2018 MacBook Air HD camera is in poor quality.

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This is all about the sensor ... has nothing to do with HD ... sensor is just not as good as what we are used to with other devices and the lack of consistent lighting hurts this camera aggressively —- Apple is correct that it is not per design , the ads already indicate simulated images , just ha e to hope that they prioritize a new camera in the next refresh

OK, got my 2018 MBA about 2 weeks ago. Wanted to do a Signature capture with Preview, obviously needing the camera to do the capture. It will not, while my 2011 11" i7 MBA will under the same lighting conditions. What's apparent is that the 2018's camera is not adjusting exposure like the 2011 is. Some of you who still have yours might want to test this.

I was googling to see if anybody else had this issue, and I stumbled onto this. I'm going to visit the Apple store tomorrow to see if I can get this replaced, not looking to get a better video through the camera, but to at least get the signature capture feature working.

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.

Has anyone found a solution to the problem with the build in camera in MacBook 2018 models delivering resolution at only 640x480 @ 0.3 MP (way below HD quality).

It has become impossible to have a conferance call since not all participants just watch the faces of others, but at least one is presenting some information which is now impossible to decipher since it is so blurry.

At the moment we have to make sure the presenter has a 2017 or earlier Mac model so the others can actually see the material presented, or hock up external camera.

I spoke with apple support and they basically said that this is how the 2018 MacBook Air is supposed to work and that by going to the Genius Bar, they won't be able to do anything since the computer is working as its expected to.

Thank you for sharing.

apple support and after 40min on the phone they told me that this specific computer was designed to have bad quality camera under non-natural light. They said it will only look good during day light and if I'm in a room with lots of natural light. Unbelievable! They said there's nothing they can do from their side to fix it because is not a software issue or a bug. Their only suggestion to "fix it" was that I only use the camera by day in a bright room.

So now we can only use our Mac's outdoors ? what if it is cloudy or it rains ?? I must have missed that memo !

Just tested it (again)

The Camera records with 720p (HD),

FYI the 480p would be SD.

Try it with non online apps.

I used QuickTime and Photo Booth to record videos and they do come out in HD (720p)

Try to clean camera! I have cleaned and it's a way better

Try to clean the camera.

My wife and I waited many months to see if a new updated air would be released. We got caught up in the hype and got the latest 2018 macbook air from Microcenter for $999. A large motivation for getting this laptop was for teaching over the web - so the 720 HD cam was a must. My wife claimed she looked at one in the store and it looked ok...

She picked it up and we had it literally for 10 minutes before we realized that the camera was a waste of effort. No firmware patch was going to fix this. I held up a 6 year old iPhone front facing camera (yes the worst quality of the two cameras!) next to it and it was such a contrast that it was unbelievable (in FaceTime app). Our iMac 2011 camera is a 720 HD and it is light-years ahead of this thing.

I searched online for a solution and they advised different light and all that usual 'saving face' support mumbo-jumbo waste of time stuff.

We had studio lighting set up and even then it was so bad that we just deleted the user setup, repacked it and took it back. No regrets.

Rise up people! Resist! If everyone took the 2018 macbook airs back - they will have to put a better camera in it!

Don't take this compromising mess from Apple! Make Apple Great Again!

I also made the mistake of purchasing the new MB Air. Worst webcam I've ever seen in a laptop within the past 10 years! Total junk. Software will not be able to fix this. I noticed that when you view the system report... its a UVC camera... not an Apple camera which I have in my 2015 MB Air. The 2015 has a much MUCH better quality camera. This is disappointing considering the price, and I will be returning it.

I too bought a new 2018 MacBook Air and noticed immediately that the video and still quality took a dive as compared to my old 2013 MacBook Pro.

I did some poking around in the system and noticed that the driver for the 'FaceTime HD camera' like other posted have noted is " Model ID: UVC Camera VendorID_1452 ProductID_34068" (I think this is normally suppose to say Apple FaceTime HD Camera) which effectively is likely a wrong driver, a incompatible driver, or the OS is plain missing a driver for the camera.

So I rummaged around /System/Library/Extensions to see if I could unload the only two applicable kernel extensions in the folder, Apple_iSight.kext and AppleCameraInterface.kext. Neither were loaded in the to start, nor will they load in the Terminal. There's isn't any apparent driver to load for the camera so that might the place to start to get the internal camera for function properly. I would analyze this against an older MacBook with a functioning camera but I don't have one available to me right now.

We've tested our camera as suggested - but it was an issue right out of the box yesterday and it's still an issue - with any app, in new test user accounts, and the system profile recognizes the camera.

Apple needs to replace these cameras OR remove this image and this text from the website because it's blatantly false advertising.

I observed inferior camera image & video quality on my 15" 2018 MacBook Pro. In response to my complaint about this, Apple ordered a replacement with my configuration, but the HD camera quality was still noticeably grainier and blurrier than on my 2013 MacBook Pro. I put it down to the new T2 chip, which among other things controls the camera. I've noticed the video quality improves dramatically in better light conditions, ideally in daylight somewhere by the window. Still, if you place my 2013 and 2018 machines side by side, the 5 year-old-machine will provide sharper video with more colour vibrancy and less noise than the much newer and much more expensive MBP.