iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 15 pro max photos are not great

[schnitzel-pretzel]

@dylanlewis2000 what you are seeing there is a product of aggressive noise reduction. it smooths things out unnaturally (since mathematically, noise reduction is achieved by "averaging" out the colors and light levels) when over-applied.

it makes photos look unnatural and -- ironically -- out of focus.

so yeah this is just another case of extra processing.

what you might want to try is downloading Halide and using "disable smartest processing". I suspect when you take photos you will like them more.

Secondarily, you can try using burst mode (press shutter and drag left) which will produce noisier, but less blurred photos.

Lastly, please submit feedback to apple: https://www.apple.com/feedback/

... explaining that the camera processing is too aggressive and you want it to be optional.

 

[sdante]

I don't have a cat to test - however, my theory is that it will artificially sharpen straight lines.

It could be partly related to processing at least with 1x lens. Maybe camera has some issue with picking right focusing point (even manually picking up desired focus point). Picture you posted of your daughter shows similar issue I’ve been experiencing how hair detail is lost.

Try taking photo with 1x lens of some flat object like carpet or wallpaper. Mine is sharp then beside some blurred parts from the lens.

 

[kp98077]

interesting topic, because over the thanksgiving holiday I had guest over and we "blindly" compared 15 plus photos to 15 PM and I can tell you 9 our of 10 times most preferred photos coming out of the Plus! Wild

 

[Bustermd]

interesting topic, because over the thanksgiving holiday I had guest over and we "blindly" compared 15 plus photos to 15 PM and I can tell you 9 our of 10 times most preferred photos coming out of the Plus! Wild

This isn't that surprising. If I were to bet, I'd say that you guys thought the 15 plus photos looked more natural?

 

[kp98077]

This isn't that surprising. If I were to bet, I'd say that you guys thought the 15 plus photos looked more natural?

they thought the colors were more vibrant and just looked better overall.

 

[schnitzel-pretzel]

This isn't that surprising. If I were to bet, I'd say that you guys thought the 15 plus photos looked more natural?

No, it would be the opposite (and unsurprisingly, they said they found colors to be more vibrant).

You can see this in this comparison.

Here's one example: 15 Pro Max vs 15 Plus. It's subtle, but there's more brightening and sharpening in the 15 Plus photo.

A better example is probably these two: 15 Pro Max vs 15 Plus -- the cross has more haloing in the 15 Plus photo because it's been sharpened more aggressively.

There is more processing on base 15. Looks less natural than 15 Pro. Although both have problems with over processing.

 

[kp98077]

No, it would be the opposite (and unsurprisingly, they said they found colors to be more vibrant).

You can see this in this comparison.

Here's one example: 15 Pro Max vs 15 Plus. It's subtle, but there's more brightening and sharpening in the 15 Plus photo.

A better example is probably these two: 15 Pro Max vs 15 Plus -- the cross has more haloing in the 15 Plus photo because it's been sharpened more aggressively.

There is more processing on base 15. Looks less natural than 15 Pro. Although both have problems with over processing.

which one do you think looks best?? To me the plus for sure-

 

[schnitzel-pretzel]

which one do you think looks best?? To me the plus for sure-

I don't like either of them, but I would pick the Pro photos. The Plus photos look """better""" in that they are more saturated with color and sharp but that is all artificial processing that makes the photo look overcooked to me. I want my camera to take a photo of the scene in front of me and render it as naturally as possible, not to add a bunch of saturation to make it look better

 

[kp98077]

I don't like either of them, but I would pick the Pro photos. The Plus photos look """better""" in that they are more saturated with color and sharp but that is all artificial processing that makes the photo look overcooked to me. I want my camera to take a photo of the scene in front of me and render it as naturally as possible, not to add a bunch of saturation to make it look better

Yeah, understandable- but I really dont find them very different, except in very low lighting..

 

[ToddH]

Despite what has been discussed in this thread about the iPhone camera, I believe the 15 pro max cameras are the best ever. Portrait mode is fantastic, the 5x is awesome and much improved since iOS 17.2.1. Also, take note that the 5x camera has a MINIMUM FOCUS DISTANCE of 53.15 inches. Any closer the 1x camera takes over and zooms to 5x and will have less quality. Each camera has a minimum focus distance.

