Is my iPhone X camera acting up to specs?

I'm wondering if my iPhone X camera is normal or is maybe a "bit off" or not, and if there are any tests I can do to determine one way or the other.

It's not clear to me that there is anything wrong, per se. I'm coming from an iPhone 7 Plus, and unfortunately I don't have that iPhone anymore so I can't do side-by-side comparisons.

I know the camera specs are similar, but the iPhone X has stabilization for both lenses, and the iPhone 7 Plus only had it for one. And also the aperture on one of the lenses is larger, so it's supposed to be somewhat better for low light photos.

I'm not saying the photos I'm taking are bad. It's not obvious there is necessarily anything wrong. But they are also not obviously better than the ones I took with my 7 Plus. In fact, it's my impression that parts or all of many of the photos I take seem a bit blurry to me. I was anticipating sharper images because of the improved optical stabilization.

Here's a photo of my java sparrow for example. This is not in portrait mode. But the depth of field seems really shallow, so parts of Monta seems somewhat blurry, don't you think? His feet are especially blurry. But even his beak and eyes aren't very sharp. I did try to hold-and-touch to fix focus on this head.

I have other examples as well. Some seem sharper, but nothing to write home about. The 2nd photo was taken in my volunteer class yesterday, with good lighting. Again, it's not a bad picture, per se. But the subject doesn't seem extremely sharp and in focus to me. Am I expecting too much?

Also, if I look at the pictures larger on my iPhone they seem somewhat grainy.

Anyway, I was wondering several things:

(1) Is this basically normal, and everything is ok, or is my camera lens a "bit off"?

(2) These were Live Photos. Should I expect the same focus and quality with Live Photos that I do with Live Photos turned off?

(3) Are there additional manual settings I could explore with the standard Camera app?

(4) Are there other tests I can do to make sure everything is up to par?

Again, I'm not saying there is anything especially wrong. I just haven't been "wowed" yet.

The third and final photo was taken in my house entrance at night with no lights on in the entrance way. So it was actually quite dark, with just some light leaking in from the next room. This doesn't seem too bad I guess for such low light.

I did take a nice selfie in Portrait Mode and was pleased with that.

Opinions welcome.

Thanks,

doug

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), i5, 512 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM

Posted on Jan 7, 2018 10:46 PM

32 replies

Jan 15, 2018 7:19 AM in response to lobsterghost1

Please note this is the expectation of the iPhone X as per Apple. Here are links from Apple identifying the expectation of the iPhone X...please note that these are images straight from the camera of the iPhone X there is no external editing being done

https://youtu.be/YleYIoIMj1I

https://youtu.be/K4wEI5zhHB0

https://www.youtube.com/user/Apple

We are struggling to take simple photos....never mind studio quality... we are not the only ones that have noticed the difference in image quality...

Jan 22, 2018 12:45 AM in response to Doug Lerner2

Hi Doug,

Just come across this post and thought I would give you my experience with the iPhone X camera.

So I brought the phone couple of months back and I knew straight away something wasn’t quite right with how the camera takes photos, especially indoors. Obviously there is limited natural light so photos won’t turn out as good we all know that, however the results I have been getting feel like I’m using a iPhone that is 4/5 years old, I’m sure you know where I’m coming from. Outside photos a lot better, actually fantastic when the sun is beaming but I live in England so that isn’t very often!

As a result of this I decided to get in touch with Apple and they had told me to book an appointment at my local store with Genius Bar team so they could take a look. I seen two young guys in the Apple store who both had the iPhone X and too where having the same issue, they even showed me photos from their phones. They of course made out it was software related and would hopefully be fixed in the next coming update. A week later with update iOS 11.2.2 still the same issue.

After hours of trying to figure out what is might be, restoring the phone back to factory settings and a load of contradicting opinions from people that work for Apple I decided to book another appointment at my local store. Obviously I explained the situation, showed someone the photos who agreed they didn’t look great and ended up being given a brand new iPhone X! But no explanation to why I was having the issue in the first place. So there’s me thinking great I have a brand new phone, the old one must of just been faulty and now I should get some decent results, which is what one should expect from the lastest iPhone and costs a £1000!!

But how I was wrong, I’m having the same issue! Photos don’t look crisp, when you zoom in they look pixelated and when taking pictures indoors which I often do as I have a 2 year old son, they look out of focus and slightly blurry. Outside taking scenic photos are much better but honestly nothing compared to my friends google Pixel 2 xl that blows the iPhone X out of the water!

I honestly don’t know where I stand with this issue because having a decent camera on a phone is probably the most important thing to me and I jut expected more the iPhone X. I find myself using my iPhone 7 Plus more to take pictures which is obviously VERY frustrating!

I hope this is a software related issue and will be fixed during the next big update as if not I’m really considering selling my iPhone X and buying a pixel 2 xl, which is a shame because I think it is a fantastic phone otherwise.

If you have a luck on getting this issue resolved or a response from Apple I would love to know! I can post images if you would like to seem the results I am getting.

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Is my iPhone X camera acting up to specs?