IPhone 12 Pro lens flare

Then return it, you're obviously not happy with what it does and never will be.

What you see is not a defect, it is normal for all smartphone cameras.

Why fight it?

It's not as obvious, but see here?

That's from a Nikon discussion of the topic.

Here's some ghosting from a Canon DSLR with a 35mm lens that costs more than a 512 GB iPhone 12 Pro Max:

Here's one from a Panasonic DSLR:

Is this normal too? I am expecting the light to spread like in 2x and 0.5x, but not in the 1x camera. 1x ‘s glare not radial .

that happen under the moon too, yes the actual moon, how do you angle that?

I understand lens flare are totally normal. From the get go my complaints was the shattered, non radial glare which is not normal. I compared with two other 12 pro and confirm my 1x lens is the only one with issue. So I just bought another one and it is fine now.

i never said it is a design issue just saying my camera is defective.

so out of four iPhone, only one has the issue. And I have a video to show the star burst looking glare is not from just one angle, but is continuous from all angle. But can’t post the video here.

quite disappointed with this Apple community, thought the “experts” would be more open minded and to help. Instead keep getting the issue disputed.

to clarify I took the same pic with two iPhones, the glare are diff. May not seem like big deal but at darker places the glare cover the whole photo, hence my issue..

like this one

but yes I am happy now that the blue piece of lemon is out of my way. And hopefully Apple will take it back and study which their lens supplier

[Edited by Moderator]

Yes, this is one the first things I noticed about the camera, which I did not have a noticeable issue with for the iPhone 11 Pro.

Ultimately, I’m quite disappointed by this defect. You can see the reflection below in the center of the grass (I don’t know why the image is rotated 90 degrees). I’ve had this particular issue with night shots and I’m very frustrated by it.

I’m an established photographer and have a long history with iPhone photography and this isn’t chalked up to user error.

Well then you've saved yourself a lot of money, congratulations!

Somehow no one told the makers of high end Android phones, which all suffer from the exact same issue; you might want to send an email to Samsung letting them know too.

Samsung Galaxy S20:

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

Well enjoy whatever you find that doesn't have the issue; from what information is available online, that will be difficult at best.

In addition to Samsung phones, be sure to avoid the LG G5:

as well as the Google Pixel 4a:

No. I knew the dots are always there. These are the internal reflection between the lens and the glass top.

unlike real camera lens (without filter) there is an extra glass that causes these dots. Will have to adjust the composition to avoid them.

I think this is what is happening...

the unusual glare on my returned phone had a defect lens. The refraction seems to have shattered the light into spectrums in non radial direction which was my complaint.

Taken one after another, one is with Note 20 Ultra, and the other is with iPhone 12 Pro. I don't need to clarify which is which. Clearly, the severity of the ghosting images/orbs is much worse in one of these photos.

I welcome you to show me one time I or anyone else responding here ever told any other poster to "shut up."

Once again I will state, if you believe an issue is one you cannot live with, what better advice could one give than "get a refund and purchase something else?"

Complaining about the issue here literally accomplishes nothing, as the only ones who could change the design are the engineers at Apple, and they for the most part aren't reading comments here.

However they do get told what to look into and what to change based on feedback sent to the feedback link above.

I see no "constructive feedback" in telling Apple to use coatings, which they are well aware of but diminish low light sensitivity, which they are not willing to give up; from the iPhone 12 mini-site on Apple's web page:

For me, it wouldn't be worth the brain damage to live with something I found unacceptable; for all the claims of "fan boy" I returned my AirPods Pro for a refund for just such a reason (no matter which tips I used, they would loosen and fall out after a few minutes.)

I wish you the best whatever you decide.

>>An simple lens anatomy example. Not to scale with Apple cameras and amount of layers.<<

To everyone that says it's an design flaw, how about you design a camera that doesn't do what the image above shows. As far as I know, no one at this time as made a lense or even sensor that prevents the effect shown above.

It has already been mentioned and answered before. The iPhone 12 comes with an lower aperture setting.

lobsterghost1 wrote:

Aperture has several effects on your photographs. One of the most important is the brightness, or exposure, of your images. As aperture changes in size, it alters the overall amount of light that reaches your camera sensor - and therefore the brightness of your image.

AKA: Yes, your flare will be more prominent at an lower aperture setting.

As for the design, see image in previous post. No way to avoid that.

scorproy wrote:

Any one can write in bold, caps etc. But it is a problem which has been fixed years back in proper cameras.

$4000 Canon DSLR + $2500 lens; perhaps that doesn't make for a proper camera to you:

Why this never happened on my older phones then? This issue destroys 50% of photos. Indoor always lamp or window ghosting. And outdoor with clear sky there are almost always white stripes or rainbows...

Look that window on jacket and on group photo sun is like 90 degree on right side and there is still white stripe across photo.... Photos look crappy... We was 8 people and no other phone did that...I understand this can happen sometimes but almost each photo with clear sky or indoor? This is most reliable camera on market?

I can't say it is the most reliable (of course there are far more superior DSLRs and mirrorless in existence) but yes, to every single camera can have "lens flares." What changes each camera is possibly the aperture and lens coating. What changes each photo is it's angle to an light source. If we were to set up an closed environment and test light hitting the lens of any camera at the perfect angle to create a solar flare (which is quite wide), every camera in existence would fail.

The blue dotted line - Camera lens flare

On a more complex lens with more elements - red line = lens flare

For this reason, you'll sometimes use a "guard" in front of lens for cameras. (Actually called hood but oh well)

I'd say solar flares probably did show on your previous photos, probably just not as prominent as it was restricted to a higher aperture. (Refer to previous post)

unflare wrote:

My IPhone 6 Plus didn’t have this kind of problem

Yes it did, you either didn't notice it or didn't take a photo prone to it. There are many photos showing it on the iPhone 6/6 Plus.

Here's another just for fun:

unflare wrote:

That photo from IPhone 6 is nothing compared to the reflection image I get from my iPhone 12 pro

It's just one example showing the issue does occur on the iPhone 6; you said it didn't happen.