Hi,
I took some low light footage on my iPhone 11 pro and it turns out useless because of how much lens flare is visible. It doesn't happen on other phones or digital cameras. The footage looks really bad. Here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kCu9v7_AGE
iPhone 11 Pro
I recommend contacting Apple support. I called right away after I noticed it, was on the phone for 10 minutes, was offered 4 different options;
I have a local Best Buy in town where I live, so I went in the next day and had them run through their procedures with diagnostic tools and checks, then proceed telling me I could either drive to an Apple store who had the part (2 hour drive) or wait a week for him to order the part. Week passed, got my phone in, took about an hour, presto, new camera setup, much better results.
If you can, definitely do #2 and get the new lens it is by far the best option. I wouldn't do #4 because you could get a refurbished one (which isn't acceptable for an investment like this to get a used item) that likely never had its lens replaced.
Best of Luck
I had the camera replaced. Works fine now. You have to keep lens wiped off though.
This was not my experience. My camera was bad and the replacement fixed my issues.
My camera was swapped out and it helped. Even if you have a case on the lenses will get smuged.
not an option, seems like they're aware of this problem at apple it only happens when capturing flashy/strobing carnaval/fair type of lights! replacing the camera won't do much, the cameras were manufactured all the same, the reflection/flare issue is not present in any other scenario!
I had a decent meet and great at the Apple Store today after setting up a support ticket for this issue. The gentlamn I met with was very nice and also had an iPhone 11 pro. I showed him the issue with the lense flares and reflections and initally he said was not aware. He then looked at his own phone and observed the issue. As to the replacement of the camera only he related that this is not possible. The glass back is one piece including the camera and he related to me that if an iPhone is brought in for a cracked glass back for instance the whole phone is replaced. In regards to "bacthes" their were mutltipe "batches" produced before the release of the device so no first or second is even possible to track. Sadly there is no fix at this point until it is recognized by Apple as an issue and they create a recall for this faulty design flaw.
They're not "issues," they are normal for complex lens designs and this is considered "minimal" lens flare for such lenses.
Again, photography site DXOMARK stated:
The Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max camera generally controls image artifacts very well, which is why the device achieves a high score in this category. When viewing images at full size, some ringing can be visible along high-contrast edges, but it’s usually not too intrusive. Our testers also found flare artifacts in a small number of our sample images, such as in the shot below, but the iPhone generally controls flare well.
(DXOMARK is not paid by Apple.)
If you have designed something better, please give Apple, Google or Samsung a call - I'm sure any of them would love to send you a big check for your massive advancement in optical design, especially to use it on an exclusive basis and beat the other two companies.
If you have an issue with it, I've already given you the solution, and that is to return or sell your phone and purchase something else, as you're never going to be happy with whichever member of the iPhone 11 family you own.
If you want to avoid it, stop taking photos in conditions guaranteed to induce lens flare with any complex lens design.
Those are conditions that would induce lens flare on any lens, even a $10,000 lens for a DSLR.
Here are some suggestions from third-party sites as to how to avoid it:
The fact that, Apple changed my lens for free is indicating that they acknowledge the flare is too much. I showed them the same pictures. Why is it so hard to admit that Apple's flare and ghost image are way too much compared to Android competitors.
Yes, strong light will provide flare or ghost image. But the thing is that iPhone produces way too much compared to NORMAL amount of flares.
[Edited by Moderator]
A new phone will not fix the issue unfortunately. In my case I had the camera replaced at first and after showing them evidence that the "problem" persisted they gave me a new phone, which still does the same exact thing. I use lens flare for creative purposes all the time, but this is by no means pretty, let alone the ghosting during nighttime videos. I've obviously seen flaring on other non-apple phones but up to this point none of them was able to bug me enough to prompt a post on this forum. At this point it seems like we'll be using our hands as lens hoods for a while.
Just keep messaging tech Youtubers until one of them responds, maybe that'll help bring it to Apple's attention :/
The article linked from that site is one of the best explanations I've read:
Photography Life: Understanding Lens Flare
Which includes this photo, showing similar lens flare artifacts being induced in the Nikon 70-200m f2.8G VR, which has an MSRP of $2099.95:
I want acknowledgment of the issue as much as the rest of the community, but lots of flare is fixable by fixing exposure levels.
Yes, there is excessive flaring on iPhones, but this isn’t new, iPhones back to the 7 have similar complaints by customers if you do a little nose diving around the internet. The 11 from images I’ve seen looks marginally worse then previous generations.
There are several possibilities for why we are experiencing these issues, including
These are a few of the points I’ve seen around the community and from Apple support.
You and I had our lenses swapped out, you claim it eliminated the issue, I claim the counter. A few others have commented and said they got a replacement lens and didn’t see a difference. So far I haven’t seen evidence of similar circumstances and no flare.
To anyone experiencing this issue. Find an area you can come back to, take a before and after image of being repaired, and post the results.
Me to....sigh. Low light shooting is why I bought it. I’m so disappointed. Nobody really reported on it except Popular Photography. They said it’s a by product of have a bunch of lenses too close together. https://www.popphoto.com/iphone-11-pro-camera-review/
While some is user error, it's mostly just a limitation of the device thanks to properties of physics and optics when dealing with a camera lens this small and this size of imaging sensor.
For example, the "green dot" flare is an issue with most every smart phone camera, and has been present on iPhone models since at least the iPhone 7.
The first things I'd try:
Right now, I wouldn't do anything for the phone. I purchased a new phone at the release. I had extreme light flare. They wanted to replace the cameras and I was very upset so I called Apple. Apple sent me a refurbished phone and replacement for my new phone. It's still had the same problem, I asked them to switch it for a new phone and they said OK go to the store But the store would not do it. Instead, they replace the lens. I have no improvement with the photos, MI happened to be really bad if there is a light source nearby I have no improvement with the photos, my happened to be really bad if there is a light source nearby. When I took all of these photos, I made sure the lens was clean and there was no issues. In addition, I did the Apple firmware update that was supposed to help with this issue.
In addition, the reflection of the light in the lenses in the video is horrible. If you watch this video, I was taking the camera in a minute down word and zooming in to try to get rid of the reflection. But as you see me tracker person in this video, the light gets worse and worse. in addition, the reflection of the light in the lenses in the video is horrible. If you watch this video, I was taking the camera and hanging it down word and zooming in to try to get rid of the reflection. But as you see me track a person that is a protester in this video, the light gets worse and worse.
even last weekend, I was taking a picture and the light for it was horrible and I could not avoid it.
But if you take pictures with there's no light, the camera works beautifully.
I did note another thing, if you check your cameras and look at your phone, look at your lens, make sure the sun is shining on it, look at the lenses, there is like a double reflection in the lens causing this. You can see how the light enters the lines, we flex into different layers and shoots back into the lens which causes this issue .
if I were to do it all over again, I would contact apple, create a case, show them the distorted images then leave the case open and tell them that you want the phone fixed or replaced one they fix the issue.
right now, Apple says to me, this is the way the phone is and we're not gonna do anything else for you. We find this acceptable.
I don't think at this time anyone's going to get satisfactory results due to the reflections in the lenses.
Iphone 11 Pro Extreme lens flare
