IPhone 12 Pro lens flare

Schenk21 wrote:

Calling ghostly apparitions lens flare is a real stretch. Points of light or a halo perhaps. Not layered images. The large pieces of glass help sell the phones. Apple has made a calculated decision that the flaw is less important than the cache of their look.

Well you disagree with photography magazines that have been in print for decades and hundreds of other professional photographers, not to mention camera manufacturers like Nikon, Canon and Sony.

Did you read my earlier post?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251953166?answerId=253783306022#253783306022

Again, this was taken with a $4000 Canon DSLR and lens:

No, the $2000 lens wasn't defective; Canon and professional photographers agreed.

I've had most iPhones over the years although my last was the iPhone 8+. While some reflections are likely inevitable, I've never experienced anything remotely close to the flare on my iPhone 12 Pro. Dots everywhere. Reflections everywhere. Light leaks. Just bad. Nice phone, but I'm quite disappointed in the camera. My iPhone 8+ wasn't remotely this bad, although it wasn't perfect. Take a look at the this review from a professional photographer.

Trying to figure what to do. I like the phone, but I find this level of flare/reflection/light leakage to be totally unacceptable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71m3SDGa220&feature=youtu.be&t=761

Maximalniy wrote:

You consider my picture normal? Then nothing to argue about! I never had a phone with such blurring and flaring.

If you’ve owned an iPhone 6 or newer, yes you did, you just never took a photograph under the right conditions to induce it.

@viorel49: Same here. Contacted the Apple Support, they told me that could me a software issue (lmao).

Until it is confirmed as an hardware issue, they won't fix my device.

Please call the Apple Support and show them these photos, so that they may acknowledge it to be an hardware problem.

William Kucharski wrote:

Completely normal and your XS would have done the same thing taking the same photos.

iPhone XS Max photo:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/3ed65540-3ecf-47af-a9dd-7961b245a82d

That's a lovely picture.

My goal with the post wasn't to start an Apple love/hate fest, it was to open a discussion about a potential defect in a newly released device. Hopefully, if enough people are vocal about their disappointment with the performance with the camera there may be some awareness and a potential resolution down the road.

If you want Apple to be aware of your concerns, you would need to actually contact Apple. The only Apple employees who regularly check into posts here are the hosts (moderators); otherwise Apple does not participate here. So, it would be more productive to either contact Apple support and/or use the feedback process.

www.apple.com/feedback

And sometimes not even necessarily related to hardware. On macrumors forums seems the weird ghost reflections are showing up more so in Night Mode, so it could be processing issues in the mix as well.

_leefy wrote:

Mate your replies are so dismissive and rude. He's just explained that as the owner of both phones, the iPhone has had to be returned but the Huawei doesn't have the same issues.

Correct. I provided links showing that despite his claim, the Huawei does; Huawei even discusses the matter themselves.

You're relentlessly ignoring the fact that certain flares are normal, and then there is the iPhone. It's just rude and dismissive and makes it appear like you have a financial motivation to tirelessly work to falsely redirect the conversation for Apple's benefit. Shameful.

No, I have incentive when people claim "no other phone" does this, when they all do, and when I say that if you don't find the device acceptable you should return it and get your money back, that's somehow dismissive and rude.

That makes zero sense; if you can get your money back and find some other device that better suits your needs, why wouldn't you? How does that "benefit" Apple?

If you have the issue, and if you find it unacceptable, you should return your device for a full refund and save yourself the headache of living with it.

I can't imagine a more empathetic statement.

Yes, this is heightened when shooting video in Night Mode for sure. This is why a professional videography would be using a tripod mounted system and test the lighting and angles long before shooting any video footage.

Congratulations. You have posted two photos of subjects which are guaranteed to produce flare. I can't imagine just what you expected, but you got what anyone else would have gotten with the subjects you photographed.

The way I suggested in posts in this thread. Simply changing the angle of the cameras does wonders.

Look, I get you want to complain. If you're really unhappy with your phone, return it for refund or sell it. You're not speaking with Apple here. Apple isn't reading about your angst. Apple isn't here on this forum at all.

Arguing with me about your dissatisfaction or why Apple didn't coat the lens covers is pointless. I can't make you happy with something you're clearly not happy with. All I can do is give you suggestions on how to deal with the realities of the phone you've got.

I just saw this (Dutch) video where 4 (premium) smartphones are compared. At 13:24 a night video is shown in which all 4 cameras are mounted together in the same angle. Guess what, only on the iPhone 12 Pro Max you see the lens flare.

For those who do not understand Dutch: the speaker says that this is typical for iPhones with night mode, but not for the other smartphones.

This is a lost battle. These guys refuse to look at the facts. The lens flares, green dots and ghosting are prominent to the point of photos and videos becoming unusable. That is not user error. It’s a design flaw. There is too much internal reflection and/or no special coatings were applied to the lenses. It is unacceptable.

Nope, I don’t work for Apple.

However the exact same issues were complained about on the iPhone 8, X, XS and 11.

Further, as stated, the same artifacts occur on all other premium smartphones not to mention camcorders and DSLRs.

If you want to phrase a suggestion that Apple try to minimize these artifacts on future phones, that’s great.

Calling it a “defect” or “design error” does not fall under the definition of “suggestion for improvement.”

Yes, it's an incredible shame. Lots of people bought these specifically because the cameras are so good (12 mini and 12 as well), but having excellent night mode is useless if you can't get photos without green orbs and other awful artifacts which are the result of a design flaw and/or Apple's negligence to put antireflective coatings on the lenses. To make matters worse there is,imo, no suitable alternative.