From 3:57 to 4:12, he explains the high sensitivity ,noise reduction, sharpening and over processing of images, not only verbally but also by changes in the video to help the viewer understand it visually as well! That's brilliant! 😁
I've come to deeply appreciate how you explain these topics. I do I.T. and I find myself overexplaining pretty often and accidentally confusing people by trying to be too clear. You have mastered the art of teaching without overwhelming the listener. Thanks for everything you do!
Very true. Definitely a good skill if you need to engage with non-technical audiences professionally. Getting the idea across cleanly and without seeming patronizing.
His explication is soothing and at the same time very informative not every body can do that. Sometimes I try to explain it like he does but never get it across like he does. It's his natural niche.
Yes they sell so much because it is a status symbol. Even though, like his tests prove, people don't prefer the camera. For stills at least. If other phones like pixel could catch up in the video department things could change.
@@en_vy we need good competition because as of now we are losing fast! Look at flagship phone prices now versus a few years ago it’s turning into the Nvidia gpu prices situation but getting worse
Very interesting insight! Recently switched from 11 Pro to 14 Pro, and feel like the difference is fairly insignificant (for the purposes for which I use the camera), leading to the question "what is happening with iPhone camera?"
Activate the pro mode. With that enabled the pictures suddenly are insane. The level of detail is unmatched with any smartphone. Also the processing is much different. Especialle with brightness set to -0.3 pictures look superb.
"Partly Photons, but Primarily Processing" is the most eloquent way of explaining modern smartphone cameras that I've ever heard. Great video, Marques.
I liked the quadruple P's, but coulda have been a quintuple with just the standard Peace straight after. "Partly Photons, Primarily Processing...Peace".
but when it s primarily photons and partly processing (or not proc), phones camera get shot down ( xperia line) by almost everyone...so.....processing is the trend.
@@vaudou74 I get what you're trying to get at, but nope! Old Pixels and Sony Xperia 1 mk 2, 3 and 4 takes the best most naturalistic true to life photos hands down. Because both the new Pixels, Samsungs and iPhones have an over sharpening, an over saturation, an over exposure and an over processing in general issue! And not a small one.. And regarding the iPhones in particular.. They always had this strange off putting green/yellow tint/tone as far as I can tell. Maybe not so much on the first three or four models, but from then on for sure, as far as I can remember. It has become better. I.e. less of an issue with every new model. But it's still there. Oh, and you forgot to mention that btw! In fact.. correct me if I'm wrong here.. But I don't think that MKBHD ever mentioned it. And pretty much no other tech reviewer either. Anyhow.. that green/yellow tone/tint is horrendous! And the damn phone seems to add it to every picture by default.. yyiiiikes! Makes all people look like they are being seriously ill/sea sick, lol! And let's not even start venturing into the "beauty-mode-by-default-smoothing-China phones".. 🥴😖😫😫
A lot of my friends with newer iPhones often ask me "what phone have you got?!" because my photos are so clear and vibrant. I have an iPhone 11 and I think it takes much better photos than my friends 12s and 13s. After watching this video I think I'm just going to upgrade to an 11 pro.
This is a Brilliant video. Not only did you break down this complex topic so well, however created & edited the special effects to show people want you are talking about deserves an award
I think you’re correct with this. I personally wish we could get more of the “preview” pic vs what the post processing pics look like. Take a sunset pic for example, they look different on the preview vs what actually saves to the camera roll (iPhone 14 pro max). This works well on some pics but I’d prefer the most natural / real looking pic myself.
When we all rely on camera processing, there's no reliable way to measure and judge "better" anymore, but this is a leading issue in a lot of neural network and AI tech. Developers can always guide it, but who decides what and how decisions are made when a chunk of those decisions aren't and can't be made by humans (devs or users)? We're living in strange times.
I would guess at least some companies run tests similar to what MKBHD did to figure out what style people like most. Other companies might just rely on for example some photography professionals opinion. Some might do both.
