iPhone 7 Plus Camera - Pictures are bad

Just wanted to chime in here. My 7 Plus also exhibiting this issues with the crap quality pictures. Attached image comparing an original iPhone 6 to my brand new 7 Plus with the standard Camera app. 7 Plus image is absolutely terrible in a fully lit room, even worse than a phone from 2 generations ago.

I can verify taking DNG with LR mobile basically fixes the issue, however I need to select the "Detailed" option under "Presets" -> "Details", then export in order to get a usable JPEG.

This is pretty embarrassing, especially considering it's been 3+ months since the release or the phone with multiple iOS updates in between. Considering people are buying this phone SPECIFICALLY for the camera (like I did), this is something that should be addressed with some urgency, in my opinion.

I too have terrible paint effect blurring on most photos. Even at pretty bad levels during midday light outdoors. Low light shots look like pencil crayon drawings by my 2 year old and are completely unusable. Apple have replaced the camera unit - no fix. Online support - no fix. Genius Bar - no fix. Software updates - no fix. Apple staff all see the issues, but all say I'm the only one with the problem. Problem evident on 10.0 right through to 10.2 (current) - both public builds and betas, and it occurs on both outward-facing cameras, with or without portrait mode. My 6+ is taking better photos in the same circumstances right now... I'm getting close to asking for a refund and going with a Pixel XL or OnePlus 3T. Or maybe generating some media attention may help. Has anyone had a replacement iPhone 7+ and has it solved the issue? Hoping this is a small batch problem that Apple recognises.

Frustrating amount of investigation we are having to do. What a way for a company to treat a customer spending £1000, eh...

You describe the problem very well, though I also found it apparent in portrait mode. It shows up mostly on skin. Portrait mode was handy for identifying that the problem exists on both rear facing cameras. Using 2x doesn't necessarily use the telephoto lens - often it simply applies a digital zoom to the wide lens. Portrait mode however forces the phone into telephoto lens - confirming that the overenthusiastic noise reduction and sharpening is indeed on both. Has anyone tried the selfie camera?

Hello user. If disable in the iOS stock camera app the Live Photos function and using iOS 10.2. Then better?

I am not sure. But Live Photos feature makes the photos worse again. More Gaussian blur!

Gaussian blur is even worse for the animal and people face and for dark environments. Therefore first photo here or other photos here, so details missing.

But disable this Live Photos feature. not fixed general camera problem.

For the love of god.... for the last time, a reset will NOT magically make your pictures better.

Please stop spreading around this "fix", it is NOT a fix and it's just an unessecary suggestion that'll wipe out everyone's settings for zero benefits.

This issue is iOS related and how it applies over sharpening and heavy noise reduction. So again, please stop with the whole reset your settings suggestion.

I‘m pretty sure iPhone x will have the same issue as it’s not a hardware issue. It’s a compression issue. I use Lightroom mobile to get RAW. I also use camera+ but I think that these images are somewhat compressed too, even when shooting RAW + TIFF. Lightroom seems to give a real RAW image which in my opinion is very noisy/grainy but at least it allows the user to decided on the amount of noisereduction. I use the iP7+.

Are you specifically talking about low light issues? Because if you are, then when you are taking photos in low light, you need to tap on the major focus point so that the little box with the sun next to it shows up, and then slide up to lighten up the photo.

I can take photos on my iPhone 7 in extremely dim light.

Cheers,

GB

Folks, I have tested this extensively and i can tell you that it just is what it is. FWIW, I professionally tested devices for a living for several years and do so informally still today.

With the iPhone 7+ isolated lenses, looked at image matadata, etc.. to find the issue.. I also experience the issue with the regular 7 (which threw many of my theories in the trash).

My best guess is that for the 7+ there is image ‘quality’ application being made to the images that goes too far. It is most evident in lower-light (not low light as it can be in light that I normally get good images from with a 6S+) and with the zoom lens.

One at a time..

1. Lower light.. with the Plus model I think that both lenses are being used to create the picture taken and the wide lens, with better aperature, can get away with images that the zoom cannot.. I think the zoom still ‘contributes’ to the image when it shouldn’t be. I think the math is bad for how the lenses are ‘synced’ to create the final image.

2. Zoom.. it’s a miniscule zoom lens and you get what you get.. zoom is borderline worthless IMO. Zoom works when you have something like a flower or subject (better if not a human) that fills the image/screen.. when the image is more broad...say a person taking up less than 20% of the image .. the zoom is worthless.

Finally, on top of these issues you can layer VERY over aggressive noise reduction or image ‘quality’ adjustments in creation of the image. Some, or all of these issues lead to the watercolor effect, the out of focus look and the overly smooth images... toss in the occasional blatantly bad colors.

