Iphone 11 Pro Extreme lens flare

This must just be a hardware design made intentionally. I got a replacement phone and it seems the same level, therefore I don’t think it is perfect on any model. It’s just something you accept or reject and that’s it.

I have the same issue. This is worse than it has ever been on in the other iPhones I’ve had. I took it to the Apple Store to have them check it out and they said it was normal for this camera. I also tested some of the cameras in the Apple store and they appear to have the same issue. So this must just be a design flaw in the new camera lenses.

Hello kcbacon,

Save yourself time and aggravation by going to the following link and submit feedback to Apple:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

The only responses you’ll find here will be:

1.) you don’t know how to use the camera or

2.) it’s normal given the limitations of the larger lens.

Personally, I think it’s screwed-up but what do I know.

Good-luck! Sorry to hear another user is disappointed with their camera.

Hallo from Germany. I also have this Problem and a certified Dealer replaces the Camera. It does not solve the Problem.

My IPhone 11 is from October 2019. A Kollege of me gets his IPhone Pro in February 2020 and its the same Problem.

So I think it´s a constructive Problem.

Your argument is quite inaccurate.

Apple has never stated that the flares do not exist, but rather that they are normal for those situations.

Every camera and lens faces limitations in optics and physics.

What you are seeing is a limitation common to almost all top of the line smart phones.

Leica has apparently done some work to minimize this but we don’t know what the side effects of that correction are; if coatings eliminated flare but made low light performance worse, I’m not sure customers would want to make that trade-off.

I believe that Apple did not do their full homework on this aspect or refused to sell these iPhones with removable protective lenses caps, similar to cameras, which would have allowed the adoption of high performance but fragile anti-reflective coatings.

The compromise, which may have been adopted by Huawei/Leica, would have been anti-reflective coating of the lens covers internal faces as well as matt or satin black surfaces rather than the mirror like shiny hence reflective surfaces everywhere adopted by Apple...

It means “it’s a limit imposed by physics and optics at this point.”

Perhaps a fix can be found someday, but it won’t be simple.

Leica and Huawei came up with a way to minimize flare but it also reduces low light performance as all coatings do.

I went through this same technical issue back in 2019. Had a total of 3 iPhone 11Plus replacements and as many have already stated, this– or software updates – does not eliminate or correct the "Floating Artifact" issue. (Mimifang's dusk photo above is a great example of the technical problem. )

It's very clear that this is NOT a traditional "Lens Flare" camera sensor issue – and also clear that it will not be corrected in this iteration of an otherwise pretty remarkable phone.

For the record: My previous iPhone, a 6S, did not have this problem. In that I do shoot photos and now videos commercially I recently purchased an affordably-priced Sony ZV-1 "Vlogger" camera that isn't perfect but does not produce these floating artifacts. This is not a plug for Sony. All my gear for computing and mobile is top-tier Apple products and has been since the early 80's. Good luck to all.

Came across a video that shows a current phone that handles flare/reflections well, directly compared to the new iPhone 12 that in my opinion doesn't. Granted it's not the 12 pro, but from the first video I posted a link to they seem pretty similar in terms of flare. It's from 9:16 to 10:59

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of2J1rEbKuc

It's a big difference and I personally find it pretty annoying and distracting. To the point where I wouldn't want to use the iPhone to film at night. I can understand that not everyone will find it as distracting and the reviewer didn't mention in the video (though in a reply to one of the comments mentioning the "heavy flaring" he did say "Yeah, all iPhones i ever tried do the same").

I'm not trying to hate on Apple or anything, just wish they would improve this issue, and Huawei shows it can be done!

Hoping that the 12 Pro Max will do better as I want it to be an option for me - the flexibility of Apple ProRAW is something I would love to have when shooting stills.

There's nothing to "catch" during Q&A, this is a normal limitation of optics and physics when designing camera lenses that small.

The Leica lenses Huawei has been using have their own, different version of flare; in addition to dots, they get this:

Yes, your older phones did this too, as does the S20.

If you just got it, return it for a refund if it bothers you and go ahead and get the S20.

Then you will need to complain to Samsung when you experience the same problems.

JimP_Solvang wrote:

I also wish that Apple would be professional, transparent and fair and not remove my seldomly posted comments about this "Floating Artifacts" concern. My only goal is to work towards a solution.

If Apple removed your comments it was because you violated the Apple Support Community Terms of Use, which you agreed to follow when setting up an account here.

There is no "work towards a solution" by posting here as aside from monitoring for compliance to the Terms of Use, Apple employees are not here, we're all just users here.

Your best bet is to provide feedback to Apple here:

Product Feedback - Apple

They really do use the input received there to make design decisions for future products, hardware and software.

Yes, I have eliminated ghosting in a video before, by altering the composition.

Yes, it's not the same, but that's what photographers and videographers have to do all day, every day.

You wouldn't but your subject in front of a strong backlight and expect to have their face exposed properly without blowing out the background; you "couldn't shoot" that photo no matter how much you wanted to without a partial ND filter.

You are correct, composition of a photo is vital, but it's also true that you have to do the best you can with the equipment and conditions you have or, if you have a studio, you need to change the shot.

As far as exposure, often if strong lights aren't blown out, reflections may be so dim as to not be noticeable.

Please excuse the length of this reply.

I don’t shoot much video, but if you can eliminate ghosting in video you are far more skilled than I. I did a panning video on the beach which produced all sorts of flaring. I was not surprised by the common lens flare, but the green circle and remnants bounced around the screen once the setting sun appeared in the frame. As an aside, the image stabilization works surprisingly well when shooting video)

While there are many pictures in this thread, mine did not have a person in it that I wanted to have the face illuminated.

I have also posted 2 pictures in the thread taken on the same beach. The 12 Pro max shot had a green spot and remnants while a shot with my Olympus w/ 12-45 did not. My point is that Apple is selling the 12 touting its great cameras. They are under most circumstances but people are led to believe it will perform like a camera. As I’m sure you know phones have replaced point and shoot cameras, and the phone companies have marketed it as it’s equivalent.

I love shooting with my Olympus and use the phone’s cameras if I don’t have it. Apple is not a camera/lens company and it should not claim it is. They had to realize that people are going to shoot many many sunsets, along with night shots (which is a selling point for them) with bright light sources. The just need to admit the cameras can’t cleanly shoot those kinds of photos because of design limitations. (My 6+ never had this problem).

Clearly it’s not meeting the expectations of certain purchasers. The rest of them accept the limitations of the cameras, and frankly, assume all cameras exhibit the same problem. From a marketing stand point, I can see why they are saying that it is an expected result. This may sum it all up. They expect the result from the lens design, it’s just that it was not an expected result of certain purchasers.

It is ultimately your fault because you are choosing to shoot a photo that induces flare.

In this case the answer would likely be to stand up so the bulbs in the next room are not shining directly into the lens.

If you think a phone with a lesser quality camera works for you because it's flares are less noticeable due to their poorer quality, that's great - you don't need to use a more expensive tool if a less capable one provides results that are acceptable; if you are just touching up a wall you can use the $.79 foam brush instead of the $30 horsehair one.