Iphone 11 Pro Extreme lens flare

Well I guess that is the answer. It’s our fault. We are just terrible photographers. We don’t understand advanced photographic techniques. People should have known that when they bought their phones (phones that Apple sells to people whose only experience with photography is shooting images with a phone). Problem solved.

You’re trying to be snarky and sarcastic but that’s basically the situation, except I wouldn’t say “terrible,” I’d say “inexperienced.”

If you and a professional painter both walk into a paint store and buy the same wall paint and brushes, you will very likely achieve very different results, but not because you are a “terrible” painter, just an inexperienced one.

That doesn’t mean you can’t get wonderful results after a little training, and the same is true for photography and videography with an iPhone 12.

And that’s the point. I don’t shoot pictures on photographic equipment that is flare free. Veil flares are common, but a lens hood or shielding the lens with your hand solves that problem. Green dots and ghosting and as like to call them, dancing ghosts when shooting a video, are something completely different. And yes I expect my 12 MP to be as good as my 6+ did with handling flare.

I was hoping I wouldn't feel compelled to chime in again on this subject but it pains me to see so many users being misled about the real issues with the iPhone Pro camera's limitations. Those green orbs/dots and floating artifacts (call it ghosting) are NOT what the nice folks defending Apple here would have you believe is predictable, 'traditional' and expected "Lens Flare."

YES, almost all cameras and lens systems will produce lens flare when shooting towards high key lighting sources (like the sun). BUT what us iPhone Pro & MP users are frustrated with are the more defined, easily created in many lighting environments, harder edge orbs and floating artifacts that all too often blemish the captured images and videos.

I've been waving my sword at the Apple Tech windmill since 2019 regarding this technical issue and have gotten absolutely nowhere. Hope for improvements or elimination of the glitches in 2020 or 2021 never materialized.

For the record, I have been in the graphic arts since the early '70's and continue to work to this day as a Creative Director, ad agency owner and also a freelance photojournalist. I wish Apple success in solving this problem.

Hi DogCow: Well perhaps we'll have to agree to disagree. You can categorize these iPhone optic anomalies as "lens flare." I'm not going to argue that – or anything else in this forum. That is a futile exercise.

I've embedded a YouTube link to a little video I shot with my then new iPhone 11Pro back in December of 2019. This is when I first noticed the unexpected bouncing "flipped & inverted" ghost image of the Christmas carriage's lit pumpkin shape. You can begin to see this as the carriage approaches and more easily as the carriage passes and heads down the street. Since I am not the technical expert that some on this forum purport to be, I took the phone to the technical pro at the Apple store in Santa Barbara, CA. He was as surprised as I was and recommended we change out the phone; something wasn't right he felt with my phone.

Three replacement phones later I realized these are the results I am going to get with the latest iPhone camera technology.

As I mentioned Moof, I am not looking to argue with you. My office is filled with Apple products and gear; I've been a Pro user since the iici Apple computer. I'm just hoping that the brilliant engineers at Apple (or any competitor) solves the problem. The iPhone is indeed an amazing device – but it's far from perfect. Neither am I.

All the best.

It is a manufacturing defect. Mine was swapped out and is now fine.

Saying "Please help us" here literally accomplishes nothing, as this is a forum to seek help from other Apple users.

Contact Apple directly here:

Contact - Official Apple Support

You can contact Apple Support if you like, but the photos here for the most part show normal operation of the phone.

Contact - Official Apple Support

Mimifangs wrote:

Yes JimP, I had an iPhone 7 till last year and I actually much prefer the camera on that, it had zero lens flare.

Then how do you explain this thread?

Lens Flare on iPhone 7 camera

• Canon Asia: Lens FAQ #4: What is “ghosting” and “flaring”?
• Photography Life: Understanding Lens Flare
• Nikon: Why can I see ghost reflections in my image?
• Lightstalking: How To Reduce Lens Flare

Once again, then:

• If it's been less than 14 days since your purchase, return it for a full refund
• If it's ben more than 14 days since your purchase, sell it and purchase something else

• Wikipedia: Lens Flare
• Cambridge Colour: Understanding Camera Lens Flare

see the huge lens flare?!? I’m a photographer and upgraded to this phone bc of the camera. I am not pleased.

Here you can see how dramatic mine was.