As a professional photographer, I have an advantage over most everyone else that uses a camera or iPhone camera because of experience and lots of training. The camera is just a tool, you have to master it, learn its limitations & hone your skills.

Picking up the iPhone and opening the camera app and taking a photo without making any adjustments and hoping the iPhone and its camera software will do everything for you is not the best way to capture your memories. Try to put some thought & effort towards your shot before taking the photo.

All images below are from the 15 pro max.

Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Sorry to disagre, but I find the 15PM to be awesome.

 

[sdante]

Despite what has been discussed in this thread about the iPhone camera, I believe the 15 pro max cameras are the best ever. Portrait mode is fantastic,

IMHO portrait mode is not good if looking at fine detail, probably due to that quad bayer sensor which practically capture 3 MP equivalent photos when using 2x zoom. I found my previous 12 Pro gave better detain in 2x mode (that include portrait mode which uses 2x zoom).

 

[sdante]

Sorry to disagre, but I find the 15PM to be awesome.
View attachment 2328138

This practically shows the problem, hair detail is not very good even in focused part. Was photo taken with 1x or 2x "zoom"? To me that looks like 2x was probably used. BTW, the cat in the photo is beautiful.

I found my 15 PM give nice hair detail when using 1x only but at the cost of bad portraits because it will make faces look weird (like wide lenses do).

Colors and dynamics of the photos are great in 15 PM but it does add a bit too strong HDR effect.

 

[Jackbequickly]

This practically shows the problem, hair detail is not very good even in focused part. Was photo taken with 1x or 2x "zoom"? To me that looks like 2x was probably used. BTW, the cat in the photo is beautiful.

I found my 15 PM give nice hair detail when using 1x only but at the cost of bad portraits because it will make faces look weird (like wide lenses do).

Colors and dynamics of the photos are great in 15 PM but it does add a bit too strong HDR effect.

Judge as you want, considering it was straight out of the camera on a cell phone, I have no problems with its quality in sharpness or color. Too bad Apple can not make everyone happy. Most important is that I am!

Merry Christmas!

 

[ToddH]

IMHO portrait mode is not good if looking at fine detail, probably due to that quad bayer sensor which practically capture 3 MP equivalent photos when using 2x zoom. I found my previous 12 Pro gave better detain in 2x mode (that include portrait mode which uses 2x zoom).

Well for one, I don’t use the 2x crop for portraits in portrait mode. It’s either the 1x or the 5x as shown in my post. The 5x is great. The image looks best when f/3.5-5 or higher is used. Same for video, f/5.6. The 1x produces stellar results.

Here is a 5x candid portrait at f/8. Not absolutely perfect, but better than the 2x and the 5x gives more compression at 120mm.

 

[sdante]

Judge as you want, considering it was straight out of the camera on a cell phone, I have no problems with its quality in sharpness or color.

Yeah, I know it is only a cell phone we are talking about here so it won't be like a real camera but my point was that in 12 Pro 2x zoom used the whole real 12 MP sensor and it gave me noticeable sharper details in that mode than 2x cropping in 15 PM does. Even 15 PM 2x crop is supposed to be equal to 12 MP on paper, I believe the real issue here is quad bayer sensor, I think it will never be as good as conventional bayer sensor, probably closer to 3 MP than 12 MP conventional bayer sensor. I guess it does not help either that in 2x crop there is just small part of the lens, that is very small in the begin with, in use.

Merry Christmas!

 

[sdante]

Well for one, I don’t use the 2x crop for portraits in portrait mode. It’s either the 1x or the 5x as shown in my post. The 5x is great. The image looks best when f/3.5-5 or higher is used. Same for video, f/5.6. The 1x produces stellar results.

Here is a 5x candid portrait at f/8. Not absolutely perfect, but better than the 2x and the 5x gives more compression at 120mm.