This has nothing to do with AI lol. There was never a way in the first place to judge what arbitrary configuration is the best. Marques prefer the look on the iPhone, maybe someone in Asia will prefer the look of the Xiomi. None of these strategies is "better" than the other.
Yep! A great explanation for why I have to manually adjust every iPhone photo I take in order for the image to come out as I would like. Generally I find the phone prefers over exposure to light everything in frame, and in the process loses so much mood and subtlety. Almost every shot I take requires a tap on the brightest part of the screen and then further decreased exposure by a step or two from there. Said in another way, the photos are not just photons and camera processing, but also user processing. Not to mention any post-processing (which I personally avoid).
Cheers for including a clip from our blind camera comparison! I personally agree about the iPhone not necessarily improving lately for photos. I was just chatting with a friend who says he now shoots video and pulls frame grabs from that for his photos because of how much better it looks, overall. 🤷🏻♂️
I’ve thought for a while that my iPhone’s video quality looks better than the photo quality, and could never figure out why. Nice to see someone find this to be true as well.
I saw someone doing a Camera A B Test between the 14 Pro and an iPhone 7 and the 7 genuinely won at least for video, because the 14 Pro is just oversharpened and the 7 was pleasantly soft with enough detail, which is just what you want in a video camera
Is Apple likely to improve this with future versions of iOS? Could the iPhone 13 with iOS 17 improve upon this (having more accurate light representation instead of lighting up the entire face of a person) since its just a software thing or would I need to get a new phone?
The interesting part in the blind test for me was how important accurate representation of dark skin tone is. I spent a lot of time between images asking "Which one is more accurately representing the tone of Marques' skin?" because some were absolute trash, and that was the easiest thing for me to differentiate in pictures.
@@LJdaentertainer bro this is how I talk. I took it really personally when I played around with ChatGPT and it's writing read exactly like every essay I've ever written.
@@Xenaman 😂😂😂 People like you are everything that is wrong with this world. I recently discovered his channel and as a fellow creator I find his work extremely impressive and inspirational. I know I appreciate kudos, so why not extend them to him on a job well done? Get out of here with your meaningless negativity.
So, I’m an audio engineer as well as an artist, & I can say that the same saturation of processing is happening in the audio world just as much as the visual. Over processed vocals or photos are never good 🎈
@@MennoNehernot autotune in a lot of circumstances. you can usually tell if the autotune is supposed to be intentional. if you’re left guessing whether they want you to hear it or not, that’s a bad autotune job
im so glad this is being addressed. nearly every photo i take i look at, and I see the software processing it a couple seconds after and it makes the image look worse in my opinion.
This explains a lot. Just recently I was using a Pixel 4a, while my daughter has a 13 Pro. We both love taking photos, usually with a lot of people in the shot and everyone, *everyone* including me kept getting blown away how the 4a's photos could perform toe to toe in terms of image quality, sometimes even better and all of the time when it comes to low light shots. A few weeks ago I made the move to a 14 (regular). Although the camera experience is better (and the ultra wide is awesome).. I cant help but compare its photos back to my 4a and prefer those.
I think something is wrong with my Pixel 4a because it takes some of the worst photos I've ever seen on a smartphone from the past 5 years. Compared to my family who also own a 4a or other Pixel model
Man, the live changes to the image while explaining the overprocessing was yet another impressive feat of this video, I hope the editor is making as much money as he/she should. Said it once, will keep saying it, this is the best tech channel. I just love this channel!
That's not even impressive. The hell?? You literally just insert photos on editing software and add text to. Why impressed with that? Literally every video does picture insertions
I like your channel because you dont just "review" and "compare" but also give analysis data, and reasons, even researching physics and engineering behind it.
Thank you man for making this video. It helps me confirm I'm not seeing things lol. I have both an iPhone 14 pro and Pixel 6A. I find myself reaching for my 6A for photo taking most every time. Especially low light. The 14 pro does major over processing in 48mp mode with low light situations. It's terrible. I have to turn off, so to speak, the 48mp res for low light. The 6A just works, love it.
