How to Fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Camera Focus Issue

Did you read my prior reply from several days ago, where I stated I suspect you have a defect in the 1X zoom? i still suspect that. This may be something that can be remotely diagnosed but you may need to upload images (not the ones you’ve been sharing) or visit an Apple Retail Store. Other people that are having issue need to step up and share images so I can determine the issue.

This whole notion that it’s all about auto and not being experienced photographers is not the issue. The average person takes pictures of sunsets, family, pets, vacations and trips to Disney Land. Average photos on auto look good, if not great. If anyone wants to trouble shot the issue, I’ll help.

I’ll post it tonight. I setup a more standardized test and we can use it to compare sharpness and other lens related issues. But my honest opinion from what I’ve seen so far is a defective lens/camera.

Yeah sweet, well there’s the thing I have been to apple basically not even a week after the iPhone 16 has been released with this issue, and they have acknowledged that it takes blurry photos, but then they compared it with another workers iPhone 15 pro and that had the same issue! And they also tried a demo iPhone 16 off the shop floor and that was the same!

and basically the worker didn’t know what to do so he said just give feedback to apple (which I did) but I had no replies, and I can’t even attach any photos on the feedback section so I’m not even sure if they have received the feedback because I haven’t seen any reply.

so at the end of it, it was down to let’s see if any further iOS Updates solve the issue. So here we are, I’m a bit worried that it’s across all lenses if the workers iP15 pro had the same issue and a demo iPhone 16 pro also had the same issue….

and when I started researching about blurry photos I came across this forum. Hopefully Apple sees this forum! 😅

Let us know how you go with the apple tech support! Everyone having the same issue, I also have to take close up / non-blurry photos for work and so I’m stuck using the iP13 pro, AND I have iOS18.2 installed now and it hasn’t fixed it on my phone. I also have the iPhone 11 Pro Max, 12 mini, 12 pro max, 13 Pro, 14 pro max, and now 16 pro max, and I had no issue over the years only this year. I skipped the 15 but like I said I went into apple and a worker had the 15 pro and took a photo with his 15 and had the same blurriness issue when zooming in! And I think this is because apple hasn't made major changes to the lenses between 15 and 16! From

what im hearing from reviewers on YouTube, but I might be wrong!

[Edited by Moderator]

So ultimately I hope were now on the same page because were going around in circles, there is now enough examples and evidence on this forum from myself, so if you can replicate this Jeff, to see if you are having the same issue that would be great. A news paper is not too good for this comparison, you need to get something that more consistent, like I said A4, preferably black text on white paper, razor sharp text, where its easy to see where and how the smudge / blurriness begins and where the text stays sharp.

I also now think there might be an issue with iPhone 16 picking up creases, bumps and folds in the A4 sheet / pamphlet / menu, maybe that's why it taking sharp photo of certain texts but not all texts. So maybe it is doing something with the Depth of field? I'm not sure but anyways like i said this is not just a "one off" instance, this is now consistent where the iPhone 16s take smudgy and blurry photos. and when you zoom in, it looks a lot worse.

I’ve owned iPhone 6, 6S, 7, X, XS, 11Pro, 12 PM, 13PM, 14PM, 15PM and 16 PM. For general photography, I’d rank the 16 Pro’s the best camera.

If you’re having quality issues, create your own thread. This thread is mostly about close up photography and not general scenics.

Yeah so this is what I’m saying you’re having the same issue as us then, maybe not as bad as some of my examples, if I compare your 12MP on with the exact photo of the 24MP one the 12MP is as it should be way sharper, no issues compared to then the 24MP photo you have provided.

So you have the exact same issue as all of us but it doesn’t look as bad, but I can definitely see some blurry text. Did you take these with a tripod? Just trying to figure out why your 24MP looks better than my 24MP photos!

