I can never get a fully clear picture. Only a small portion of the photo I’m trying to take will be in focus while the rest is blurry. I’ve turned macro lens on and off testing if that’s the issue, but it doesn’t change the problem. It’s been like this since I *** it on 9/24.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 18
I've had an iPhone 16 Pro for a month or so. Everything with the 5x camera, photo, macro and video is soft focus. This is very disappointing.
There is no focus, it’s blurry period that’s the point thousands of people are making.
you can take a photo in any zoom capacity, the outcome is the same, blurry regardless of locking the fixed focus.
zero sharpness and an embarrassing camera on an iPhone 16 model.
we shouldn’t be fiddling with macros adjustments or changing setting to try & take a decent photo.
Samsung is wiping the floor with apples camera capabilities!
Sorry, your car comparison is lacking in a lot of ways. If your new Lexus was slower and consumed more fuel than the old one you would not accept that.
And my iPhone 13 Pro was able to produce edge to edge sharp pictures of a A4 Page (about 20x30 cm) and my 16 Pro is not.
I understand and accept that the 16 Pro’s 1x lens has a different minimal focus distances than the 13 Pro (likely due to a larger sensor) but then the 16 Pro just does not switch to the 0.5x lens/macro mode at the necessary distance to photograph a A4 page and I can’t do it manually (of course I can switch to 0.5x but this is much wider angle). And this results in blurry pictures no matter what you do. If this is the result of a design change than it is just a bad design.
That’s what a lot of people are explaining over and over again.
I really don’t get what point you are trying to make.
iPhone 13 Pro??? Dude, I upgraded from iPhone Xs to iPhone 16 Pro. And my iPhone Xs takes same quality photos if not better most of the times.
I feel robbed by Apple. I reported this issue so many times and all I get is the generic answers that you always get, those same boring ones. They dont care at all.
But, the day is coming where we will abandon Apple.
Seems you did not understood the whole point.
The test on a flat paper puts the problem in evidence, and this case is a problem on these days where companies ask you to send them a copy of documents through your phone.
Aside on that, that test puts in evidence that when not in a "perfect" sheet-of-paper case, the pictures of people and objects you take in the problematic distance are not sharp as they should be, and sure people will like them as they do not have enough experience and/or comparison of the shot taken with a good quality phone.
And the problem is not on the corners as you say, but starts near the center, and is awfull in the corners.
I started to notice the problem on abasic object shot, where I noticed near the center a visible loss of quality compared to my old iPhones. And proceeded to reproductible tests with a flat paper.
Last, as far as I know, the Vivo X200 Pro Mini has same "dimensional" specs, and has half of the problem. And not the flat-paper one. So possibly not a full 100% hardware problem.
I confirm the problem.
Tests done on 8 iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max + my iPhone 16 Pro, as well as on 3 iPhone 16 (non Pro), in iOS 18.2.1. And on an iPhone 14 and an iPhone 13 :
My conclusions on the origin of the problem :
The problem disappears as soon as you switch to wide-angle macro mode, typically in the short range of distances where the camera offers the option of switching to macro mode or not. So, for the same photo and distance, the lens used behaves differently: one produces blurred photos as soon as you move away from the center, while the other produces very sharp photos over the whole field.
This is not diffraction, as the “trails” observed are monochromatic, including in ProRaw, and therefore taken as such by the sensor without any software processing.
My conclusion: it's obviously a hardware problem. With a one-in-10 chance of finding an acceptable (albeit imperfect) model. Which is... unacceptable considering the price of the device, and the fact that the non-pro model clearly doesn't have the problem.
@Jeff Donald, you're stuck on focus distance, macro and wide angle, but if you really understand photography that does not seems the case, there is nothing there related to focusing distance, nor macro, nor wide angle.
We are talking about the main camera lens, at a distance that is not a macro distance for such a lens, and as far as you consider the focus "plane" to be a plane or a sphere, this would result in such "blur" results. Compared with many other smartphones, including middle and high-end DSLR with very poor and high quality lenses of the same range, the iPhone 16 Pro lineup is out of the game.
And you don't answer the main points and loose yourself in theoretical and out of scope explanations. So instead of talking in the air, can you argue on these points with concrete arguments and examples :
You also complain about those who didn't test the features they feel are most important before buying. Are you kidding ?
