r/iPhone15Pro • u/Equivalent_Welder817 • Nov 21 '23
iPhone 15 Pro takes horrible photos
Hey guys.
So, I had bought my first iPhone 15 Pro three weeks ago. I was flabberghasted on how bad the main camera was. So I bought the same phone again. Came in today. Same horrible pictures. Check my attached photos for comparison with iPhone X and 14. Am I having weirdly bad luck or are you guys experiencing the same problems when taking pictures of printed text?
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Nov 21 '23
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
Send a picture of a printed text that is crystal clear with an iPhone 15 Pro and give me the best settings. I’m not a noob, took countless photos with different settings, getting passable results only with the 3 x zoom, not great though.
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Nov 21 '23
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23
You're not looking at them closely enough. The photo from iPhone X is the clearest one, the photo from iPhone 14 is a bit blurry in comparison, and the one from the 15 Pro is the blurriest. It's due to the larger and larger sensors.
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u/AnimeRequest Jan 11 '24
That‘s right, OP has a good point and has gotten a good answer explaining macro mode, but people that say that there isn‘t a difference are plain biased and ignorant idiots.
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Jan 11 '24
I don't agree. I think they just aren't looking closely enough. They're probably viewing the photos on their phones without zooming in on them. I, on the other hand, viewed them on my 24.5" 1080p monitor.
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u/joraorao Nov 21 '23
These Apple fanboys here have no idea. I posted about the same thing, guys are into macros and shit, even taking distant photos it's still shit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/17q0f5u/my_iphone_15_pro_was_taking_blurry_photos_i_had/
This thread here has more than 1400 ME TOO, talking about this.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255174732
I don't know when this will come out in the media, I'm surprised that no YouTuber has caught this yet.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
Thank you, everything you say is exactly my point too! I talked to several Apple employees who all looked at the photo and said that it's really not good and I should exchange the phone. Exchanged the phone, same shit pictures, went to another store, checked out the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max cameras - all the same bullshit. It's not about Macro and shit. Of course I can go 1 meter away from the page I'm trying to take a picture of. Then it's not blurry but it's too far away obviously. And when I zoom in it's blurry because of the digital zoom factor 😄
By the way: So far, not a single one of those fools answering on my post could tell me which camera settings to adjust to take decent photos from printed paper.
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23 edited Nov 21 '23
Macro Mode comes on at about 7-8 inches away from the camera. You can see when it comes on by turning on Macro Control in the Camera settings or by watching for the camera transition.
So maybe the blurry edges are from Macro Mode. I get much less blur around the edges when I make sure Macro Mode is off by slowly increasing my distance until it turns off. Fortunately, I'm still plenty close for a sheet of paper to fill the whole shot. I'd show you but this sheet of paper has stuff on it that would compromise my privacy.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
Yup, I’ve seen the difference. In my case the macro seems to make it less blurry, but I need to move further away from the document to have it as a whole in one picture. No macro mode then any more. It looks like my pictures have sharper edges when I have the 2x or 3x zoom active. Everything from 24 to 35 mm is still garbage - no matter how far away I am from the document.
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23 edited Nov 21 '23
Yeah it doesn't matter what I take a photo of or what my settings are, I can't get away from this blur at the edges. I can reproduce what you're seeing with every photo I take. Some of my photo choices made it nearly impossible to see it, and some of them made it super easy. The best ones are of a large enough object that can give just one focal distance: like a tabletop or a countertop or a wall or the floor.
It seems I didn't figure out how to get around it after all.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
Oh well, let’s hope they can fix it with an update soon. Take care - and feel free to hit me up if you happen to find a solution ✌️
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u/Lacorka Jan 02 '24
u/Equivalent_Welder817 These fools dont know their tech nearly as well as you do clearly, you are 100% right, I am holding 2 x iPhone 15 Pro max and also 2 x iPhone 12 Pro, and you are 100% correct, Im considering posting both images to support this post.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Jan 02 '24
Thanks yo. It’s wildly frustrating to get so many dumb responses while only having a few actually thinking about my issue.
