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Comment by qwertyuiop_ | Hacker News Reader

I had to return my iphone 13 pro max twice because the pictures were blurrier than my iphone X. I don't know if the reviewers and prominent users get the tested and calibrated models from Apple. Here is a discussion on Apple forums on how bad iphone 13 pro max cameras are in the wild.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253181534

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btw that photo of the kid posted by jbenson is the clear example of software bug where it used the wrong lense.

Did you eventually get one that was fine?

Unfortunately no. I abandoned my plan to buy 13 pro after comparing pictures to my wife's 12 pro and friends 11 pro. Both the new 13 pro max phones I got had horrendous picture quality, its not just the computational postprocessing, the raw images taken had bad picture quality. It probably has to do with the apertures in the lenses as some of the photographers in the Apple discussion forums were indicating. I don't think Apple tested this enough or paid enough attention to the mass production process. Very disappointed.

iPhones are very handy in taking kids pictures when you don't have time to go fetch a DSLR. Huawei P50 & Xiaomi seem to have better cameras but don't want to go anywhere near them.

I have both a 13 Pro and an X. They have changed the computation performed, but I hesitate to say it's worst- just different. Halide has become my app of choice for when I want more control over that factor.

The Apple thread you linked highlights how small changes can really make a large difference on quality.

> This is a very dumb check, but I had a screen protector that was the full screen into the camera module and made my pictures blurry at times. When I removed it, photos were perfect.

when did you try this?

the 13 pro max camera is insanely good so you're likely seeing a bug. I would very strongly disagree it's worse than the iPhone x or 11. I had both.

I think it's possible you're seeing a bug where the camera is using the wrong lens for the distance. I did notice earlier neat launch when I switch between 1x and 3x sometimes the software will use 1x and digital zoom to 3x instead which obviously produced horrible images. I think this got patched as I haven't seen it recently.

> It probably has to do with the apertures in the lenses

This seems extremely unlikely. The aperture in these lenses is fixed, so the aperture is just a circular hole.

Here is comparison of 13 pro max and X. Notice the blurriness and lack of detail in eyebrows and eyelashes of my kids doll. The eyebrows are more detailed in X (picture 2) though there is sensor noise.

Picture 1 iPhone 13 Pro Max

https://i.postimg.cc/Rhb4Jq2F/61-D79076-B244-4-BDF-9-CD1-898...

Picture 2 iPhone X

https://i.postimg.cc/L4yHb0hp/EF1-FCAF0-D1-A6-488-E-8-F03-B8...

Sure, maybe. I'm just saying that it's extremely unlikely that Apple has not managed to successfully manufacture a circular hole. The issue is likely to be something else.

The first image looks like it has had much more aggressive noise reduction applied to it. Possibly, a 'face' was detected in one case but not the other, and this influenced the processing choices.

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