2018 MacBook Air HD camera is in poor quality.

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Hi Becky,

I tried all these suggestions and the issue persists. I got the 2018 air for just one day and the issue was there the first time I tried the camera. What I can also confirm is that the lens is physically clear. The blurring is uniform across all regions of the image and independent of environmental lighting, so it is definitely from either sensor resolution or software instead of optics.

I hope these information helps pinpoint the issue and I hope to hear back from you soon.

Best,

YW

I ordered a new MacBook Pro touch bar today, it came to $400 more. What a disappointment about the MacBook Air... A $1200 base price and they put that outdated garbage FaceTime Cam in it... did they really think no one would notice?

I returned my new MBA after 7 days.

What I found in the shop is that camera on MBP (without touchbar) is shown as AppleCamera (not UVC like in Air). But (correct me if I am wrong) this is only about the interface (PCI vs USB), not the sensor, not the optics. But I do not know if there is ANY way to find more technical details about the sensor/optics. And that would be the only information that could help to answer the question of the day: 'is there any chance to fix that cr*p in software'. Of course, even if it is fixable, that does not promise that Apple will. But if it is not fixable (hopelessly bad hardware) - there is no hope for the ******...

Just so you all know. I got my replaced air and the camera is the same.

I don't how we could address it properly. I will return mine. Cant accept a new model with such a low quality camera like that.

If the camera is that bad, what else could be bad as well and I might notice when its too late?

We should do something in order to make this a huge thing and get their attention.

Something else that surprised me was lot of websites reviews not talking about the camera. How is possible to test and review not testing the camera?

The silence from apple is killing me.

I purchased the 2018 MB Air and I could not accept the photo and video quality at all. I tried applecare the genius bar and even best buy where purchased and had no solutions. Unfortunately I returned and purchased a new one of the old macbook air which takes beautiful photos. I was really excited for the 2018 but I really need the camera quality as I use it all the time. Hopefully Apple can fix this issue ASAP!!

OMG! You did not buy an old one for the sake of Photo Booth......

I heard the MacBook pro 2016-present is the same crap quality as the MBA 2018.

I figured out it is only crap in dim light. In bright light, it looks fine. Still *****, but oh well..

I just upgraded (may be downgraded) from MBA 2015 to MBA 2018.

My experience is in case of artificial lighting there is a lot of noise in the picture. Much more compared do MBA 2015.

Even for private use the quality is unacceptable. Not sure if it is a hardware bug.

I just wanted to underline that during daylight conditions the quality of the camera is acceptable.

In case of moderate artificial lighting the built-in camera of the MBA has too much picture noise and can't be used under these conditions.

Absolutely true. Choosing such an extremely bad camera for the MBA 2018 is not acceptable from Apple. Here the comparison of screenshots from MBA 2018 and a very cheap and older webcam (model C270 from Logitech). This are different universes.

Good point. I wonder if some MBA2018s have an apple camera instead of the UVC camera component. I went to the store and openend up all their laptops on display to camera and demonstrated the graininess to their employees. Only their older Air works well .. all the new 2018 laptops (air or pros) suffer. They all have the UVC camera too.

I went to the store to have closer look and to decide which MacBook to order, it turns out the older MacBook Air had the best camera, and the worse was MacBook 2015, then MacBook Air 2018, last MBP 2017, I only touched the camera lens and the whole photo went very blurry with lines of blures appeared on Photo Booth . I have tried to clean the camera as much as possible to make it better . I have upgraded my late 2011 MBP to 500 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM and still chooching after 7 years of abuse I do video edit and CAD modelling !

Hi Sudaltsov

This thread has gotten a bit overwhelming. My previous post was on Nov 28 at 8:20 - I think it is on page 6.

I was deliberating on how they could fix this. They could replace the camera, but it will probably destroy the screen.

If they replace the screen with camera and lid - as a whole unit, this would cost a lot and take a few hours work.

I’m not sure what is possible. If it did cost $400 per unit (which is a very low estimate) and they have sold hundreds of thousands of these units - it could take millions to fix. This is probably why Apple have not said anything is wrong.

Seriously though - how long can they be mute about it?

It it would probably be cheaper for them to send current 2018 MacBook Air users an external clip-on HD camera and hope that keeps people happy. Not a perfect solution, but at least the MBA cam could meet spec - which is still listed as 720HD on the website.

If if you were Apple in this situation - what would you do?

Sent an employee there to do the exchange. Not her fault. The Apple employee acknowledged it looked bad, but gave her another one with the same problem. This is obviously a bigger issue than one machine.

While I acknowledge the camera is bad, I'm starting to laugh at some of the premadonna responses here. These things are selling like hotcakes. I'm replacing mine that was bought from Amazon... currently $999, as my original's camera could not capture my signature in Preview. Amazon had "5 in stock" and a barely 30 minutes later, they quoted 2-3 business days. So to those thinking that this is hurting Apple- not so much.

But this is hardly a deal breaker.... especially for $999. And to those that really need better quality, why not just get an external webcam?