Iphone 11 Pro Extreme lens flare

With all due respect, a higher resolution sensor has strictly nothing to do with the issue of flare and/or ghosting.

Where did you fetch such science ? What are your references ? Are you improvising by any chance ?

Flare and ghosting are due to the light reflexivity potential of optical elements surfaces, the number of these elements, their shapes, the light intensity, angle and imaging contrast context. The sensor is also considered as an optical element although incident light does not pass through but may be reflected from it if it lacks the appropriate coating. The anti-reflective coating on both sides of each optical element is critical to be able to mitigate the flare & ghosting phenomenons...

I’m not arguing that the camera is bad. The angle of the light source determines where the reflection lands—so shooting it dead on can obscure it. That said, as a photographer, shooting every light source dead-on would be absurdly limiting.

For video, it’s not even possible — camera movement necessitates that the angle of the light will change, as seen in the video I shot.

I’m not sharing this information to beat up on Apple — the positive qualities of this camera are the sole reason I upgraded from my XS. I’m sharing it so that people know that this issue is innate to the phone, and to some extent all phones, and that they shouldn’t waste their time trying to get replacements.

But this is camera lens physics and isn't any different on ANY camera. My expensive Nikon DSLR with a nearly $2K lens produces lens flare as easily as a cell phone. People's expectations that Apple has somehow defeated physics on these new phones is honestly bizarre and completely unrealistic to me.

Interesting, I have never ever had such types of lens flare / ghosting whilst using my Canon point & shoot S90 camera nor my Sony A7R2 camera with Zeiss lenses even when taking pictures of illuminated christmas trees, etc...

The issue is more or less prevalent function of the optical system, sensor, light and light angle... What is said here is that the iPhone 11 series are excessively prone to flare and ghosting when compared to most camera systems hence it is very much inferior to average in this respect.

I was taking pictures the other day, I was on top of the mountain and I couldn't avoid the flares, as you know that i've had the worst luck with The iPhone 11 Pro Max, new phone, refurbished phone And the refurbished phone phone the lens replaced. I'll probably from the original release. https://youtu.be/HAUb-gKR34A

With that said, I got this big lens flare and I'm trying to get this beautiful Sunset over the mountain. I looked at my lenses, and I couldn't believe with the sun, the layers of reflections within the lens, it was ridiculous and there was no way to avoid it.

I decided to try to duplicate it, and show all of the reflections within one lens, I use my iPad to take a picture of my phone to try to capture the reflections.

This photo doesn't do it justice but the layers of reflection within the len is not only causing lens flare but it also causes Green artifacts on some of the photos.

The reflections are multi dimensional, and any light coming through my lens will cause an anomaly on my photos. As long as there's no light sources near the scene I'm taking, I'm getting perfect pictures.

The reflections are multi dimensional, and any light coming through my lens will cause an anomaly on my photos. As long as there's no light sources near the scene I'm taking, I'm getting perfect pictures.

I wish there was a workaround to prevent this, if our using my professional camera, I would have a lens hood to block the lighting from reflecting on my lenses.

I never have these problems with my iPhone X. This phone is just hypersensitive to any light noise.

The service centre didn’t accept my phone and she told me that it’s an expected behaviour. She showed me the same effect on all the iPhone 11s that they had there.

I don’t think there is anything else left to say about this issue (more of a characteristic now). Now that I’m looking through my gallery, I barely have any photo/video with flare. Now that I’m aware of this, I can try to avoid it in my photos by changing my position and for the videos, I usually take videos in daylight and outdoor, so I’m not gonna see any flares there.

I’m gonna leave this forum once and for all! I hope you do too!

Cheers ;)

Hi everyone, i'd like to report also my experience and actions taken. I also noticed the issues with my Iphone 11 Pro 256 GB Midnight Green Smartphone. By now the 3rd repair / exchange try is being conducted and i have not so much hope that Apple by now will fix the issue to my satisfaction. First repair was a swap of phone by my Media Markt Germany, second was a camera exchange by Apple Germany / Europe in the repair center in Czech Republic. The result and some comparisson picture here beneath:

PS: Lense Flare / Issue of internal camera reflections is apparant on normal and zoom camera, however not on wide angle lens.

