How to Fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Camera Focus Issue

IOS 18.2 did not fix the issue 😒😒

I just found that the same issue applies on the 1.2x(28mm) and 1.5x(35mm) zoom also! But the 1x being the worst!

So basically what you’re saying is, that users need to adapt and inconvenience themselves just to take a photo that’s non blurry. I mean, in my case, sure I’ll just take it with a 2x zoom on the 12MP (instead of the 1x at 24MP which is silly because 24MP should have better quality than 12MP?!) and that’s cool, that will sort out MY issue. But that’s inconvenient because that renders the 1x zoom useless by the sounds of it, because some people in here are also complaining about photos where you have 2 subjects in a photo, where one is blurry and one is not, etc. so my issue is solved with the 2x zoom, but then that means the 1x is unusable unless you’re happy to have a photo which is overall blurry. 🤔 and that’s compared to all previous iPhones. Which by the sounds of it a lot of people are NOT happy hence why we are on this forum in the first place!

We are not happy because apple advertised and lent hard this year on what the cameras can do, and yet we can’t take a simple photo without having an overall blurry photo on the 1x 24mm, 24MP main camera 🤷🏻🤷🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻 and paid premium 💰 for premium photos and it just sounds like it’s a massive flop!

I guess I’ll wait for IOS 18.3 🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻🤦🏻 and see what happens

I’m really disappointed too after I took a photo, even in the max 48 MP, and zoomed it to find that it’s very low quality. To think that iphone 16 pro max was heavily advertised to have the best camera and hence the best photo taken. It’s also blurry when zoomed. Twas manufactured last Oct 2024 and first used on Dec 11, 2024.😭😭😭

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.

1. Open Camera  on your iPhone.
2. Get close to your subject.
3. When you get within macro distance of your subject,  appears on the screen.
4. Tap  to turn off automatic macro switching.
5. Tip: If the photo or video becomes blurry, you can back up or tap .5x to switch to the Ultra Wide camera.
6. Tap  to turn automatic macro switching back on.

Definitely there is a problem with the IP 16 camera no matter how they try to play it down - now, whether they will be able to fix the issue with software updates or not that is another matter. But one thing is certain next time you buy an iPhone have to test everything. We never think about the camera when we buy a phone but rather look at the other functions. Definitely disappointing from Apple this time. Over 90% of iPhone users just want to open the camera and take a photo or video expecting the camera it will adjust itself they don’t want to go and open to try different settings. But it is what it is for now.

I would be interested in that fix for the focus issue

in researching my wide open aperture issue I came across this iPhone 16 Pro Max camera review

by TONY & CHELSEA NORTHRUP (1.6 million subscribers)

utube: iPhone 16 Pro camera: DISAPPOINTING & MISLEADING

he covers the subject at hand (focus issues)

worth a read, by a professional photographer and factual influencer style

Such an annoying issue. Pretty much all of my pictures over Christmas of family are half blurred. I have pictures of me holding my daughter, I’m in focus and she is blurred.

its crazy. Using the regular camera all with iOS 18.2 and an iPhone 16 pro max.

Alos, I do watch photography and it’s impossible to get the lens to focus. Tried everything - turning on or off marco.

I see this issue even when taking pictures of people.

I will see one persons face in focus and the other persons out of focus.

Took many pictures of the family over christmas. In the vast majority of pics where you have more that one person in the picture, someones face will be blurred/out of focus.

Im not sure why there are people on this thread that are in denial about the issue. We may not all be photography experts, which is exactly why we use the iphone. We want point and shoot photography where we dont see parts of the image, or peoples faces, blurred.

I have iPhone pro max 16 and notice the 24mm lens fusion camera ALWAYS seems to shoot wide open f/1.78 at shutter speeds over 1/2000th second in full daylight:

here is my post with a few more details and example screenshot:

Why is my iPhone Pro Max 16 shooting wide… - Apple Community

the camera focus issues appear to be by APPLE DESIGN and you can bet they are aware of how their camera lenses perform

basic 101:

shooting WIDE OPEN provides least depth of field and the edges typically blur extreme out of focus

this is why photographers stop down when they want to increase edge to edge sharpness in wide angle lenses

if you've ever shot a fast f/1.2 50mm kit lens on a film or digital 35mm SLR style camera you would be amazed how all over the place the focus goes (artistic if you can control it, unusable wide open for a lot of people)

some of the samples I see in the text look like they have some HDR effects going on with at least over sharpening (and you can turn off View Full HDR in your camera settings for more organic preview) -- and the quality of a consumer lens vs the perfect bed of pixels you desire

the HDR effect I am talking about shows a normal preview on the screen then quickly shifts to horrible before your eyes when the HDR preview kicks in -- the actual file isn't horrible, the software showing the preview is

what does Photoshop or Lightroom show at 100 percent actual pixels is what counts...

I linked to an article above, from Apple, that explains the changes in the macro lens and how to take macro photos. Did you read the article and understand the changes and apply them to your photography? Just a simple yes or no question.

Take macro photos and videos with your iPhone camera - Apple Support

Cameras that don’t have interchangeable lens are at a disadvantage. iPhone photographers (and all other smartphone photographers) will have to learn to adapt in changes in the hardware and software every year.

If you’re an old dog (just an expression 😀😀) then don’t learn new tricks. But if you’re willing to learn and adapt to changes, you’ll be very satisfied with the results.

