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After watching far too many videos comparing the iPhone 13 Pro Max, Samsung S22 Ultra, and Pixel 6 Pro, I decided against the iPhone because of the automatic skin smoothing.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max removed wrinkles, sun spots, moles, hair, etc to the point where the results looked like overprocessed, manually edited photos. This wasn't subtle -- the reviewers commented on it as well.

While I don't do video, I was struck by a specific example: the iPhone 13 Pro Max's automatic enhancement for dark scenes decided a barely visible wall was red and recently painted. It looked like someone had drawn a box in the photo and did a red fill.

I suspect it is only a matter of time before Samsung and Pixel's photos look as overprocessed. But, for now, we have some choice.



> I decided against the iPhone because of the automatic skin smoothing.

There’s no such thing. I doubt any reviewer making videos knows what they’re talking about unless it’s from a very few sources like DPReview.

The iPhone camera has never had skin smoothing - that’s something only Asian camera apps do. Deep Fusion is more like the opposite of that.


> The iPhone camera has never had skin smoothing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_XS#Excessive_smoothing_...

You were saying?


Indeed, that’s a case of people conspiring a skin smoothing filter out of a bug, like it says.

Actually I really didn’t like the denoising on that camera, it seemed poorly tuned in general…


Do people really choose between Android and iOS based on the camera? They are all very close on quality, and IIRC if you don't like the stock camera apps you can get a third party app with less opinionated processing. But even so, the whole experience, including the ecosystem, matters so much more to me than the camera. I have a real camera for when it matters that much.


I did, and went with S22 ultra at the end. Long term nikon full frame shooter. I must say both iphone 13 pro max and this are very formidable devices, each has their strengths and weaknesses, took quite a bit of time to decide. I like how S22 feels like a real computer where I can plug my variometer for paragliding via OTG cable, side load apps of my own choice, use normal charging cables like rest of the universe, upload/download files straight from filesystyem without any installed apps and so on. I am getting into whole S pen experience, its pretty nice for sketching or precise mouse-like work ie when editing photos in phone. Apple notch making it look like some basic 2015 chinese phone is just a cherry on the top.

As for cameras, 10x physical zoom is not something to neglect, Apple doesn't have anything to offer there. In past 2 weeks I have it, I've shot quite a lot of otherwise impossible kids, family, nature, animals etc. pics with this zoom. That was my main motivation for new phone - a camera for pictures I always have with me, unlike dedicated camera (2.5kg being just a detail, I didn't mind carrying it but I didn't have it a lot of casual times where great situation happened).

Another reason that swayed me - with this upgrade I wanted to improve headphones, priority being quality of sounds and battery life to play my collection of flacs. Airpods Pro were just not cutting it, went with Sennheiser momentum 2. You can't connect iphone and Senns via some above-default bluetooth protocol, they support aptX, Apple has their own solution and nothing else.

Rest of cameras are +-comparable, sometimes one wins other times the other. BUT - this over-processing that Apple is famous for is something I don't like, as long term DSLR shooter I 'have it in the eye' how processing should look like. A lot of people got so used to it though, they consider ie full frame pictures with normal level of processing bland and artificial compared to Apple's.


Have you looked at the marketing material for any of those phones (or any modern flagship for that matter)? Over half of it focuses on the various cameras they have and their specs/features.


> Do people really choose between Android and iOS based on the camera?

Kinda. I have a 4a because of the camera more or less. It was between that and the iPhone SE 2020.

I did kinda wanna switch up to Android (I've gone back and forth over the years. I don't lock myself into any one company's eco.)


The 4a Camera app consistently makes the "wrong" choice for me (flat lighting and colours). I wish I knew of an Halide-like for Android.


My wife is thinking of upgrading her iPhone for better snapshots of our baby.

I’m a professional photographer. Hell, she is too - she second shoots at my weddings. We have the best cameras and lenses money can buy…but they aren’t in her pocket when our baby does something cute.


> Do people really choose between Android and iOS based on the camera?

iPhone 13 launch marketing/advertisement was almost entirely about camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKfgdkcIUxw


Probably some people are not heavily plugged into an ecosystem, they need at max 3-5 apps to work and that is enough for them. other sure have laptops,watches, TVs already in the ecosystem, tons of money already spent into apps and media so they are prisoners.