I'm glad you mentioned this as I've noticed something is definitely up with the 14 Pro camera. Over the last few weeks, I've had a couple times where I take a picture of something indoors and the quality is just...not up to par like it usually would be. Then I grab my Pixel 7 Pro and it captures exactly what I was hoping to get with the 14 Pro. I usually keep the iPhone on me as a reliable way to get a great pic and excellent video at any time, but now I can't really trust it with pics. It'll be P7P for pics and 14 Pro for videos only.
Exactly this happened with my friend. He had iphone 14 pro max on a trip but did not like overprocessed photos at all. He was more pleased with my 2016 $250 pocket camera as it gave very realistic image with details and some real depth effects.
Thank you for validating what I have been feeling man. I went from the 13 Pro to the 14 Pro and have found that the regular pictures on the 14 Pro have a ‘blandness’ to them in comparison to the 13 Pro. I have been resorting to either Portrait mode to just recording videos to get those desired results. I’m hoping Apple keeps tweaking the software to get the 14 Pro back on track - in my humble opinion
The level of editing in MKBHD’s videos gets better and better every time. The first 60sec, while may not seem like much, was perfect introduction to how photos are processed and illustrated beautifully.
I know I really regret ditching my iPhone 11 Pro for the 13 Pro. I take lots of pictures of my work, which tend to be very small machine components. The camera on the 11 worked really well for this. I could get super clear photos that were extremely detailed. The 13 looks just as you said- over processed. I like the 3D scanner on the 13, but it’s not worth the camera downgrade.
Ive seen hundreds of smartphone camera videos and for some reason this one just really helped me understand everything that goes behind the software and what a picture actually is. So thank you very much!
I noticed this problem already with the 13pro. I upgraded in 2021 to the 13pro from 6s and man did it looks insanely over processed. I actually preferred the overall look from my ancient 6s despite the noise and other issues with it. Shame they're still getting it wrong, these are not cheap phones.
I held off on watching this video because I didn't think I cared but this might now be my favorite MKBHD video. I use both an iphone 13 pro and a pixel 6 daily and its crazy how well your deep dive into this summed up my feelings. Every picture I take of my family, I always use the pixel because unanimously we think it looks the best(Real Tone doing its thing). but in pretty much any other scenario I usually grab the iphone for things like speed to open the app, microphone and video quality. Absolutely amazing content
I've always 'watched' MKBHD videos, but recently I started really 'enjoying' them because of all the little details that raise the bar in production quality. Best tech channel ever.
@@imyusuf The editing part actually has relevance to the content in this video. Like how the effects were actually changing while he was talking about them.
This vid was insanely good and interesting. I love videos where it doesn't feel like there is a script, rather just an interesting conversation. Marques really knows how to explain his thoughts well!
I'm really glad you made this video because for the past few years, I've been feeling like iPhones have been doing more software processing on photos than they had before (and in a poor way). I've had the iPhone 6, 10R, 11, & 13 and my favorite camera was actually on the iPhone 6. I haven't had the 13 long enough to notice it, but, on the 10R and 11, I had moments where I'd take a photo that appeared to be a really nice photo. But then, I look at what happens after the photo is processed and it messes with the lighting in different areas (specifically faces - like you mentioned) when in actuality, I wanted the lighting conditions I was shown prior to snapping the photo. It honestly bugs me quite a bit, because the correction the iPhone tries to take on lighting different areas of the photo can (and have) easily ruined the photo and what I was trying to accomplish. Here's to hoping it just gets better 🤷♂
Had a 15 Pro for about a month. Returned it for this reason, camera was too finicky, focus issues, etc. Yes there were pictures that turned out crisper, and night mode and 2x/3x zoom were great. But I put a new battery in my iPhone 11 and just kept it. For normal everyday type pictures, the 11 just works. Point and shoot. Not point, change settings/focus length/zoom range for it to turn out better, or have to take multiple pictures to get one that looks “right.” 11 with its 12MP camera obviously looks a bit more grainy when you zoom in closer on the pics, but I’ll take that over blurriness and obvious post image processing that screws up the image!
