IPhone 12 Pro lens flare

Here’s one I took of table lamp. Adjusted and got rid of green dot by focusing on light. Also just tried some moon shots original with nightmode, then one with and without night mode. moved camera until green dot was over moon the rays... it is what it is compared to past attempts to shoot the moon, the 12 pro Max is better than the 11 pro Max

"These are defects" Ya.... no.

All major lens and camera manufacturers have support pages on their websites.

Sony recommends you to use the lens hood that are included with their lens purchases

Canon released this article explaining how to adjust your angle to avoid flares > https://www.nikonimgsupport.com/na/NSG_article?articleNo=000027570&configured=1&lang=en_SG

Most companies set their lens to be able to fit a lens filter for a variety of reasons...

I'm sure it feels good to vent here, but it will change nothing. The iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max had the same issue and just as many complaints as the 12 and nothing was done. Search this forum to see. If they wanted to or could have dealt with the issue, they would have with the 12, since the complaints about the 11 were well-known to them.

There are really only two available options. One is to fiddle with settings and angles to minimize the issue, and the other is to return the phone for a refund if still within the time limit. Any replacement phone of the same model will have the same issue and there won't be a software fix. Again, the latter would have been done long ago if it were possible.

I have no experience with any other brand of phone, so can't compare.

You keep posting photos of normal lens flare and I keep telling you they are normal.

If it’s unacceptable to you, return your device for a refund if you can, as you obviously won’t be happy with it.

BTW, the issue with your moon photo isn’t the moon, it’s the bright street light in the frame.

They are reflections, a form of lens flare, and have happened on all iPhones since at least the iPhone 6.

They are also common to all premium smart phone cameras as examples of the same artifact can be seen on every smartphone camera as well as on other digital cameras.

This post contains a screen grab from a Panasonic digital camcorder:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251953166?answerId=254233390022#254233390022

IzhamShaari wrote:

what if I compare with huawei p30pro and the huawei doesn't have it...I mean the ghosting

Hmmm… Huawei disagrees with you:

"Do not shoot photos or videos in strong lighting. Otherwise, white or blue bright spots may appear, and the positions of such spots move with the camera and light. This is a normal phenomenon caused by the reflection on the internal and external surfaces of the camera lens glass."

https://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/content/en-us00410266/

No, I don't work for Apple, but you also seem to conveniently be ignoring photos of similar artifacts taken with other phones.

It's not "defensive" to repeat what manufacturers, photo blogs and experts (those who have been working with lenses for decades, not bloggers) have to say.

But in the end, believe what you want, but it won't be changing as there's nothing for Apple to "address," so your choices are those I've already outlined:

1) Live with it and learn how to work around situations that induce flare.

2) Return or sell it and buy something else.

I have the same issue. The most annoying part is that I experience it in low light conditions, with a weak light source (such as a candle). This is definitely not a normal behavior and a proper lens coating would prevent it from happening. When the light source is strong, it is much more common to get streaks and flares in the image, even though changing the angle of the shot helps most of the times. When the light source is so weak, this is absolutely a defect (could it be related also to the night mode feature?).

It is very disappointing to hear Apple support replying that this is expected and it happens also with expensive cameras, especially when one of the biggest enhancements in the iPhone 12 pro is the camera.

scorproy wrote:

This is perfectly normal. Its Physics.You should not use the phone this way. All other phones have this feature. You can return it.

You're being sarcastic and yet are completely accurate, with the exception that phones with premium cameras do this.

Many phones with poorer cameras do not because their optical systems have poor lenses and limited low light capability.

This is laughable. People have compared it to other cell phone cameras, you say the angle is off, people compare to other cheap camera options, you say the lenses are different. You've literally been given all the proof you need in different forms followed by half-baked excuses; you say that people are "incapable of understanding the technology" when you've clearly proven you have no idea how it works in the process. Professional photographers have posted saying it's defective, but nope, not good enough for you either; they must be inept too. Ridiculous... My Pixel 2 has none of these issues, so there goes your theory on how cell phone cameras work.