Even without the ecosystem, it seems like the actual UI experience is different enough that it would be the dominant factor. Every time I switch back and forth between Android and iOS it's like whiplash. They do tend to copy each other heavily, so it's converging, but there are still plenty of behavioral differences.


My cousin switches every few years and it seems like it’s always a crapshoot of whether she’ll have iOS or Android. Drives my phone crazy as it’ll try to send her iMessages and failover to texts for months.


As someone who dislikes both iOS and Android, I chose my phone based on other factors. I chose my phone due to its size and form. In their case, they would be choosing it based on photography.


>Do people really choose between Android and iOS based on the camera?

We did. My wife wanted an Iphone because it takes great pictures, and I got an S9 because I can tinker with the ROM.


Wow I can’t imagine what a pain it would be for one of us to have an android phone and the other iOS. We use the react emojis for each other constantly, I send videos to my wife via airdrop, and all of our images are synced and shared via iCloud. Also my wife can seamlessly FaceTime me wherever I am to help calm a grumpy toddler who “wants daddy”.

I guess I sound like I’ve really drank the iKoolaid but I feel like we’d just constantly be frustrated if we weren’t using the same device family.


I like to tinker with self-hosting so usually if we need something, I set it up. We use rocketchat for IM, images are synced manually to a samba share on the network, and if we wanted to video chat (not really our style though) we could use skype or I could host Element or something. It's really not much of a pain, but also it's not like I don't see the appeal of living in a world where the defaults are there and they're usable.


Yes, camera quality is one of the main drivers of differentiation between device choice in many markets.

Interestingly, it's usually "more processing the better".


This is fantastic. You've confused the over-sharpening that some Android cameras do with Apple's non-existent "skin smoothing" feature.


Are you saying that iPhone doesn’t do the “skin smoothing” as described?


Yes that is what I’m saying. The iOS camera app does not do skin smoothing.


Check some side-by-side comparisons of of same portrait scenes on youtube. Apple removes all moles, freckles, wrinkles and so on so folks look like (very good looking) plastic toys from fashion magazine covers. Some like it, some don't.


Just took some pictures with my iPhone 13 Pro and it 100% doesn't do this. Not even in Portrait mode.

Maybe there's some way to monkey with it just right.

I think people are confusing low light noise reduction for something else.


Check some side-by-side comparisons of of same portrait scenes on YouTube.

No one is going to go dig for that, if you wish for folks to make such a comparison, it would be better to post a link so that everyone is on the same page.


Samsung is the king of oversmoothing. I've used the note 4, s8, 10+ and s21 ultra and imo the camera has always been subpar exactly because of that. I actually have no idea how most reviews have been constantly praising the cameras of flagship Samsung phones when in practice even at launch it was always a disappointing experience.

Even with the s21+, the only way to really get decent shots from the camera in low/medium light before a recent update was to use modded Gcam builds. Even with the update I'd say it maybe compares to an iPhone 8 or x

Overprocessing and oversaturation were so bad before the s10+ that I remember not even bothering with the camera at all because of how frustrating it was to always get mediocre pictures.


I was surprised when I moved from a mid-range to an S21. The smudging effect was just as evident unless I used the 64mp setting that is seemingly only available in one mode in the Samsung camera app and nowhere else.


The Pixel 6 photos are quite over processed.

You can shoot raw, but I just want the same normal workflow without the run around.


Haven’t Samsung’s flagship phones favored over (or more than normal) saturated photos over the years? I think the key to liking a phone camera is to get one that takes photos you like (I know this is tautological). Or play with apps that will allow you to change from the defaults. This may not help as much on iOS since the default camera app that can be launched quickest from the Lock Screen is Apple’s camera app.


I feel like it is inevitable that consumers gravitate towards cameras that make them look the prettiest, if that is not already where manufactures are going.

Samsung absolutely does not want someone to switch, and then find out that they "look worse" on their new samsung phone.

I guess its just a matter of whether or not they implement options for post-processing.




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