone 7 Plus photo to iPhone 6 photo...I took photos at the same time.

iPhone 6 photo is clearer and much nicer looking than iPhone 7 Plus.

Whate a shame!

Having the same issue here. I went to one of them apple stores and tried their display sets, seem to produce the same kind of watercolory photos as well... if I were to bring this to apple care, how am I suppose to "reproduce" and "proof" that there is an issue? Since the effect is only visibly obvious on certain parts of certain pictures.I'll have to go to other stores to try other iphone 7 out to see if I even come across one that produces a good photo.

Here are my examples:

iPhone 6

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/197258/Comparison/iPhone%206.JPG

Iphone 7 Plus

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/197258/Comparison/iPhone%207%20Plus.jpg

This is a catastrophic issue. I use my phone to take photographs a lot, it is useless for me at the moment.

I will take it back to the shop.