I upgraded from XR to 14 Pro Max and one thing which I hate about this phone is when I click a photo and open it, the phone takes a second or two for optimising/processing that photo and then it looks better to me. That delay was not there in previous iPhones and that is what I don’t like…hope it gets improved in future updates.
The optimisation after clicking picture is making it worse poor quality and smudgy and not sharp like Pixel Google pixels gonna crush iPhone camera if Apple doesn’t work on their photo processing algorithm
@@willc2883 this bothers me to no end. Especially with detailed, up close shots. The highlights get blown out every time and sharpness is cranked to the max
I'm still using an iPhone XS. This model was the last one to have the option to store both the HDR and the "normal" picture on every shot. I'd say about 80% to 90% of the pictures look better in the processed, HDR mode, but that 10 to 20% of less processed pictures include some that are just beautiful, while their HDR versions are unusable. Apple removed the option to store the normal picture from the iPhone 11 on, which to me is a huge mistake.
Still using Xs here, i compared with 12 and they were so contrasty and unrealistic colours, i expect that 14 is even worse. This is the reason i'm using more my olympus now.
The RAW option can be enabled at least in 14 Pro’s native camera app. But it is still doing some crazy automatic editing to the photos most of the times
I’ve been complaining about iPhone’s post processing ruining photos for years now. Everyone who upgraded from an iphone 8 or even 10 or below has the same complaint - looks great in the viewfinder, completely (and irreversibly) ruined after processing…
The title grabbed my attention, as I have been experiencing this. Going from 4 -> 5c -> 6s -> XR -> 13 Pro, the 6s was my last phone that didn’t have noticeable camera quirks. While optical zoom is really nice, I feel that the basics have suffered from engineering efforts being split between so many separate cameras. The camera auto-switching behavior of the 13 Pro can be very hard to work around at times.
@@mafiaboy4925 i think he’s talking about the fact that when you press the “3x” label in the camera app, the iphone automatically decides whether it’s gonna use the true optical zoom or crop into the main lens’ image (with the latter causing a lot of noise)
Actually since smartphone photography became so computational, suddenly everything became so different in pictures vs what it looks in real life. All i want is a camera that can capture photos as true to life as possible, so maybe they should start improving the hardware more than the software.
Xiaomi did, and they still complain about that because it looked too natural. Can't win with these people just be happy that you can take awesome photos and video with what you have
8:56 if argue that the iPhone pic looks better… in terms of the face and whether or not you like it to skew “reality” I think his face looks better in that one picture compared to the “better” one
Incredibly in depth look at the camera + software relationship! Thanks Marques. I've been using the iPhone 14 Pro a lot for photos since September and I just couldn't figure out why the photos lacked lustre... unlike the video which actually performs much better in my experience than the 12 pro and 13 pro.
I was looking all through the comments why no one's noticed or saying anything about the intro. It took me by surprise, obviously new year new intro but its soooo good. Just perfect with the sound.
I recently switched from an iPhone X to an iPhone 14 Pro, and when I take selfies now I just screenshot the camera app because my face looks better there than after I take the picture .......... After I take the picture all shadows are lost, as you said, and it's too sharp and I see wrinkles everywhere. The color also looks dull in comparison... 😔
I tend to always shoot raw with my 14Pro and quite often use other apps (Lightroom mostly) so I don't notice the heavy lifting of the Ai - BUT - on the very odd occasion when I use the front camera for a quick selfie you can literally see the photo pop after its taken. Its like all hell has been let loose and the Ai has gone mad trying to do stuff with skin smoothie, tone mapping and who knows what else. Give users a means of delving into the settings and switching off some of the Ai stuff, leave it on as default for snaps, but allow a degree of control for those of us who want it
One of the reasons I love the Pixel 7 (and I'm sure other phones can do this, this is just my experience) is that you can shoot both a RAW and processed JPEG at the same time. It's always interesting to see what the software does on its own and even more interesting to do my own (admittedly amateur) editing with the RAW image and see what comes out.