What is the problem though, which you clearly don't understand, is the type of sapphire used on the iPhone lenses, which has been proven inferior by multiple credible sources. Your fanboy-ism is showing. We all have iPhones, so chill out with that. It's eye-roll worthy. I was actually chatting with Apple support yesterday, and the couple of different departments acknowledged that it seems defective, and that they'd refund or replace the device...we also discussed the two keyboard warriors on here, since I shared a link to this thread, and how "theres always a few of them" followed by a chuckle. So, their acknowledgement is wrong also, I suppose.

Yes, stop trying, because the point is, even if you don't want to call it "defective" it is inferior, regarding the lenses so it seems, which is a shame because the capability is there and impressive otherwise. If you're happy with it, fine, but to more discerning eyes, for a product being bolstered for its premium visual capabilities, it's disconcerting that the quality of the lenses seems to be degrading with each iteration, if that is indeed the cause. Point blank.

It's not always there, you can see flare before you ever tap the button to take the photo and can adjust your angle/position very easily.

Tests show just as with past premium smartphones, the new Samsung S21 Ultra has flare every bit as much as the iPhone 12 Pro Max does.

My Samsung S20 Ultra doesn’t. So does all my iPhones before the 11 Pro Max.

To say “nothing that could be done because it’s Physics” is like saying all the previous iPhones defied Physics.

I have no idea about the S21 Ultra as I don’t have that phone but been taking photos and videos with my iPhone 12 Pro Max and Galaxy S20 Ultra side by side and they’re no way comparable.

No one would be writing about this issue here and we wouldn’t even be arguing back and forth had we seen this with previous iPhones (before 11). But, no. It’s new. It may not be a defect if you don’t want to call it that, but it’s definitely not a good choice of hardware setup. We’re not asking Apple to fix it as there’s nothing that can be done about it, but we’re hoping they’d do better with the next iPhones.

I’m attaching here a side-by-side of both phones taking the same thing. The orb on the 12 Pro Max is too noticeable. It’s not even the worst case. I’ve been in many situations where it’s just not acceptable, especially with videos. Fortunately, I always carry both phones, so I just pick up the S20 Ultra for situations where it’s next to impossible to get any good footage with the 12 Pro Max. I have some sample videos of totally normal situations ruined by orbs all over the place, but I can’t find a way to upload them here.

There is an issue with the 11 and 12 cameras. We’ve owned many cameras and many iPhones and other phones. We know how cameras work. Please don’t gaslight us.

Hi, I’m not trying to convince you to think otherwise. You’re very entitled to your own opinion. But just to show that currently even the best camera lenses will have these results:

source: Apple

Apple’s CEO in a video taken in the Steve Job theatre. I think we can agree that production of this video was used with the best equipement possible with a very considered composure and there is lens flare visible.

Source: Formula 1, Liberty Media

Onboard camera shot used on Formula 1 cars. This class is the highest class of international racing with millions of viewers world wide. I think they would use the best camera’s available. Still lens flare to be seen.

Shot on my iPhone 6s Plus. This picture is saved in my iCloud. You can see the date is 2 April 2017, A time where iPhone X, 11 and 12 were not released. It’s not just iPhone 11 and 12 that gives these lens flares.

Just giving my opinion on the matter and hope it helps you answer your question.

Hopefully anyone annoyed by it will in the future only purchase devices that are several years old, as as Apple and Samsung leap frog each other with better and better camera quality, the issue becomes more noticeable, not less. In a very real way it’s like seeing the shortcomings in sets used on shows you’ve only seen on TV in SD and on VHS but now are glaringly obvious after being released in HD on Blu-ray.

I hate to harp on it, but the fact that the same artifacts show very clearly in a $40,000 ARRI cinema camera/lens combo shows it’s not an issue Apple or Samsung (or every other premium phone maker, Google, Huawei, Sony phones do the same thing) choose not to solve, it really is a limitation of optics and physics at this point.

Have you looked at the images in this link→iPhone Camera Lens Flare and Reflections - Apple Community? Did you notice that every smartphone camera behaves similarly, as do non-smartphone cameras? Perhaps Apple should solve a problem that has existed in almost every camera made over the past 200 years, but if Leica, Canon, Nikon and Hasselblad (among others) haven’t been able to I think Apple fixing it for what is essentially a $10 camera is remote.