If it’s all about megapixels, here I am shooting a 4x5 film camera with about 800 megapixels.

Promotional picture shot on iPhone XS in 2019 for one of many workshops I taught on 4X5 (large format) photography.

A relatively obscure American photographer of the western United States once said,

“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!”

Ansel Adams

Apple changed what lens is used for macro photos. It used to use the 24mm 1X lens and now it uses the 13mm .5X for macro photos. It requires learning how the new macro works and how you have to adjust settings to optimize your experience. Please review the App support article i linked to below.

Take macro photos and videos with your iPhone camera - Apple Support

In the camera industry camera manufactures, some models are refreshed every year to 18 month, depending on the cost. No one wants their $5000+ camera updated every 12 months. But less expensive models are updated as stated above. If you’re upgrading from a previous model, there is always a learning curve while you adjust to changes in hardware and software.

It seems that smart phone users demand improvements, but don’t want to apply themselves to learn new hardware and software and learn to take advantage of the improvements they demanded.

Learn your equipment via various means such as asking questions here and in more specialized communities on the internet. Larger metropolitan areas offer adult education classes and you can often times hire private tutors for a low rate. If you’re looking for free opportunities, Apple Retail Stores offer free classes and many websites offer free tutorials in the hopes of selling you a membership.

iPhones are evolving and becoming more serious photographic tools. In recent years, with every new model release, you see YouTube videos from dozens, maybe even hundreds, comparing iPhones to cameras costing $100’s and even $1,000’s more than an entire iPhone.

Apple uses computational photography, which is just a name for AI, to make the kinds of images you express a desire for. “We want point and shoot photography where we don't see parts of the image, or peoples faces, blurred.” In order to produce those kinds of images you have to learn how to use the tools that deliver those results. If you want better results, you have to learn to use the options and settings Apple provides.

How much time to you spend learning your new camera? It’s a fair question if you expect to continually get results that meet your expectations. You basically have two choices. Learn your iPhone or learn a separate camera that better meets your expectations. But believe me, I’ve used them all, Pixels, Samsungs and the myriad Chinese offerings. I could purchase any smart I like, but year after year I chose iPhone. In my personal experience, it’s the best smart phone camera available.

iPhones focus, like virtually every other AF camera. They use a method called phase detection AF. The camera analyzes light hitting the lens from different points to determine if the image is in focus; essentially, it compares the light rays from two points on opposite sides of the lens, and when they overlap, the image is considered sharp. It works as follows,

(1) An autofocus processor (AFP) makes a small change in the focusing distance.

(2) AFP reads the AF sensor to assess whether, and by how much, focus has improved.

(3) Using the information from (2), the AFP sets the lens to a new focusing distance.

(4) The AFP may repeat steps 2-3 until satisfactory focus has been achieved.

This entire process is usually completed within a fraction of a second. For difficult subjects, the camera may fail to achieve satisfactory focus and will give up on repeating the above sequence, resulting in failed autofocus. This is the dreaded "focus hunting" scenario where the camera focuses back and forth repeatedly without achieving focus lock. This does not, however, mean that focus is not possible for the chosen subject. Whether and why autofocus may fail is primarily determined by 3 factors.

1. Light – brighter the light, faster and more accurate focus
2. Contrast – the higher the contrast at focus point, faster and more accurate focus
3. Motion – the less motion of camera and/or subject, faster and more accurate focus

Extremely accurate focus can be obtained by combining all three factors, shoot in bright conditions, stop all motion (focus point is consistent), and if high contrast exists at consist and bright focus point, focus is near instant.

Do you have an example to share? It would be especially useful if you included the information data as well.

I see why no one has applied any photos for proof they only allow 5MB photo and even my screenshot of the proof is 14MB 🤦 sorry mate i tried!

Yep seems like it consistently blurry, I have an iPhone 11 Pro Max, 13 Pro, 14 Pro Max and now a 16 Pro Max. I understand that in certain situations you may take a bad photo here and there, but the IP16 Pro Max has been consistent horrid photos since unboxed on the main lens ONLY. (No issues with macro or wide lens)

The issue becomes more prominent when trying to take a photo of a pamphlet / menu / brochure. You get really clear text in the middle of the page but all around on the outside of that it gets worse and worse as it gets closer to the edges, and blurrier and blurrier.

Unfortunately I had to shrink the screenshot as it only allows to upload 5MB so it actually looks a lot worse in full quality as you zoom in on the phone, but this is consistent on the iP16 and I only noticed because i had to fill in a few values on a spreadsheet and when i zoomed in to the photo with the values i noticed how bad they look and kept re-taking the photo and kept having the same issue...... although when previewing and as you are about to take the photo, it seems to be ok, it is only after you take the photo and go back to have a look at it, you realise how blurry and bad the photo actually is.

Here are some examples when zoomed in between the iP11, 13, 14 and 16:

Last photo comparison from me today taken with 4 separate phones, sorry for the boring photos, but these are the photos I need to take for work hence how I found how terrible the main lens is on the iP16PM. This is not just a "one off", this is consistently bad and blurry every time especially the clarity around text is where it is most viable. starts off amazing quality right in the middle of the page / menu/ pamphlet/ brochure and then gets worse and worse as it moves towards the edges. Even the iP14 wasn't the greatest in these comparisons which i have made but iP16 is just trash.

Please see below: