Iphone 11 Pro Extreme lens flare

Forbes has had a beef with Apple for several years. If you use Forbes as a resource, they are highly negatively biased. I have updated to iOS 13.3 without any issues whatsoever. And iOS 13.2 included some camera upgrades and fixes. If you are not updating and you are having issues, you would be advised to update.

Dear William,

Part of my curriculum I studied optics physics but this was years back and I have never gone back to the equations except last year when trying to re-calculate the curvature radius of a convex rear view mirror for a vintage racing car... But that was different to our discussion today.

1) It seems that you may have mixed up anti-reflective coated lenses with polariser lenses... please confirm.

2) Wikipedia Quote: “Anti-reflective coatings are used in a wide variety of applications where light passes through an optical surface, and low loss or low reflection is desired. Examples include anti-glare coatings on corrective lenses and camera lens elements, and antireflective coatings on solar cells.“

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-reflective_coating

3) You wrote: “On lenses this size....” Why mentioning the size ? What do you mean exactly ? What have these lenses diameters _ note these have black masks to adjust their respective effective diameters hence could be even larger _ to do with light transmission ? To which optical phenomenon or law are you making reference to ?

Identical issues from the competitors should not really be used as a justification given that Apple used to be at the design & innovations’ forefront of and do systematically better... hence benchmarking against others was always questionable. Has Apple so drastically changed that it now trails behind and just does same as others ? I hope not although it more and more seems so...

And why not mitigate flare & ghosting by design from the start especially that it is relatively easy to do ?

It's not easy to do.

Apple is up agains the limitations of optics, electronics and general physics.

If you believe the issue is easy to mitigate, design a camera system with the issue solved and become very wealthy.

I think you’re glossing over the part where I states the iPhone 11 flares worse than any other phone, going all the way back to the iPhone 6s.

We expect phones to improve with each iteration — if a phone is worse in any regard, reviewers should be mentioning that.

Doubly so with this one, considering it is more expensive than the other competitors, and is being presented as a more professional content creation tool.

I have posted a number of photos in this thread. NONE with flare (but as I said, I'm pretty capable with a camera) and many taken in low light with bright lights. ALL are much better than any pictures I've taken on any iPhone (including my Xs Max) before my iPhone 11 Pro Max. It is, at least for me, a much better "content creation tool."

Apple phones are more expensive than Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and Google Pixel to list just the main ones... And we dint look at specs for specs of course as whilst Apple offers the Pro with 64Gb I wonder which other manufacturer proposes its flagship with same...

I’d be very curious to learn your technique to film this light fixture without creating a flare, considering it is present in a myriad of different shots on many different phones. I’d be happy to post the video for your critique of my skill.

It’s the “you’re holding it wrong” mentality — Apple products aren’t infallible, and there’s nothing wrong with pointing out their weaknesses so people can decide if they’ll work for their needs.

Good one Apple. This is when you know that these videos are not actually shot on iPhone 11 Pro

https://youtu.be/gsECm0kpLT0?t=60

EDIT: I'll probably go to Apple Store with my iPhone and some sparklers, show them this video, record my own and laugh when they say that this is expected...

Apple what happened?

I can’t take a descent video or photo without battling with the huge flare.

By night or in low light situations I really appreciate the improvements... and I understand and can live with the fact that there is still a lot of work to make it perfect.

But in a "normal" setup, by day, in my living room (for example), I cannot accept such issues... glares, flares and some other aberrations are ruining the experience and pleasure of taking pictures or videos. I know that is the complete opposite of you modo... what happened?

Here is a quick video of the constant glare/flare while shooting:

https://youtu.be/LeRorAdQFyk

any fixes in project?

Thank you for that @rbrylawsky... As you can see I’m kinda new here...

nevertheless it doesn’t change my point of view. After a few searches on the web, I see that it is quite a common issue. I really hope Apple will address it.

(Thanks again for explaining)

Apple wants you to share photos taken in night mode. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/01/share-your-best-iphone-night-mode-photos/

Everyone who has lens issues, let's send them our beautiful photos.

You have to submit your photos on shotoniphone@apple.com using this file format "firstname_lastname_nightmode_iPhonemodel"

EDIT: No joke, I mean it.

They would if there was anything to fix.

However, given that for most they are working correctly, you’ll be waiting a long time for a fix for something that is normal.

You can either accept that, and purchase something else, or continue to clean complain here, though in that case nothing will actually change for you.

Spens your time and energy however you see fit.

I can do whatever I want and wherever I want. More people complain in discussion forums => more people will see and go complain to apple with this issues => more people go to apple => apple finally start doing something. Don't worry about me, I can wait, even if they fix issues through iPhone 12, it's worth it.

Apple will not do anything based on history, but they might try to make it better in the next iPhone. Really this isn’t Apples fault since Sony is the manufacture of the sensors, but no one takes that into account.