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iPhone 11 Pro Max Camera issues

So my iPhone 11 Pro Max camera has an issue straight out of the box. The camera is blurry. It is so bad that my iPhone 6 could take better photos. Using the telephoto lense makes it even worse. It looks like you're watching standard cable. It's fuzzy. The ultrawide does the same thing. Leaving it at 1x helps but it still doesn't like right. Tapping to focus doesn't help. The photos my phone is taking are definitely not what I saw on the keynote. It looks terrible. Also, the interface is just bad. It's hard to use. Also, night mode reveals just how bad the camera is. For a Pro iPhone, I don't believe this deserves "Pro" in it's name. Or it's hefty price.


[Edited by Moderator]

Posted on Sep 21, 2019 5:07 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 22, 2019 8:00 AM

I’m having the same problem to. I have the 11 and the camera looks like it’s an android. i’m so confused. I still have my X and I took pics on both and my X takes better pictures. I hope it’s a big problem and now how the camera really is.

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Nov 26, 2019 7:49 AM in response to lobsterghost1

I'm not sure if I'm experiencing the same issue as discussed in this thread but I did some comparisons between my old Pixel 3a and my new iPhone 11 and the front camera seems to be much worse and blurry on the 11 (have a look at the fence or tree branches and maybe open the images in another tab for full size). Selfies are looking pretty sharp but outdoor photos definitely have less detail even though the iPhone front camera has 12MP whereas the Pixel only has 8MP. I have a really tiny dust particle inside the front camera lens. But that can only be seen with a bright flashlight and from a specific viewing angle. Hard to imagine that this would cause such effect. Do you think I should contact Apple about this?


iPhone 11



Pixel 3a


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Dec 3, 2019 8:17 PM in response to lobsterghost1

It is a wide angle pic with my iPhone 11 Pro Max


then the same pic with wide angle lens of my Huawei phone



I don’t need to say anything more. If you still say there is nothing wrong with the 11 Pro Max camera I will be surprised. The iPhone 3 times more expensive than the other phone. I like iOS 13 but this camera is just simple poor.

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Dec 4, 2019 3:18 PM in response to lobsterghost1

Ok, so you think users cause the reflection issue. Please explain this::

iPhone 11 Pro Max pic


Same pic from my Huawei:


No sign of any reflection on the other phone pic. It is tested in various situations and iPhone had flare on most night time pic. Other phones had nothing similar.

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Dec 6, 2019 1:30 PM in response to janos209

This is exactly the problem I have been trying to point out. The fact that you took both of these photos and don't see why the iPhone photo has an issue is an example of what is wrong. These photos are NOT taken of the exact same thing. Please stop framing photos in a way that makes it impossible for the iPhone to take a good photo and then producing it here as evidence. I feel like even if we purposely framed photos poorly and correctly and showed how the same iPhone can take really bad and really great photos depending on how they are framed that some people would still not believe it.

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Dec 6, 2019 6:15 PM in response to frankxiv


That's the Huawei pic again. Focus on the wall. No flare. I took back my 11 Pro Max to Apple. I'm very happy with the Huawei. It was my first and last iPhone. The Huawei flagship phone was 1/3 of the price of the Pro Max. So if I break it three times it will cost me the same. The camera was just one issue. The bugs in the software. The poor coverage just extra. To ask £1500 for a phone with these issues is a joke.

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Dec 7, 2019 6:44 AM in response to willson129

I think that this is normal with current phones. Did some comparisons with my Pixel 3a and this shows almost the same reflections. Maybe the iPhone a little bit more but this could be due to camera characteristics (size of lens cover glass etc). Especially really bright light sources like LEDs are causing this.


Pixel test shot:


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Dec 7, 2019 9:02 AM in response to lobsterghost1

I have been a very advanced photographer since 1963, when I bought my first SLR. I paid $400 (plus $100 for a f/1.4 50mm normal lens) for the original Pentax Spotmatic. It was billed as the world's first automatic SLR because the mirror did not have to be manually moved out of the way.