Great video Marques. I liked how you explained the details of cell phone photography and how different this video was in comparison to your typical review videos. This video was great because you explained something very complex in a very simple, understandable manner to the general public. Happy 2023 to you!
Fantastic video! I have just started to use an iPhone 14 after using an 11 for several years, mainly for work. The quality of the few shots I have taken for use in my (litho printed) magazine have been pretty shocking. The effects in some images are almost like Photoshop's watercolour or dry brush filters. The frankly weird lighting effects on human faces (which is the main subject I shoot) mean that I am seriously thinking of sending the phone back from whence it came. I thought I was getting an upgrade with the 14, but I feel that I have gone several large steps backwards. Surely Apple can introduce a 'classic' mode which allows you to switch off all the over-processing which is messing with a perfectly good sensor?
I love your delivery of the issue. Made it really easy for me to understand, and you've obviously done the research. I've recently upgraded from an iphone 6 to 13pro, only because upgrades don't happen on the 6 anymore. I was always fiddling with add on lenses to try and improve macro and telephoto to blow them up a bit. And I've had Moment lenses for a while now that are pretty good for that side of things. But the software compensations you talked about were fascinating. I did not realise they were that intrusive.
I noticed this on my iPhone 13 Pro Max. I hope a software update can make the older generation of iPhones' cameras better, and that it's not limited to just the next gen of iPhones that have a camera that doesn't produce over-processed photos.
Wishful thinking my friend. If it enhance already existing iPhone camera features then yes but any new camera features is going to be the new iPhone exclusive only
Man, Marques is one of the few ultra-popular RU-vidrs that is so good at breaking things down in a practical way...and isn't also annoying. Weird to say, but it's very rare 😅
Every picture I take with the iPhone 14 Pro looks better when I do a workaround the AÍ enhancement, since it can not me disabled. Here it is: picture > edit > Live Photo > select the previous/next frame as the Key Image. And there you go! A nice photo that looks real! It’s like night and day. I feel I have a good camera again. Because mostly the pictures are looking too fake on the 14 pro. But it’s always a hassle. I miss my iPhone 11 Pro Max.
I have had my Pixel 6 Pro since day one. Google has done a great job updating and fine tuning the Pixel camera. I also think with Google using their Tensor chips that played a role in their tuning pictures and overall OS functionality. Great video!!
Same here. The Pixel 6 Pro is the best phone and smartphone camera I ever used by far. To imagine how well Google Pixel photography will improve in 3, 4, or even 5 generations of Tensor SoCs
I've owned a P6P since launch. I haven't seen a single meaningful camera update. The camera even still distorts audio like crazy when shooting 4k60 video, but not 4k30. Selfie video is still super noisy. Portrait mode still has unnatural blur and tons of over sharpening at 2x. They haven't updated or fixed anything in the camera.
Marques...I've been watching you for a long time man, longer than I guarantee you could really guess. I have to say that this is absolutely your best video. The topic of the video is important, and both Apple and Google should listen very carefully to what you're saying. BUT, aside from that...the story of this video was absolutely perfect. The style in which you decided to convey this particular message was perfect. This is your shining example of everything you've learned being on this platform coming to a head to set the high standard for what a Consumer Tech video can be on RU-vid. Majos kudos to you and your entire team. Y'all are absolutely killing it.
Totally agree. That's why I am almost exclusively using the ProRAW on my iPhone 14 Pro now, even though I am not a photographer and usually prefer not to edit photos.
@@JonDotExe In my experience (and I have done a lot of testing recently), the difference in video quality is definitely not worth the extra GB in file sizes. Photos are different, ProRAW is just miles ahead of standard mode now. (especially with 1x lens)
Marques is the exemple of someone who ...gone after the job in life that he wants and love to do at such a young age and saying that he succeeded is an understatement. I wish i had he's drive and did the same
The large difference in your skin tone between all the photos was one of the things that really jumped out at me, even between some photos that looked pretty similar otherwise . I'd never realised phones had processing specifically for skin tone, fascinating!
