Very grainy 2018 macbook air facetime camera

My issue is with the MacBook Pro. Not air. Sorry should’ve said but it’s the exact same issue.

Just look at the photos. There are plenty of examples in this topic. I do not think that you can see no difference between old and new. Shocking difference.

Hi Celton,

I have this problem as well with my new MacBook Air 2018. The quality is dramatic, compared to even 2013 MacBook Air this seems like a software issue but why would it have to do with a user problem i_rina?

I have the same situation. 1000's of others have it as well. Contacted Apple support; chat, phone as well as spoke personally with the Apple "genius" in the store (all nice people). It boils down to: it is what it is: which is a 480p in the 12" and probably a 720p in the larger models. Either way, all these new laptops have a Retina (better resolution) display which makes me appear to "look" worse. When basically I look the same way I always have... I just have a better display to view see myself on. So, I can either return the computer and get the Pro which is at least $700 more or I can keep what I have. I have decided to keep what I have.

In addition to accepting and appreciating what a great little computer this 12" is ... I am also now aware that Apple has the ability to let me down. Which was much more difficult to come to terms with than the stupid little camera. For many years I have blindly trusted that if I buy the newest Apple product everything in it will be better than the old one. As a matter of perception I had believed.... and it had been my experience that Apple would anticipate what I needed and wanted before I even knew I wanted or needed it... and they would put that magical thing that I did not even know I wanted or needed into the newer product model. My blind elegance to Apple is no longer. My trust in Apple has been broken over a $5 camera in a $1200 computer. That is a little pathetic, but it is the truth. Now Apple has joined the rest of the "buyer beware" IT companies.

Compared to my 2009 MacBook Pro, my BRAND NEW 2018 MacBook Air FaceTime camera is terrible - unacceptable. Obviously i am not the only one with this problem. What can we do about this? How do I get someone from Apple to respond??

After many calls and complaints with apple I got different versions of the problem:

-First they said it was software issue and that they would fix it in an update

-Then they said it was actually a hardware issue and that they on purpose designed the computer with that crappy camera

-Last time they told me that the camera is exactly the same as previous models, but that the screen is now soooo good, that we notice the pixels of the camera (this is BS because also a person in the other end of the camera also sees the crappy quality)

The issue here is that they messed up "designing" the computer with a bad camera and no one in apple is giving solutions on how to compensate for the problem. I'm already looking in international customer protection to see what we can do about it.

It's utterly bad and Apple is ignoring it and deleting critical posts. Someone stuffed up supply chain QC and this thing got produced in millions and now WE are stuck with this piece of rubbish. Facetime cameras are being used inside with room lighting. It's a major design fail when the picture is worse than a 2005 Nokia GSM phone. I really need this fixed PLEASE!

I bought a MacBook Air with retina display too just to find out that the camera is just awful, my iMac has the same HD FaceTime camera and the image is crisp and sharp, I don't know if it might be a software issue, I test the camera on Skype and it seems to be much better, I believe it maybe something wrong with the algorithm onto the OS. lets see if apple does something in regards this issue that's not right to give false advertising, I can just sue them for that and get some money, I payed premium for this machine to have a creepy false advertising. lets keep pushing for a fix

i just bought a MacBook air (retina, 13”, 2018 model) and i have to say the camera quality is by far worse than i have ever experienced. The picture is extremely grainy and the product is worst experience I’ve had. For the same price would have gotten something so much better than this.

Update - after 2 weeks, the crappy grainy quality all of the sudden improved drastically. But then this new mac air turned into a lemon - the usb-c ports stopped working, even after replacing the entire system board. My replacement one started with great video quality, then regressed for a day, and now is consistently high-quality. Bizarre.

There is nothing they can do to fix this. It's the technology, not a software issue. I had to upgrade to a Macbook Pro in order to get a better camera. And even for that you have to have good lighting in order for it not to be grainy. *sigh*

Purchased mine yesterday.Same exact issue here.Shame on Apple.Advertisement says 720p and sharp image.I hope only software issue otherwise returning mine.

Definitely a crappy camera. I guess they upped the price on the MBA so they could buy the crappy cameras. I just bought mine a couple of days ago and am very disappointed with the camera.