We are talking about a flagship. That is supposed to do the same and better than the previous one.
Do you expect the phone having year after year a lower speaker quality ? A lower signal reception ? How do you test this in an Apple Store (assuming you have one near your home) ?
And we also talk here about photography, that is one if not the the main aspect of the companies communication about their smartphones. We don't expect this one to degrade year after year.
More iPhone Comparison photos below of the blurriness issue
no disrespect, your example is poor for a number of reasons and most likely user error:
your focus did not lock, or more likely, the camera or subject waved out of focus
your actual image looks completely out of focus
if I ** wrong then you have a defective camera
i shot this a couple days ago (full unaltered image, shot jpg) -- locked focus on the white bulb thing -- and my iPhone 16 PM nailed focus (by my standard):
Macro Micro photography (extreme close up) at f2.2 only provides a few millimeters of depth of field
Shooting flowers blowing in the wind -- handheld -- in these example is hit or miss -- even for the most skilled...
I ** 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 .
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:
I have taken many shots these days, many comparison tests. The only solution, if you want to photograph an A4 sheet, you can't do it with an iPhone 16 Pro, you have to use a "normal" iPhone 16 or iPhone 15. Many people here will tell you that you are taking the photo wrong, but none of these people are able to upload a comparison test that can deny this fact: if you want to shoot an A4 sheet you can't do it with the "Pro". If they prove otherwise I will be very happy because they will have to replace my brand new iPhone 16 Pro, under warranty, I also have AppleCare +. However, unfortunately these are the normal optical performance of the main camera of the iPhone 16 Pro, since I tested various models in different stores, even in the Apple store, they say that everything is ok.
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This is really frustrating for me too.
Some people are asking if its the telephot lens or 5x or whatever. For god sake, thats the real problem that even if at 1x you take a normal photo of two persons, one sitting close to you and the other one sitting a little behind him, the person at the behind goes blur and the one who is sitting closer to you becomes razor sharp. The problem is that it is not the photo that you took in portrait mode and you cannot even change the focus in the edit mode since you wanted both of such persons to be in focus like any 'normal' camera phone would do. Duh! I hope apple brings some software update to rectify it.
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!
The closeup images the I’ve been posting are at 48 MP and 1X lens. iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max automatically switch to macro mode, which requires the .5X 13mm ultra wide lens. The 13mm is not as sharp as the 24mm, in my experience.
The iPhone 16 Pros automatically switch to the 13mm lens and drop resolution at specific a specific distance.
On an iPhone 16, macro mode automatically activates when you get very close to a subject, causing the camera to switch to the Ultra Wide lens to capture extreme close-up details; this is indicated by a flower icon in the camera viewfinder, and you can essentially take close-up photos by simply getting near your subject without needing to manually adjust settings, although you can turn off macro mode if needed by tapping the flower icon
Take macro photos and videos with your iPhone camera - Apple Support
Control automatic macro switching
You can control when Camera automatically switches to the Ultra Wide camera for capturing macro photos and videos.
on your iPhone.
appears on the screen. to turn off automatic macro switching.
to turn automatic macro switching back on.Nice work mate, I also posted heaps of examples early on in this thread between iPhone 11 Pro Max, 13 pro, 14pro max and 16 pro max.
It’s obvious there is a problem, and I don’t care that some people in here are defending the lens and how it works because of the curvature of the lens, etc. No matter what, it’s unacceptable that in this day-in-age an iPhone 16 Pro/MAX can’t take a photo of a basic menu at 1x zoom without it being blurry and smudgy out to the edges(from a normal/reasonable distance) when clearly we haven’t had this issue before with previous iPhones!
My issue is that, most people who buy the iPhone 16 Pro/MAX, 90% of its use is in fact just random photos of info sheets, product numbers, menus, scanning a document, etc. (easy stuff) and maybe the 10% of the time it is used as a “pro photo shooting” feature, so Apple should have known better, really! Just add the extra “flat lens” and have 4 lenses on the back 🤣🤣 it’s a shame, I have to now use the 2x zoom to get sharp texts on an A4 on a desk but I have to be nearly standing up to take it, and even then it uses the 12MP lens not the 24MP
How to Fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Camera Focus Issue