I agree. I briefly had s21fe upgrade and compared it to my old A52s and you can tell the Fe has better sensor. It's got less noise especially at night. But the photos it churns out are way too colourful and way too sharp. For this reason I prefer the mid range A52s camera. If Samsung could tone down it's software processing it would be much better. So I kept the a52s. That also has better battery due to the weaker processor. I absolute hate my image not looking the same as what I took. Especially if the sea is a beautiful blue and the phone boosts the colours to make it look different or a sunset.
AYO WHY DID HE DO THE LIGHTSKIN STARE 13:30!?!?!? Also jokes aside, I'm also black and have noticed the same thing over the years. Some of my friends call me crazy, but certain phone camera's very clearly seem to handle the darker skin tone better.
@@ovrxpsd beyond the actual quality, i really appreciate that he respects viewer's time and doesnt prolong his videos longer than they need to be with meandering bullshit like most youtubers
I upgraded from an iPhone XR to the 14 Pro Max mainly for the camera upgrades, but from the very first photo I took, I was sorely disappointed. I actually think my XR took more realistic looking photos. I understand that there is a challenge in making a photo look acceptable 95% of the time to 95% of people in any lighting situation, but the software needs serious improvement.
You can put the pixel 7 on here too. I find myself having to move back and take a picture with double zoom in order for the camera to be focused on what I am shooting
I love the S22 ultra cameras, but the lag in the camera is extremely annoying. Sometimes I wanna take a photo in a pinch and it takes a decent amount of time to open the app and be ready to snap a photo. And even when you open it and click to snap a photo it takes awhile. Sometimes I'll click the white shutter button and it just goes black and doesn't shoot a photo right away. It's kinda delayed. So I often miss action or things happening in a short amount of time.
Is it the snapdragon or the exynos version that you have? Im on regular S21 and the camera lag is insane, not only the amount of time to open the app, but its not responsive when I click on the snap photo button, there is about 1s delay between when I press the capture button to when it actually takes the photo. Extremely annoying. Mine is exynos version, hence wondering if the snapdragon version have this same issues as well.
it's funny how I see this right after having a dream where I take out my s22 ultra and try to take a video of my favorite group I ran into but the camera won't stop lagging and I miss them... the camera finally started to work right after they left... SO NOW the the patience and the sometimes struggle the camera brings HAS SHOWED UP IN MY DREAMS 😭 but I feel like overall it's my favorite camera system yet! just sometimes there is some slow moments
Marquis, I really appreciate this video! You’re ability to remain so unbiased, to criticize the iPhone in one way and praise it in others, is what makes your content so valuable. You’re curious and dispassionate-a killer combo. Thanks for pointing out the iPhone’s “even face lighting”. I’ve been wondering what’s been bugging me the past few years and you nailed it. I will be sending them multiple feedback messages on their site and hammering them to correct this horrible over processing. Or at least allow me to turn it off. It’s really not ideal.
My wife and I have been talking about this exact issue of over processing a now much larger sensor. Thank you for your video! We just don’t want wait until the iPhone 15 for this to be fixed? I hope Apple sees your video and our comments and fixes this issue in a software update. 🤞
I’ve gone from a pixel 3A to a 13 mini and I’m consistently disappointed with the night mode on the iPhone. Video’s and selfies are excellent however, I now find myself taking videos all the time, something which was burdensome on an older android phone.
I switched from a Samsung Galaxy S7 to a Redmi note 10 pro and i don't like MIUI so I will probably switch back to Samsung or try Google or something else and i would suggest you to try some more aswell
iPhone never beat the pixel in the night mode. This supposedly you expect when you switch from pixel to iphone. So rather disappointment feeling, it more to be unanticipated feeling from you.
"Pictures from your phone are partly photons, but primarily processing" Great work Marques. You went an extra mile on this video, and we appreciate it.
I’ve had this thought for a while so I’m glad you touched on it. But I think the camera tests featuring you will always tend towards the characteristics of your RU-vid channel camera rather than ‘real life’ as that is our reference. So I wonder if results would be different if you used a subject we were unfamiliar with or results are different when photos don’t feature yourself or the studio crew.