Yes, I agree that 1x and 5x gives very nice results, but 1x is not good for close up portraits and taken photos further away with it causes the same issue as 2x crop. However 5x gives very good portrait photos with good proportions (not make faces funny big nose looking as 1x does in close range) but too bad it needs a lot of light and enough distance from the object so most of the time it does not work for me taking photos indoors which is my main use. For me 2x would be best lens for indoor use but too bad 15 PM is not par with 12 Pro using that.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Yeah, I know it is only a cell phone we are talking about here so it won't be like a real camera but my point was that in 12 Pro 2x zoom used the whole real 12 MP sensor and it gave me noticeable sharper details in that mode than 2x cropping in 15 PM does. Even 15 PM 2x crop is supposed to be equal to 12 MP on paper, I believe the real issue here is quad bayer sensor, I think it will never be as good as conventional bayer sensor, probably closer to 3 MP than 12 MP conventional bayer sensor. I guess it does not help either that in 2x crop there is just small part of the lens, that is very small in the begin with, in use.

Merry Christmas!

Looking back on you past multiple posts in different threads, I think you just like to argue a point.

 

[sdante]

Looking back on you past multiple posts in different threads, I think you just like to argue a point.

My point was just that I find 2x "zoom" in 15 PM worse than it was in 12 Pro for example. That turned out to be the main reason why I noticed photos came up too blurry for my taste in terms of detail until I started to investigate what might be the reason for that and realized I almost only use 2x as I always do taking portraits indoors and this mostly causes the problem I was seeing.

Ps, I believe discussion should be kept in topic and issues related to it, rather than talking about other members.🤝

 

[ToddH]

Yes, I agree that 1x and 5x gives very nice results, but 1x is not good for close up portraits and taken photos further away with it causes the same issue as 2x crop. However 5x gives very good portrait photos with good proportions (not make faces funny big nose looking as 1x does in close range) but too bad it needs a lot of light and enough distance from the object so most of the time it does not work for me taking photos indoors which is my main use. For me 2x would be best lens for indoor use but too bad 15 PM is not par with 12 Pro using that.

Yeah and that’s one of the reasons I use the Beastgrip Beastcage with the 1.7x telephoto lens over the 1x camera to give me the range I need and still use 48mp for my portraits. I do wish the 5x was f/2 or lower. But the beastgrip accessories are nice and extremely well made.

 

[sdante]

Yeah and that’s one of the reasons I use the Beastgrip Beastcage with the 1.7x telephoto lens over the 1x camera to give me the range I need and still use 48mp for my portraits. I do wish the 5x was f/2 or lower. But the beastgrip accessories are nice and extremely well made.

Hmmm, I never even thought that. This is actually good way to use full sensor without distorted faces.

It definitely would help if 5x did not need so much light. Definitely f/2 lens in 12 Pro was easier to get decent photo indoors. That was actually what I pretty much only used in my 12 Pro.

But since I now noticed my issue with portraits of my cats came from low resolution 2x "lens" (=cropped) in 15 PM, I started to use 5x lens more and it seems usable in certain cases indoors. Needed distance to object is an issue many times. However turning on all the lights in room definitely helps and I managed to get very well detailed photos of my cats, even I checked photo details showing ISO 500 but still compared to photos I also took at the same time using 2x "lens" where ISO was around 100-120, even then fine detail using 5x lens was much better. Also object proportions looked incredible good with 5x lens. I'm pretty sure 15 Pro with 3x zoom lens would be the best compromise for my use but I wanted bigger screen this time.

I think dream machine 15 PM for me would be 2x lens instead of 1x lens in current model. I don't really use 1x almost ever. It would be easily replaced with 0.5x wide lens 1x cropping mode for me.

 

[ToddH]

Hmmm, I never even thought that. This is actually good way to use full sensor without distorted faces.

It definitely would help if 5x did not need so much light. Definitely f/2 lens in 12 Pro was easier to get decent photo indoors. That was actually what I pretty much only used in my 12 Pro.

But since I now noticed my issue with portraits of my cats came from low resolution 2x "lens" (=cropped) in 15 PM, I started to use 5x lens more and it seems usable in certain cases indoors. Needed distance to object is an issue many times. However turning on all the lights in room definitely helps and I managed to get very well detailed photos of my cats, even I checked photo details showing ISO 500 but still compared to photos I also took at the same time using 2x "lens" where ISO was around 100-120, even then fine detail using 5x lens was much better. Also object proportions looked incredible good with 5x lens. I'm pretty sure 15 Pro with 3x zoom lens would be the best compromise for my use but I wanted bigger screen this time.