Yes this is correct, I also went into apple a week after the iPhone 16 launched with the issue and they tried to compare with another workers iPhone 15 pro and another iPhone 16 pro on the shop floor. They compared all 3 phones and they all had blurry text, basically saying “this is normal because the lenses have changed on the iPhone 15 and 16s”. And I’m like “well I guess I’ll just have to take blurry photos from now on 💁🏻🤦🏻 or have 2 phones on me all the time to take good photo from my other iPhone”…. How does that even make sense. 🤦🏻. The only way to get sharper text is to take it with the 2x zoom which means taking the photo from further, but this means it takes it with the 12MP camera and not the 24MP 🤦🏻 so the 24MP is useless at close ups. Not sure how it is for other photos I haven’t tried yet, but for closeups and for what I need to capture for work it’s useless 😒😒😒

So realistically this is not a fix, this is just a work around and an inconvenience to take it with the 2x zoom as you have to take the shot from further away, harder to get a good shot when zoomed in, etc…. Inconvenience 😒 so over it, paid way too much 💰 for having to carry 2 phones with me 😒😒😒

The 24 MP is the 1X 24mm lens. It’s not designed for closeup or macro. The 13mm is the .5X 13mm ultra wide which is designed for closeup up and macro. The 13mm is f/2.2 and provides more DoF than 24mm.

Best quality closeup will be 13mm ProRaw Max so you get 48 megapixels and then convert to jpeg or HEIF depending on your needs. Mount on tripod and add light to get shutter to at least 1/60 second shutter speed, but might be a little sharper.

Some third party apps will shoot ProRaw Max and jpeg at same time so you don’t have to convert 48 megapixel files.

Unfortunately, what you want to do is flat art work, menus etc. A lens corrected for flat field reproduction is what’s needed for corner to corner sharpness. But nothing like that exists for iPhones. The 13mm focuses closer than the other lenses, but exhibits distortion, especially in the corners, which is typical of all ultra wide lenses.

The corner distortion and decreased corner sharpness is not very noticeable in typical user closeups and macros shots like flowers, insects, pets etc. So, average users may never notice. But this is about what I’d expect from small sensor digital cameras like cell phones.

I totally agree with you bud, i wouldn’t say this issue is fixed, i would just say use the 2x zoom for now to take close up photos which aren’t blurry, hopefully they fix this with further updates so we can go back to the same way of taking close up photos like we have always been doing on the 1x zoom. Until then I might start doing the same, buy the new iPhone and try it straight away and see if it has the same issue first, if it isn’t fixed just return it and go with a Samsung galaxy instead, might be the year to switch, anyways all phones have plateaued they can all do everything nowadays anyways, especially if the cameras are better and can take a simple shot without being blurry. I already advised a mate not to buy the iPhone 16, he asked me if they were any good he is still on iPhone 13 Pro Max, I said don’t bother and I explained what’s going on and he was like “yeah, no chance not paying all this money for blurry photos” so yeah💁🏻

Apple iPhone cameras always shoot wide open because they do not have an aperture. Edges are blurred because the 1X and .5X are wide angle lenses and typically suffer from barrel distortion. The use of lens profiles and AI help with minimizing the distortion.

Looking at images at 100% (1:1) is pointless unless printing very large. If critical image quality is needed for small display mediums requires editing specifically for the viewing size etc.

Jeff Donald

>>Apple iPhone cameras always shoot wide open because they do not have an aperture.

thanks, that was news to me (I will add it to my search, it will make it easy to confirm and update my previous link)

Jeff Donald

>>Looking at images at 100% (1:1) is pointless unless printing very large

now that's a comment I would recommend someone does their own research about before baking that into their basic understanding of digital image production

my spin:

if you want to see what your lens is doing (without all the automatic ((over)) processing) shoot RAW or LOG -- open your RAW images in Photoshop or Lightroom (with color management on) and check it out on a hardware-profiled monitor at 100 percent Actual Pixels -- import your LOG clips into Final Cut or an app like DaVinci and view at full resolution with highest quality preview setting...

Worthless review. It was a comparison of iPhone 16 Pro vs. Sony $5,000+ USD camera. His review was of Apple’s marketing more than the quality of images.

His point about the digital zoom losing quality is accurate, don’t zoom, unless you absolutely have to. But the majority of his testing is flawed. A waste of my 15 minutes, but confirms my opinion of Tony Northrop.

No, my experience will speak for itself. His review was worthless in troubleshooting a focus issue. How many 16X20 images do have hanging on your walls of resolution test charts? I have none. Pixel Peepers and gear heads are concerned with test charts and 1:1 images.

Joe McNally has a great saying,

“Novices and beginners worry about the equipment, hobbyists and advanced users worry about composition, pro’s worry about the money, and the true masters and artists worry about the light.”