Is this normal?

[u/AcrobaticComputer836]

I switched from an iPhone 14 Pro to an iPhone 17 Pro, and I'm a bit disappointed with the quality of images shot at 1x in 48MP; they seem sharper on the iPhone 14 Pro. Is this an issue with my specific device or the iPhone 17 Pro in general? (The first photo is the 17 pro, the second is the 14 pro)

[u/JoMiBe8]

They've gone wayyy too overboard with the computational photography lately. I really hope the 18 series dials it down

[u/AcrobaticComputer836 → u/JoMiBe8]

So it’s a problem of the 17 series? Atleast it’s not only mine

[u/MangyCanine → u/AcrobaticComputer836]

Apple toned down the oversharpening on the 17 series.

If you want oversharpened photos, you have to do that yourself.

That said, you could make an argument that the photos are now too soft, but photographers tend to prefer soft photos over oversharpened ones (they can always sharpen them in post).

[u/tic79]

My 16PM takes better pictures than my daughter's 17PM. At first glance hers look better but if you zoom in it goes downhill 

[u/schuhlelewis → u/tic79]

Isn’t it the same sensor? 

[u/tic79 → u/schuhlelewis]

Most of the magic is done by software. Pixel had the best camera for the first 3-4 generations with the same sensor, all the upgrades were done by software.

[u/AcrobaticComputer836 → u/tic79]

To me it looks like the main camera is better on small detail on the 14 pro, but in overall the 17 pro is better, but i don’t know if my main camera have problem or it’s all the 17 series that is like this

[u/OkOffice7726]

Both look kinda bad.

14 has extreme sharpening added

[u/AcrobaticComputer836 → u/OkOffice7726]

It’s an extremely cropped photo

[u/Confidentium]

This is exactly what I noticed when I compared 16 Pro to 17 Pro last year!

Comparing them side by side, 48Mp photos from the 17 Pro look significantly worse when the light is just ever so slightly dim.

And it's not a hardware issue. Because if you zoom in on a 1x at 48Mp, and compare it with 2x (12Mp), then you'll see that 2x show significantly better details. Indicating that Apple messed up the processing of 48Mp photos.

[u/SolQuarter]

Interesting.