I think dream machine 15 PM for me would be 2x lens instead of 1x lens in current model. I don't really use 1x almost ever. It would be easily replaced with 0.5x wide lens 1x cropping mode for me.

I like the 5x camera. In portrait mode it’s quite nice. The 1x camera, as you know has the best sensor and third party lens manufacturers like Beastgrip, Moment, and Sandmarc to name a few make cases with the availability to add a telephoto, fisheye, & wide lenses to take advantage of the 48mp sensor. The quality is quite good, the beastgrip series is the best I’ve seen by far. However it may be a hassle at time to carry small lenses around with you but it’s not bad especially if your photo shoots are somewhat planned. I took this portrait with my 14 pro max and the beastgrip 1.7x lens. The laser was also taken with the same lens setup. The iPhone was mounted in the BeasCage which is machined aluminum. It’s a bit heavy, the handle makes it easy to hold. Excellent quality from the 1.7x lens. Want something lighter? Check out the BeastGrip pro which is a universal cellphone holder and will accommodate many mobile phones. It’s made of heavy duty plastic and metal. Very nice. Check out the lens manufacturers I mentioned to help spark your creativity and interest. Hopefully it will inspire the use of the 1x for you.

Regarding the 5x camera, just remember it has a minimum focus distance of 53.15” and if you are closer than this range, the 1x camera will take over and digitally zoom to match the 5x.

Merry Christmas.

-Todd

 

[sdante]

The 1x camera, as you know has the best sensor and third party lens manufacturers like Beastgrip, Moment, and Sandmarc to name a few make cases with the availability to add a telephoto, fisheye, & wide lenses to take advantage of the 48mp sensor. The quality is quite good, the beastgrip series is the best I’ve seen by far. However it may be a hassle at time to carry small lenses around with you but it’s not bad especially if your photo shoots are somewhat planned.

I think at home those would work for me well but probably not something I would carry with me. Anyway, I mostly take portrait photos at home indoors.

I took this portrait with my 14 pro max and the beastgrip 1.7x lens.

That is really impressive result.

The laser was also taken with the same lens setup. The iPhone was mounted in the BeasCage which is machined aluminum. It’s a bit heavy, the handle makes it easy to hold. Excellent quality from the 1.7x lens. Want something lighter? Check out the BeastGrip pro which is a universal cellphone holder and will accommodate many mobile phones. It’s made of heavy duty plastic and metal. Very nice. Check out the lens manufacturers I mentioned to help spark your creativity and interest. Hopefully it will inspire the use of the 1x for you.

Something that I could use with Apple original phone case would be the most convenient for me. Anyway, like I mentioned, it never even came to my mind to use options like these, so I definitely need to consider them. Thanks for the tip!

Regarding the 5x camera, just remember it has a minimum focus distance of 53.15” and if you are closer than this range, the 1x camera will take over and digitally zoom to match the 5x.

Yes, it is limiting factor and I need to be careful to make sure it is using actual 5x lens. I already noticed in few photos that did not look quite as detailed as I wanted was using the main lens. It was funny also that as "lens mm" it showed readings like 123mm or 125mm as if I was using over 5x "zoom" even I had chosen 5x, anyway it also already mention what sensor it used so it is always easy to check and make sure from the photo details. Those photos I took in good lighting and were using actual 5x lens came up looking excellent.

Merry Christmas!

 

[ToddH]

A few shots with my iPhone 15 pro max using my 10” telescope, shooting through the eyepiece. I have a phone holder made by Moove-Shoot-Move for telescopes and binoculars etc that I used to attach to the eyepiece. The Orion Nebula is a 5” exposure. Short because I don’t have tracking on my telescope. The moon shots are through The eyepiece as well


Holder
3-Axis High-Precision Universal Digiscoping Adapter - Metal Holder Mount Connecting Smartphone to Telescope Spotting Scope Binocular Monocular Microscope|Fits 2.4" Eyepiece Max/Any Cell Phone Camera https://www.amazon.com/3-Axis-High-Precision-Universal-Digiscoping-Adapter/dp/B0CCJNSXLG

 

[ringomainichi]

All taken with the phones on the ground, so no camera shake, lighting is not the best, however it's an equal fair test between all three devices.

The images from the Pixel and the Xs are focused on the tree and the window. The images from the 15 Pro Max are focused on the carpet.