How to Fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Camera Focus Issue

Bang on! I agree and most of us here seem to be on the same page, we are simply talking about taking a close up photo(NOT MACRO) of a menu/ brochure / etc. with the standard 24mm, 1x zoom and for it to be crisp and sharp all around, as it has been on all older iPhones, not sure why this is so complex to understand, right 😅?

It’s actually pretty embarrassing sending a 💩 and blurry photo to a mate from an iPhone 16 Pro Max, AFTER spending $2000+ because it’s meant to have the “best cameras” 😒 when clearly it doesn’t, even when compared to my iPhone 13 Pro 🤦🏻

I was really looking forward to getting the 16 pro Max as I do a lot of photography for my Watch business. The camera is absolutely useless. Whatever I try the subject or at least part of it is out of focus. It doesn’t matter if it’s close-up photography or just taking pictures of people.

Over Christmas, I took pictures of family members and on every photo somebody’s face will be in focus and another persons will be blurred.

Apple need to acknowledge and fix this problem ASAP. Let’s face it the iPhone has really plateaued over the last few years. All they wanna talk about is how the camera is twice as good as the previous generation. So if that’s the big sell for buying the top of the line iPhone 16 then Apple needs to step up and fix this now.

the quality of pics and vids are poor. I am using raw max.

Hey mate you basically take a photo on the main camera and when you zoom into corners and especially when it’s text, the quality is horrid. I have taken photos with my iPhone 11 Pro Max, 13 pro, 14 pro max and 16 pro max, and it’s actually gotten worse from 14 onwards. For example i use the IP13P for work and I have to take photos of a specific sheet with serial numbers and a a few values which i have to eventually enter into a spreadsheet and thi sis how i came across it when i has to zoom in i noticed how terrible the main lens was. Ill show you a couple of my comparisons below:

No I don’t have ProRaw, as all my photos sizes are between 5-6MBs, instead of 25MB.

yeah I’m just going to wait till I can install IOS 18.2 and see if that fixes anything before I investigate further, but definitely the 24mm is the issue here at this point in time!

Ive been involved in photography since the late ‘70’s and taught photography for 4 years at MSU, worked for AP and International Herald Tribune.

My job was to come back with a photo, not worrying about my camera not working the way I want it to. If a third party app is the better tool for a specific job or photo, use it. I couldn’t care less what camera or app took it.

Yes, DoF is a zone of acceptable sharpness that extends both in front of and behind the point of focus (subject). If I misstated, it could have been a typo. Sorry for any confusion it may have caused.

Post your group shot with ISO, shutter speed and f/number and which lens or zoom setting.

You may also be interested in learning Apple iOS 18.2 public release is rolling out around the world in many (all?) countries today. I watched a video from someone in Australia an hour ago and he’d installed the update and reported that it resolved many of his issues. The article below explains how to update. The release time in your area may not have occurred yet. You will just need to check the update option in your iPhone.

Update iOS on iPhone

More iPhone Comparison photos below of the blurriness issue

I am facing the same issue with iphone 16pro lens may be it is a software problem because it is happening in every lens in iphone 16pro and pro max .

Yes, photos app on your iPhone and share/export and chose Option and Most Compatible.

Hey Mate more proof below, again i had to resize it, etc. once again looks worse on full quality and zoomed in

Have a look where it says 130g/220ml and have a look at the blur between IP11, 13, 14 and 16 being the worst

One more comparison of the above shots that i have posted earlier , the one on the left is the iPhone 13 PRO with clear texts and the one on the right is the iPhone 16 Pro Max with the blurry / smudgy texts:

Adjust the camera's focus and exposure

• Open Camera on your iPhone.
• Tap the screen to show the automatic focus area and exposure setting.
• Tap where you want to move the focus area.
• Next to the focus area, drag. up or down to adjust the exposure.

Use iPhone camera tools to set up your shot - Apple Support (IN)

Jeff, I have been a professional photographer for the past 20 years. Been toying with so many phone models and paraphernalia of photography accordingly. So, believe me it is NOT normal for the "objects in front of the subject to be In Focus and objects behind the subject to be OoF". I have been using iphones for the past 8 years and never have I ever encountered this problem. You do not have to define the depth of field for me mate. My whole contention is regarding the very fact that when I am NOT using the portrait mode, why should one person in a group shot, who is close to the cam becomes razor sharp, while the rest of the persons go blur even when a shot is taken at 1x? Talking about the computational photography or the AI, both should be sensible enough to understand the fact that its a GROUP shot and not an individual one just like the cams of the previous iphone models understood. However, its not the same with iphone 16. And even changing the apertures or focal length doesn't help much when taking a group shot. Again, the AI should kick in deciding the focal length for each shot depending upon the intention of taking that shot. Coming to your "third party app" point, what good is iphone cam app if i need to use a third party app? Its preposterous. Rather than understanding the irritation that all of us, iphone 16 users are going through, you are simply brushing off the entire thing under the carpet, unfortunately.

Hey mate sorry I’m on the phone this time and screenshots are too big of a file, if I’m on the PC later I’ll shrink and upload, but basically it’s the 1x Fusion Camera - 24mm, f1.78, 24MP, JPEG. (ALL of them are the same but different ISO maybe because of lighting?!)

I’m not an expert in photography, all I know is that from the comparisons over the last even 6 generations or more (I have been rocking every iPhone since iPhone 3G) I was getting good photos as I have been taking the same photos of these sheets of serial numbers for the last 10 years , and now with the iPhone 16 I just get blurry photos when I zoom in…. And yes I could use the macro lens or the extra wide lens to take non-blurry photos but that’s not the point. We’re in 2024 and these camera (main camera ant 1x) are meant to be getting better and more convenient for the user.

But this is how I have always been taking the photos forever and now they are noticeably blurry hence how I found how bad the blur is when I zoomed into the serial number to add it into a spreadsheet, and then I started testing it and yes the main lens (or fusion camera) takes bad photos where the previous iPhones (except I never had an iPhone 15 so I can’t comment on that) have been taking excellent photos of the same sheets which I have been doing for years on the 1x main camera…I wonder if the Samsung galaxies have the same issues 😅

I’m sure they won’t reply to your post as they have no real answer but just going around in circles . I had to dig out and use an old IPhone X which takes much sharper photos -16pro max photos are horrendously blurred and I need it to take up close photos for my work.