2018 MacBook Air HD camera is in poor quality.

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Hi Laflaqua,

I'm also not amused about the quality of the MBA 2018 camera. Before switching to a Microsoft Surface device I would consider the following options first:

• Use the iPhone camera instead
• Buy a MBA from 2017

Axel

Hi everybody, i'm one of you.

I bought the new Macbook air 2018 and, just after 2 days, I returned it to the apple store. FaceTime camera was worse than a HD camera and made blurred photos with a very bad resolution.

But I have a interesting thing to say.

• Every macbook air 2018 in the Apple store in Milano (Italy), where i bought mine, were with a bad working camera. Then I thought that is a common defect of these pcs.
• But, some days after, I was in another Apple store and there every Macbook air 2018 cameras worked!!

Then, I guess that there are some whole batches with Macbook air with this problem and other ones with macbook with working cameras. I'm thinking to buy my definitive (I hope so) Macbook 2018 here

What do you think?

Fra41, it would be GREAT if you could find two things:

1. The serial number of the "good" Air
2. The camera information from the system properties app.

And the photo made by that Air...

Anyway, thanks for the interesting update!

1. That theory does not hold the water when it comes to two identical OS versions and Photobooth versions on two models making 720p photos. You still did not answer my question. Are you able to see the difference between my two photos or not?

I am having the same issue as everyone else with a 2018 Macbook air. The FaceTime HD is absolutely terrible. Below is a comparison from my new 2018 Macbook Air and the front camera of my 2017 10.5" iPad Pro and my in the same dim lighting at the same time.

Something is terribly wrong here. Apple needs to come out and explain if this can be fixed with a software update or not.

Yes I'm experiencing the same, I have recently bought MacBook Air 2018. And camera is so blurry that I though that may be I got a defective device and I compared it with my friend's 2015 MacBook Air. And the older one is certainly better than the one I'm using.

If I consider it's use only for video calling, even for that only I don't think it's a good enough camera. I have attached one pic from the same.

Unfortunately I have worked with Apple support over the last day or two and all they can say is that this quality is per design ... this is not enough for me to return the pc but highly disappointed with the quality of my video output

Don’t waste your time i have bought a MacBook Air and replaced it twice plus checked every laptop at the Mac store this is an issue with this computer and Apple is stating that this is “working normal” basically the Face time camera is not up to quality in clarity and deal with it until Apple feels like it should be addressed ... I have troubleshot this with Apple for a day and this is the final response

I have the same problem with my MacBook Air 13" 2018 Retina. I am from Berlin, Germany and bought it here a month ago. Unfortunatly I just noticed today. So I can´t give it back.

I am extremely shoked and disappointed! I never expected something like this from Apple and especially from a 1350€ device! Obviously the advertisment on the webiste is a lie! The camera is no where near HD, its even worse than my first webcam in 2005.

I hope there will be a fix to this problem. Is there anything we can do to get our money back?

Best,

Karim

Mystery Solved - but not the problem it self

After doing some investigative work, I came up with a method to test the FaceTime camera.

Since I could not believe Apple actually went through trouble changing the hardware (the camera) I tested it.

Using the same camera at same time but using two different app on my MBA this is the result.

I know the left one is in reverse but that is not the point.

The point is that the right one is much better clarity (resolution).

So what did I do ?

Using FaceTime (on the left) and using QuickTime (on the right) at same time I took a screen shot above, while keeping the text at about normal distance from the camera.

This proves the problem with FaceTime resolution is confirmed but it is a software problem not hardware.

Apple made a mistake somwhere with the Facetime.app not using the full capability of the build in camera.

Lets hope Apple fixes that in next software release.

Nothing wrong with the hardware (camera)

It is exactly the same hardware as the 2011.

However my post (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8627217?answerId=250090914022#250090914022) proves that Apple screwed something with the Facetime app.

It is a 720p (HD) 1280x720

It has to be the sensor. Today I am sitting in my home office with the window blinds open and plenty of sunshine coming in to my room, and the camera looks very acceptable 720p per design. If apple responded based on this I actually would agree with them that it is per design ... so it's just that the sensor is weak.

I am not questioning that there is a problem. Some people actually did a test here hhttps://webcamtests.com/

and it clearly shows they camera is only delivering SD not HD.

On the left is my MBA on the right is the other user MBA.

Clearly they do not deliver the same quality.

Also it is important to know is your Facetime app Version and the OSX version, since the software has much to do with the video quality you see.

I have High Sierra

My Facetime app is version 4.0 from 2017

My Camera sensor is Apple Camera VendorID_0x106B ProductID_0x1570