IPhone 12 Pro lens flare

trish4 wrote:

I’m having the same issue and super disappointed that I spent all this money for the 12 only to see a green dot in video and photos regularly! I may try a few things or get a new phone. I stopped lugging my Canon and lenses around so I could just carry this but I’m disappointed.

If you took that identical photo with any cell phone camera on the market you would see the same thing, and you would probably even see it with your Canon and lens. When there is a light source in the photo or falling on the lens from outside of the image you will get lens flares. Every camera ever made that has a compound lens will have similar results. As you most likely missed it in posting in this long thread, please look at all of the examples in this link, which has images taken with Samsungs, Pixels, and $50,000 professional cameras→iPhone Camera Lens Flare and Reflections - Apple Community

And here is a technical explanation of lens flare by a professional photographer→What is Lens Flare and How to Deal with it in Photography

As you apparently haven’t read any of the thread you posted to either, I will repeat what has been said hundreds of times. Any time there is a light source in a photo taken with any camera in the world you will see lens flare or ghost images. ANY CAMERA made since the invention of photography.

As you most likely missed it in posting in this long thread or even reading the page you posted to, please look at all of the examples in this link, which has images taken with Samsungs, Pixels, and $50,000 professional cameras→iPhone Camera Lens Flare and Reflections - Apple Community

And here is a technical explanation of lens flare by a professional photographer→What is Lens Flare and How to Deal with it in Photography

Please look at this link→iPhone Camera Lens Flare and Reflections - Apple Community and provide an explanation of how your iPhone is different from the Samsungs, Pixels, and other cameras, all of which show similar examples of lens flare. But I want to hear your explanation for each image in the link, or I won’t believe you have looked at the link.

I'm not surprised at all.

1. This is a user to user only forum, which Apple doesn't participate in.
2. Artifacts such as have been shown in this thread are naturally occurring and unless Apple has learned how to defy photographic physics, there's little to nothing they can do. I can find multiple posts from people with Samsung phones, complaining about lens flare on their phones. Some have been posted in this very thread.
3. A lot of the artifacts people have shown can be lessened or not included in a shot by more carefully framing bright lights relative the sensor on the camera in iPhone. I took and posted two sample photos in a post recently showing how simply altering the angle of the phone eliminated lens flare completely.
4. Many users here would greatly benefit from downloading photographic tutorials and learning about this topic more fully.

That's the thing - Apple did give you a state of the art device, and reviews show it:

• The Verge: APPLE IPHONE 12 PRO MAX REVIEW: THE BEST SMARTPHONE CAMERA YOU CAN GET
• Dxomark: Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max Camera review: Big and beautiful

Of course it's not perfect, nothing is.

The point of all this effort?

1. Believing every photo you take on a cell phone camera should be perfect is unrealistic
2. You can better control the quality of your imagest if you just open you mind to accepting you can
3. If you take a photo you like but you have flares, you can remove them yourself easily

I am frustrated too.

But I am loving a few things of the 12 Pro Max, and hence did not return it.

1. Battery Life
2. Excellent speakers.
3. iOS itself. With privacy in its making.
4. Most daily use software are tad better in iOS it seems.
5. Overall a very glitchfree and stable exeperience.

I tried some flavoura of Android phone(Sammy), but for the same or little price difference, I prefer the iphone.

My last iphone 7plus gave me 4 years of absolute great service, and I traded it in full working condition.

I dont think I could ever say the same for Android phones.

Again, it's 100% normal and expected.

If you feel different, feel free to approach whomever you purchased it from or Apple about a replacement.

The lens flares seen here are present on every modern smarrtphone.

For example:

Taken with an iPhone Xs.

Just to clarify, I’m talking about these massive flares that go across the entire frame and that have never been an issue before.

For comparison look at these photos taken at the same time and same place

iPhone 12 Pro:

iPhone 11

I’m able to replicate the lens flare/ghost but am also getting something like a light leak? Seems to be worse in low light settings possibly related to the new to me night photo feature? It’s very frustrating. I think it could be a defect? Don’t recall this on my iPhone X.

ejewels1 wrote:

Exactly. Not everyone is a photographer (I'm a professional in the industry of marketing/creative/photog/videog) so I get that not everyone understands. Either way, I think I'll be eating restocking fees and returning the phone. It is true that my XS doesn't exhibit nearly as much lens issues but they are still there. I feel Apple needs to address it (on the 11 too) before I get a new phone. I can't even take city night shots or video without massive artifacts, green dots and glares. Otherwise, the sensor and software for the photos is top notch.

That's the problem; no one can address it, you just need to work around it as professional photographers must.

I mentioned previously, coatings severely hamper night performance, which ultimately customers find to be more important or technologies like "Night Mode" wouldn't be so popular.

Leica and Huawei were working on a solution but their coatings and lens designs introduce their own artifacts:

As an additional level of difficulty, lens coatings are nearly impossible to apply to something the diameter of a pencil eraser and only a few millimeters thick.

I’ve been to the Apple Store. Everything normal according to them.

The assistant showed me that’s happening with his 11 Pro too, but IMHO the flare was not so evident.

i’m still not convinced...look at this picture!

About Lens Flare.

I've long maintained in the previous thread and now this thread that when you frame a photo of a brightly lit object, lens flare can be easily seen BEFORE you take the photo. And it can. While I don't yet have iPhone 12 Pro Max (because you can't even order one yet), these photos taken moments ago were taken with my iPhone 11 Pro Max. If I still had an Xs Max or X, I'd have gotten the same flare issues. Here is a quick photo I took (not a great photo, but one to illustrate how easy it is to capture lens flare):

Now, I did NOT move my position at all for this next photo. I DID alter the angle of the camera on my phone in relation to the bright light. And what did I get? An almost identical image, with NO lens flare:

So, in the photo with lens flare, is the phone at fault or is the person behind the camera at fault? To all those upset about the camera capturing lens flare and saying the cameras are faulty and lens flare is not acceptable in such an expensive iPhone, I maintain that it can be avoided simply by altering the angle of the phone in relation to the scene.

All other smartphones do it too.

I've posted similar photos taken with Google and Samsung phones to name two.

Samsung: Why do lines, dots, or lights appear in my photos after using the camera app?

Samsung Galaxy Note 5:

Ultimately, if you're unhappy with your device, return it, that's why Apple has their 14 day return policy.

Can confirm. Just came from S10. 1st photo is from the iPhone. 2nd and 3 photo are from the S10. The 3rd photo is a screenshot of a video taking from that phone.

All three photos have that green dot/glare. Only difference is that on the iPhone the dot is a lot more noticeable when you are taking a photo than on the S10..But on video they almost have the same identical greenish color that you see.