If you think the 8+ resolves these issues .. well, it does not. I have had them all and I use the 8+ now. I have zoomed in on my son playing baseball and it looks just like the images from the 7+.

WIth that said, other images with the 8+ are WAAAY better than the 6S+ (and I love the 6S+) and the 7+. I hate that the images with the 8+ still have some of those issues but they are there. All you can do is get a different phone (I prefer iPhone so not an option) or understand the limitations of a phone camera. I am not saying the iPhone camera is bad.. I think it is 80% good.. and even 80% amazing on the 8+.. just limited in certain areas.

I have noticed that using another camera application (Lightroom in my case) yields better pictures.

I have contacted Apple multiple times about this issue and nothing comes out of it. The last response was really emblematic of the issue, the "genius" said: it's just the way it takes pictures. To which, I have to agree.

Now, I am hunting for 3rd party apps that are easy to use and use RAW format. Lightroom is good, but the interface is more geared to editing, I am going to have to try PROCAM as well then. Other 3rd party apps seem to add additional controls but I haven't got better results necessarily, like with Camera+.

Hello,

Note that there is iOS 11.1 Oct 31,2017 new update has fix for the iPhone 7 blurry photos.

Your iOS is old now.

I took my phone to Apple store in STL this weekend. They agreed that photos were terrible and my phone was replaced on the spot. The pictures are no better, and the display model appeared to do the same thing. The tech went from, "wow this does take terrible photos" to "a lot of it is how you use the camera, lighting, etc..". If I shoot with an app that does RAW I have much better quality - and 5 times the storage per photo. I have to think someone at Apple sees the issue and is working on a software update???

sharpening? it looks more like aggresive noise reduction to me. that is why the details are gone, simply washed out. my kids look like a barbie doll with too much make-up. hair is smeared out too, no details at all.

but, like i said before...it is a problem in any condition, any subject. I too like too think it is a software thing....the hardware should be capable enough.

wonder how this ever go through Q&A testing? this is so obvious, even to basic users like my wife, who is no photographer or nitpicker...she just wants good photos. and right now, that is not possible at all. It even worse then a i5c or 4s really.

just hope Apple will fix this asap, or am I returning this phone. they did not fix it in the 10.1 update.

I and my sister-in-law purchased two iPhone 7 Plus devices on 31st Oct at a store nearby in India. We both have updated the software to 10.1.1. The photos taken on these devices are of terrible quality when zoomed in. I see the watercolor effect. For comparison, I took photos using 6s and 7 plus at the same time, holding each device in one hand.

iPhone 6s is running on iOS 10.1. 6s photo when zoomed in has no watercolor effect and the quality of the photo is absolutely amazing. The photo quality on 7 plus is disappointing when zoomed in.

So, I disagree with the thought that this issue occurs with any 12 MP iPhone camera.

I disabled optimise photo storage option in iCloud. Enabling and disabling has no effect on the photos shot on camera.

Also, I tried taking photos in Lightroom with DNG (Raw), VSCO Cam, MuseCam in RAW, Camera+ in RAW and JPEG. The photo quality didn't change. Even the third party apps continued to produce the same poor quality photos.

Last month, my friend took few photos when we went to sight see in the US. He had iPhone 7. He transferred all the photos to me via AirDrop. I had iPhone 6 back then. When I saw all those photos on my iPhone 6, the quality appeared to be very poor when zoomed in. Those photos too had the same watercolor effect. I couldn't acknowledge it back then because my friend bought the iPhone 7 newly and was all awestruck with it.

I am not sure if this is an issue with every iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. If so, I wonder how come the reviews of the camera say that it is one of the best smartphone cameras ever. If there are devices that are selectively defective, I wonder whether it is easy to rest my case to get a new phone exchanged. Pretty disappointed with my iPhone 7 Plus purchase.

I noticed bad photo quality when moving from Nexus 5X phone to iPhone 6s and now to iPhone 7. Look at the image below and guess which is nexus and which is iphone 7. I took these photos at the same moment with the same lighting and conditions. What you see is a 100% zoom.

I had the same problem with iphone 6s and now 7 so I guess this is a software problem or their choice to do it this way. Photos are compressed, oversaturated and with exagerrated noise-reduction which kills all the details.

The heavy noise reduction basically destroys any chance of capturing a great photo from the Camera app.

The only mode I shoot on the default Camera app is Portrait Mode which is amazing, everything else is just garbage at this moment. iOS 10.2 Beta 2 should drop today or tomorrow, I'll take some samples to compare to RAW once it is released to see if they've done anything to this reported bug/issue.