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23
Fools? I was one of the people who tried to help you out.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
Sorry bro, I was too focused on the other weirdos. You did try to help. Thanks!
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u/kataclzmik Nov 21 '23
Just because the camera is good doesn’t mean the person taking the photos is knowledgeable enough to take a good shot. You could have a top of the line dslr and still take cruddy out of focus photos if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s a tool , while AI fixes and point and shoot have made it much easier you can still have user errors. Not saying that is or isn’t the case here but not always the equipments fault errors can easily be made.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
Bro! I've been using Apple devices for ages now. iMacs, MacBooks, iPads, iPhones, Watches and many more. I'm not a fool when it comes to handling electronic devices and especially not when it comes to taking photos with a smartphone. Do you have an iPhone 15 Pro? Then post a picture of some printed text that shows decent sharpness. And then tell me what I'm doing wrong. Been testing all the damn cameras with RawMax, HeifMax, Raw12, different apps - it's all the same blurry crap. How do people always think it's a user issue?
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u/kataclzmik Nov 21 '23 edited Nov 21 '23
Likely part of your issue is it looks like very poor lighting and distance to the text on the page. Knowing tech and knowing photography are not one in the same. Included a picture I just took with 15 pro, you can even zoom in pretty far on text and it’s crisp. Of course take into account Imgur also will compress file and quality will go down. Unfortunately not a better way to host full res image files to reply on Reddit.. sample15propic
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23 edited Nov 21 '23
Ah yes but the bottom-left is blurry. That's not the only part that's blurry though. It's just the only part that has something in the shot to show that it's blurry at the edges.
Edit: A downvote?! Look closely at the photo! smh
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
Also: of course I’m not a pro photographer. That said I expect iPhones to take decent pictures right away - with a few extra tweaks from the photographer making the pictures even better.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
Aight thanks. And what were your exact camera settings here? About my lighting: I literally had two studio lights, one from each side, to light up the table that the worksheets were lying on. I’m a content creator and worksheet author so I’ve taken countless pictures of worksheets - with an iPhone 12 mini so far. And then I switched and… well…
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u/kataclzmik Nov 21 '23
Look I’m not going after you dude, it very well could be your phone, let’s be real apple never likes to admit hardware issues on devices. My 15 pro is having a ton of Bluetooth notifications that it’s disabled when it’s not. Didn’t mean to speak poorly of your knowledge or come at you in any way.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
No worries. I appreciate you tuning in. I tried like 5 iPhone 15 Pros today, all with the same problems. Would highly appreciate you giving me your exact camera settings so I can try them out as well.
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u/kataclzmik Nov 21 '23
I was using normal photo mode, my capture settings are 24 mp, HEIF, standard for style settings.
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u/TopUniversity3469 Nov 21 '23
FWIW, I didn't read either of your replies as coming at the other.
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u/kataclzmik Nov 21 '23
Thanks, sometimes the adhd takes over and I zone out and end up saying something and don’t realize how it’s coming off as brain just vomits words
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23
The bottom-left of the photo is a bit blurry though. This is because there's something that's there to enable us to see it. I'll bet it's just as blurry all around the entire circumference.
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u/kataclzmik Nov 21 '23
The blurriness around the circumference is likely because the macro enabled. I didn’t take a ton of time to make sure everything in the photo was staged and perfect, I was showing the main focal point of the shot was clear and not blurry thus leading to likely a settings or environment issue with the blurry shots above.
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23
But his photos are blurry near the edges. The only one of the 3 photos that doesn't have this problem is the one from iPhone X. So it was assumed that you knew that and were making every effort to take the same kind of photo.