PPS: If you tap the focus on the lights, the lens flare is not as bad as in auto focus, though the picture will turn out darker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTyuROhbNEg

PPPS: Informed consumer protection authorities to make them monitor for now

3rd Iphone 11 Pro 256GB Midnight Green (German or European Edition) Pictures in Night Mode / or dark scene without Night Mode in comparisson to one year old Huawei Mate 20 Pro with Tripple Leica Lenses:

I see this issue as fairly simple and straightforward to address: Replacement of the lens covers with some lens covers treated with the appropriate anti-reflective coatings.

Interestingly enough, this evening I have tested a Huawei P20 against the same identical light source, in the very same place, as I did with my iPhone 11 Pro. The verdict is interesting:

iPhone 11 Pro: Severe ghosting and whilst changing the angle it is possible to get the ghosting almost anywhere on the picture.

Huawei P20: I did not manage to obtain the ghosting image.

Upon close examination the Huawei lenses covers are anti-reflective coated. The two top lenses coating show a greenish hue when reflecting light on these whilst the lower lens anti-reflective coating shows a blueish / purple hue... Tomorrow I shall see which lens is what as it may mean that the type of anti-reflective coating is optimised for each lens aperture...

Also, the lenses from Huawei are branded Leica which is a highly reputable optical company. It means that the design of the camera optical system was either made or endorsed by Leica which is a guarantee of optical quality. Sony uses Zeiss. I believe that Apple should follow that example and get their optical system endorsed by one of the best optical company on the planet... even if the additional brand is not engraved / printed on the device.

Are the iPhone 11 Pro lenses covers coated with anti-reflective materials ?

iPhone 11 Pro’s Achilles Heel

I purchased my iPhone 11 Pro at the end of November 2019 and noticed that the videos I shot had excessive lens flare artifacts floating all over the footage – and still images as well. I had been using the iPhone 6S prior to trading up for the 11 Pro and never had issues with the 6S.

Business obligations kept me distracted until January of 2020 when I decided to test the 11 Pro again in daylight, low light and evening settings. To my disappointment the “floating artifacts” issues were still present. So I contacted Apple’s online support and here’s what happened:

They did diagnostics remotely as I sat in front of my desktop and followed instructions from Apple support. Their assessment was that there were NO ISSUES with the phone or its camera components. BUT, the very obvious visual problems were still there. So after reopening the support case with two follow-up support team members, I was told to bring the 11 Pro to an Apple store to have their qualified engineer/technician look at the phone and camera system. He immediately saw the excessive “Lens flare/floating artifacts” issues and after much debate with the store manager I was sent home with a replacement 11 Pro. I was hopeful that the lens flare issues were isolated to my original phone.

Fast forward to iPhone replacement No. 3 (2+ weeks later) and the “Lens flare/floating artifacts” are still there. Same highly distractive and unacceptable outcomes with 4 iPhone 11 Pros (the original plus 3 replacements).

The last Apple Support Team member was very helpful but engineering has swept this SIGNIFICANT iPhone 11 Pro image capture problem under their rug. They sent a link to a flimsy and generic article about lens flare that had NOTHING to do with the issues with the 11 Pro that many users are encountering. For the record, I am a Creative Director in the advertising and Graphic Design fields and a freelance photojournalist. I know what lens flare is and the best camera and lenses will create them in different lighting environments. BUT the 11 Pro’s “floating artifacts” are considerably more defined poltergeists that will float and bounce over your live footage (and still images) as if they were created on an overlay layer.

I held out hope that Apple would step up to the plate, admit that there is an “issue” with their expensive new 11 Pros, and that they would address it and better yet, correct the problems. NO SUCH LUCK.

Their position as of this writing is again, that there are no problems with the iPhone 11 Pro’s camera components, software and performance. To say I am frustrated and disappointed is an understatement. I’ve been an Apple products user and fan since the early 80’s. I have spent many thousands of dollars on Apple’s Pro-Level computers and devices. They (Apple) have to know that the “Lens Flare” issues that hundreds if not thousands of users are reporting are REAL, are UNACCEPTABLE, and are an Achilles heel that – is unaddressed – will move many users to alternate solutions outside of Apple’s Ivory Towers.

STEP UP to the plate Apple. Your customers deserve better.

JP, Solvang, California

While I've posted two critical comments regarding the unacceptable "Lens Flare / Floating Artifacts" issues with the iPhone 11 Pro, I do want to acknowledge (again) that that almost any camera will produce some image hazing, washed-out color and/or flaring when pointing the camera towards a high-output light source – like the sun or stadium lighting against a dark sky – but the problem here is (1), the sharply-defined "Inverted and flipped" floating artifacts that are vandalizing our images and videos and (2), Apple's dug-in position, vis-a-vis the hard evidence presented by users, that there is NOT a problem.

