Phone camera apps use A LOT of computational processing to get decent images from such tiny lenses and sensors. Modern phones use a lot of AI-powered processing automatically.
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/oversaturated-unnatural-iphone-color/31938/21?page=2
https://applemagazine.com/iphone-camera-processing/
It’s my understanding that the iNat app (as well as other non-native camea apps) can’t leverage all of those processes, so the image quality appears less good. But there’s been discussion on whether the AI-powered processing is welcome or not…or to what extent it may be “making up” detail that doesn’t exist or smoothing out detail that does.
It would be nice if the iNat staff could provide some details on the difference between the native camera apps and the iNat app.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of stock Samsung Galaxy S24 camera app and photo taken with the Android iNat app (original and cropped to show detail).