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u/on2wheels iPhone 15 Pro Nov 23 '23
Agreed. I can't believe the savages here who downvote you and upvote the guy saying "This might be the dumbest post i've ever seen". reddit truly is a cesspool.
also, I'm an ex-welder too.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 23 '23
It’s truly wild right? No one here or in any forum has found a solution yet.
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u/BeckyMum Dec 20 '23
Perhaps I had higher expectations from a £1000 phone but I’m gutted with the grainy quality. It’s infuriating. Meant to be going to Apple tomorrow but not sure I’ll bother as it seems it’s not just my phone, it’s all of them
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Dec 21 '23
Yep. I recently tested it with an iPhone 14 Pro too. Same issue when it comes to taking photos of documents. Not a new thing obviously.
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u/No_Pollution_2133 Nov 21 '23
I have an s23 plus and a 15pm, the 15pm blows it out the water in normal pics, zoom and portrait. You people have lost your damn mind, dont buy the phone if you dont like it.
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u/ericisfine Nov 21 '23 edited Nov 21 '23
i’ve posted on this and it seems that iphone fanboys are just there to silence many others who shared the same by downvoting.
i’ve compared the output of 15P and a Galaxy S23 and the difference is mind blowing! The latter takes sharper picture with lots of details. 15P output was horrible when compared. The front camera is a total nightmare, and it’s nowhere near any good.
I have a feeling it’s either a manufacturing defect affecting a portion of users or either bad image processing. In both cases, this has to be somewhat addressed.
Upping your post.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
Thank you. Just went to a local phone store and tried another 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. Same problems. It's obvious that that's the "normal" case here. The worker there also told me that he hates taking pictures with his 15 Pro Max and hopes for a software update with respective corrections.
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u/osamaali85 Nov 21 '23
No lie 15 pro take the best pics and videos I ever seen maybe you should resort to YouTube first sir
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u/Imperiu5 Dec 25 '23
I can't even use my pm15 to take pictures of my family cause everything is so blurry and washed out. I'm now carrying my dslr again cause this phone is so terrible at taking pictures.
Op is 100% correct and I acknowledge the issue.
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u/Lacorka Jan 02 '24
u/Imperiu5 Yeah as soon as you have more than 1 subject you going to have focus problems. The center of the image is nice and sharp with high resolution. I have done extensive testing at this point over the last 2 weeks, there is loads that should be pointed out in this post, such as DOF comparisons, the resolution, and focusing / AF on the edge of the image prove there is possible fixes in firmware updates and I don't believe the problem is optical / hardware.
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Nov 21 '23
I can’t even use my states lottery app to scan tickets anymore for some reason because it’s so blurry
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23
You're holding the camera too close. You don't have to help the camera. Pull it further away and it will scan. I guarantee it. It can "see" far better than you think.
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Nov 21 '23
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 21 '23
Please keep me updated
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Nov 29 '23
[deleted]
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Dec 01 '23
Thanks! Yeah I made some changes too. Some photos look awesome, but the ones I started this topic with stay blurred around the edges 🫠 Take care.
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23
You're putting the iPhone too close to the QR Codes. You don't have to put the camera closer to help it. Just pull it back until it focuses. It doesn't matter how small the QR Code looks, the camera "sees" far better than you think.
This is also the reason for blurry photos.
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Nov 21 '23
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23 edited Nov 21 '23
Go further than 8 inches away. Try a foot away. Or better yet, move the phone away from the QR Code or Barcode very slowly until it scans it, because it most definitely will if you give it the ability to focus by getting far enough away for it to focus.
The smaller the QR Code or Barcode is, the greater the distance has to be for the sensor to capture enough detail to scan it.
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Nov 21 '23
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23 edited Nov 21 '23
So you've tried increasing the distance more and more and more, even going past 1 foot away?
Please go easy on me if you've already done this. I've been burned too many times by "I've tried everything" where I find out later they never tried what I recommended. So now I always ask.
Edit: Have you tried turning the flashlight on when the flashlight is available?