My take is that the severe ghosting and flare issues are the consequence of a design compromise with regards to materials of the lenses covers.

I believe, this is 100% speculation, that Apple went along with the “standard” mobile phone cameras approach meaning that the phone would not rely on protective lenses covers like the ones used on cameras whilst it had to be made compatible and durable with being slipped into pockets, handbags, etc... and rubbing against keys, coins and other small objects, etc... This meant saphir crystal lenses covers and sub-par external anti-reflective coating, if any, on same.

I believe that cases providing lenses protection would have allowed to resolve the issue and adopt more appropriate _ photography appropriate _ lenses covers materials and anti-reflective coatings. Thus less compromises in the camera... but this would involve a shift in consumers habits _ with protective cases because of more fragile materials / coatings _ which can be difficult to implement... So rather than going that way Apple may have elected to do “no waves” and get what we have today...

That’s the problem, I could see the “flare” on my screen as I was composing the photos in front of a lit Christmas tree—the end result looked like the lady in front of the tree. I tried moving around the subject and they would appear everywhere. The only thing I didn’t try was shooting at a higher elevation than straight on. Personally, I don’t think taking a photo should be that hard.

For example, right now I can direct my camera towards a ceiling light and capture the blue reflection from the light. The only way to remove it is to tilt the camera lens perpendicular with the ceiling light. If I don’t, I have a light blue “ufo” floating around in my composition. I assume it’s the same thing happening with Christmas lights but multiplied by the number of lights in the focal plane. Also, I believe that they are an upside mirror image as far as position.

I bought my iPhone 11 in November 2019 and I noticed the same issue. I started reading a lot of threads at forums, watching YT videos etc.

And my conclusion is - unfortunately - everything is OK. I came back to my iPhone SE photo archive (I sold SE immediately after buying my new phone so now I can't make any live comparison) and I noticed the same ghosting and reflections; I didn't notice them earlier!

What's interesting, even at official Apple YT channel you can see an ad showing the ghosting problem (in case of iPhone XS). You can watch it below.

(EDIT: I can't post links so just go to Apple YT channel and watch: 'Florence + the Machine On Tour — Shot on iPhone XS — Apple').

During my "investigation" I discovered ghosting and flare problem is typical for all generations of iPhones starting (at least) from iPhone 5s. So why people started to complain now? It's simple - it's psychology. iPhone 11 is shown as a photographical phone so when you buy it you start to focus on its photos quality more attentively than you did it as an owner of previous generation of iPhone.

If someone says Apple fixed his iPhone 11's lens, he or she lies; it's impossible. And let's be frank - tech reviewers perfectly know the problem. They just don't show it and (in general) don't talk about it because of... guess what ;)

What can be reassuring - almost all the top smartphones have the same issue; Samsung and Huawei devices too. What's more, I'm sure even Tim's Cook iPhone 11 Pro has the same issue :D

Basically, reflections between the lens and the sensor cause lens flare and reflections.

This is basic optics and there's no easy way around it.

It can be minimized with the use of coatings on the lenses, but that would raise prices significantly as well as make the lenses pass less light.

That's acceptable in a $2000 DSLR lens, not so much as a component of a phone.

Supposedly Leica worked with Huawei to come up with a way to reduce some effects (or make them more camera-like) on a Huawei P30 / P30 Pro, but even then there are complaint articles to be found:

Piunika Web: Huawei P30/P30 Pro camera lens flare, forced video stabilization issues come to light

Photo from Huawei P30 Pro:

kironet wrote:

Now, when you got to any concert, try to record it with iPhone 11 Pro. You will probably get the whole podium reflected upside-down, not just one small little dot.

There are myriad videos online proving this isn't true unless the podium is intensely lit against a dark background.

JimP_Solvang wrote:

Hi Kironet. It's beyond disappointing that Apple and well-informed contributors to this forum continue to deny that "floating artifacts" issues exist with the iPhone 11Pro.

No one denies the artifacts exist, but rather they are normal for this device, as they were for previous iPhones and for other brands of smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Google Pixel 4

I posted a video above showing floating artifacts in video taken with the iPhone 6 in 2014.