From Full Frame film SLRs, I moved to FF digital SLRs which eventually became heavy for me as I aged so I first transferred to crop-frame digital SLRs and then mini-crop frame SLRs and finally, all I use now is my iPhone XR.


Below are samples of my shots. I defy anyone to identify which camera was used for which photos.










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Dec 10, 2019 2:01 AM in response to lobsterghost1

The dreadful composition is irrelevant, it’s how the phone handles light, I agree, this is a bad example... so how about this (and I know, it’s not a great shot, but with prior phones, I never had this issue) the point is to show the reflection... look at the sky, look at all the UFOs. Lol. This is ridiculous.

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Dec 10, 2019 6:04 AM in response to Rhettster152

Also have issues with my iPhone 11 Pro camera that I preordered in September. And no it's not normal since Apple also agreed that this is not normal and accepted my phone for a replacement. I just hope that all first batch phones are sold out and I get a newer one...


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Dec 15, 2019 8:31 PM in response to Fischerfritz

First, is it the 2x camera or the ultra-wide camera that you are having issues with? They are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum. The ultra-wide camera is the 0.5x camera.


Second, you keep talking about the poor results from the ultra-wide camera and how you used to get so much better results on your iPhone 7. Your iPhone 7 did not have an ultra-wide camera. So why do you think comparing photos taken by this brand new ultra-wide camera that does not have the capabilities of the camera on your iPhone 7 is valid? The camera on your iPhone 7 is a better camera than the ultra-wide camera on your iPhone 11. The camera on your iPhone 7 IS NOT a better camera than the wide angle camera on your iPhone 11.


Third, yes that is lens flare in your photo of the Pisa tower. This is not the fault of the camera. If you had simply moved a little or turned the camera so that the giant bright light was not in the frame, you would probably have been able to remove the flare.


I actually saw an example of this today so I snapped both photos so that I could share them in this thread. These two photos are taken of the exact same area. I just moved slightly to remove the flare. Just to be clear, I am not sharing these as a demonstration of awesome photos. I actually snapped these just to use for this example because I thought it would be instructive to show that the appearance of lens flare can be mitigated by how we frame our subjects.



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Dec 24, 2019 10:22 PM in response to Travis4270

Sorry to hear that! My iphone x does a better job at pics then my 11pro. I’ve bought all my iphones out right including this one. $1000 is by no means cheap. Heck $1000 more and i could me another lg oled e8 tv or another alienware new m15 oled rtx 2070 i9700k. At this price i expect for certain thing to be on point. Im willing to ride it out though and see where this takes me. Ima take some pics real quick with my x and then 11pro. For now heres pics of my 11pro. Sometimes it looks stunning! Then alot of times washed out.

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Dec 24, 2019 10:44 PM in response to Ducatiboy899

Iphone x pics first then 11 pro. The x gives me more accurate colors. The pro seems to lighten/ whiten things. Im not sure if the auto adjust has something to do with it or not. A lot of times the pro is really obviously worse but by no means its not garbage but I'm hoping they can get it better.

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Jan 4, 2020 12:08 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

I agree completely. In fact, we went away for Christmas this year and my DSLR for the first time I've ever gone on a trip, staid home in it's camera bag. The photos I captured, even night ones with very bright lights were stunning, to say the least. I believe you saw some of them I posted?


Here are just two examples, one during the day, one at night:



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Jan 4, 2020 4:11 PM in response to Rhettster152

Posting this to see if anyone has had the same issue with the iPhone 11 Pro Max.


The camera is amazing when it comes to pictures in natural light! But when I want to use my flash, the pictures become a problem.


When I was on a night out last week I took a few pictures with the flash and every photo was terrible! The picture was far too bright and everyone’s faces were white with black eyes. I previously had an iPhone 8 Plus and whenever I took pictures with flash on a night out, the quality was perfect!


I took a photo with flash and the camera is zoomed at 0.9x zoom and another at 1x zoom. 0.9x produces a far better picture which is clearer and also better lighting than the 1x zoom. How can this be possible? Surely it should be worse. Every flash image on this phone is poor.


Does anyone else have this issue?


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iPhone 11 Pro Max Camera issues

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