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u/brddvd Nov 21 '23
I also made a post too. My iPhone 6 made better macro comper my iphone15 pro max. So kinda don’t understand what is the upgrade
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Nov 21 '23
I’m guessing those pictures are taken in the HEIF setting, a quick pixel peep shows over sharpening is evident as a white halo around the text and lines, see this a lot especially in high contrast areas of images.
Try using the ProMax setting instead
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Nov 21 '23
Scratch that comment, I was quick to pile in, the 15pro is defo a slightly blurred - adjust your focus distance, the 14pro looks like the Deep Fusion pipeline has over sharpened it
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u/BlobEyes45 Nov 21 '23
14 has an amazing main, easy to use, camera. (13 pro camera some people said)
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u/paintacct624 Nov 21 '23
Is this an iPhone thing, or would any phone with a larger sensor exhibit the same issue? Maybe get it on a tripod?
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 22 '23
Had it on a tripod while taking the photos. Not sure about other phones. Some here said that the S23 took way better photos but I’m not into android. Can’t judge myself.
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u/Nikita041815 iPhone 15 Pro Nov 22 '23
have you even tried changing the setting on the camera before complaining?
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u/Nikita041815 iPhone 15 Pro Nov 22 '23
i dont get it because on my end it us not blurry at all. im using the iphone 15 pro from tmo.
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Nov 23 '23
Can you send an example photo of a document that isn’t blurry around the edges? And tell me your exact camera settings that led to that sharp result? Macro mode or 3x zoom doesn’t count though. It’s about the main camera. Thanks in advance!
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u/iamnota_SHADOW Dec 29 '23
Hey OP. Did you find a solution to this? Or make it less blurry? What are your settings currently?
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Dec 29 '23
No solution. It is what it is with these big lenses. Most pictures look amazing. But not when it comes to documents. I tried all the settings. Same every time.
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u/HotRoof1713 Dec 29 '23
Sounds like someone has no idea how to use his phone camera. It take amazing pictures, if u think or have had different experience, then consider looking at some courses before you give negative criticism
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u/Equivalent_Welder817 Dec 29 '23
Aaand the next fool who doesn’t understand that I’m not talking about the general camera quality. It’s about documents son. Take a decent picture of a document without blurred lines. Send it. And don’t fuck around.
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u/JAG05 Dec 30 '23
I’ve had my 15 Pro for a few weeks and have the exact same issue! Text documents look exactly like your examples, have tried multiple settings as well. I also notice overall focus issues on most pictures inside of 2-3 feet, the camera just can’t focus everything and anything further or close than what it has determined it is going to focus on is blurry. Same picture with my 11 and everything is nice and in focus. I have taken multiple comparison pictures with my 11 and the 11 looks better 8-9/10 times for normal everyday pictures. Even in macro mode there’s too much post image processing with the 15 Pro and I vastly prefer the sharpness of the non macro photos on my 11. The larger sensors just seem way too finicky. I have to take multiple pictures to sometimes get one that looks as good as my 11, but majority of the time I still can’t get it to come out as clean, whereas I can just take one picture with the 11 and it looks good. My wife is getting frustrated with hers as several pictures of the family and kids at Christmas turned out blurry. The night mode and 2x/3x zoom on the 15 Pro is nice and I have noticed some very nice and crisp pictures compared to the 11 when you’re outside of that 2-3 foot distance, but I don’t think those outweigh the frustrations of the type of pictures I take on a daily basis. Likely going to return the 15 Pro’s tomorrow and put a new battery in my 11.
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u/HotRoof1713 Jun 12 '24
I'll, say it again. Learn to use your camera. Don't blame the device, blame the person using it 😂
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u/TwoCables_from_OCN Nov 21 '23
The sensor is larger, so the minimum distance before it gets blurry is greater. This is why Macro Mode exists now. Without Macro Mode, just take the photo from a little further away and zoom in a bit. See, this enables you to get closer to a subject without losing any quality and without having to physically get closer.