iPhone 12 Pro camera not focusing properly

My iPhone 12 Pro doesn't have a problem with the color of pictures, but it has an issue with focusing or birds even when I zoom it.

The same here. I get desperate to be honest.

I will try that, thank you!

I tried this and it made no difference on mine. I can’t take a good picture of my drivers license or insurance card. This is insane!

I’m facing the same issue. Unable to focus on closer objects and the images are bit blurry

i think your solution so far is the most helpful. as for now that apple does not have a permanent solution to iphone 12 pro max autofocus.

Returned my iPhone 12 Pro to Amazon. Never again buying an iOS device!!

Did not work for my Iphone.

Are you sure you are not just at the minimum focus distance for the camera? All lenses have one.

(I've not been able to find any specification that tells us what minumum focus distance is)

Mine is also limited to about 8cm - I'm assuming that is just the technical limit.

I tested it side by side with an iPhone 8 and a Samsung galaxy s10, the 12 pro was the only one of the 3 phones not focusing at such close range. Seems strange that a 2017 iPhone 8 would give a better focus than a $1000 2020 iPhone 12 pro tooting the best camera. If that is the case I’ll have to return this phone and stick to something that can handle the job such as a Samsung galaxy. I highly doubt that this is as close as I can get though because I’ve seen videos of people testing the focus with the iPhone 11 Pro and the 12 pro is definitely blurry and out of focus. Ive even see where someone said it’s a glitch in the software of SOME iPhone 12 pros and 12 pro max. Some people have gotten it to focus with multiple taps on the screen. See photo

I reported this issue to Apple as well. After two days of resetting my phone and discussion, they ended up saying this:

"The iPhone's 12 camera has a larger camera sensor and optics so the macro focus distance (MFD, or minimum focus distance). So due the quality of the camera sometimes could not focus up close , however Apple is working hard to find the  best resolution in order to fix that issue."

I've found an intermittent solution is using the 2.5 telephoto for macro photos. It's not perfect as, but until there's a software update or something it works. :/

Do you have the Max?

If you are closer than about 11” from the subject, and you hit the “2.5x Tele” button, the software is fooling you into thinking you are using the telephoto lens, but it’s not. It is using the 1x lens with a ton of artificial digital zoom. So the viewfinder image seems better but it’s an illusion. It may seem like a fix, but the resolution, detail and image quality remains poor compared to literally any other modern iPhone sold at any price. That’s a very bad trade off for many and it wasn’t made clear. It also cripples the native Magnifier app, which depends on this capability, so they should have removed the Magnifier.

At 11” or more, you can use the real telephoto lens. It can focus at ~11” or more, but not any less. But if you use it, the 2.5x zoom you get is entirely negated by the fact you have had to pull back so far, and since it is a lower quality lens overall, the results end up worse !

Just to keep the facts clear, NOT unique to both pro models. There was a totally separate software issue relating to focus, which was fixed in ios 14.2

The iPhone 12 , 12 mini, and 12 Pro can all take macro photos at the usual ~3 inch range. If you buy any of those models and you are on 14.2 or higher, you have no issue and should stop reading this thread!

The Pro Max and ONLY the Pro Max has a hardware limitation that increases min focus distance to around 5”, thus it is very significantly less capable at macro photography. this is a design compromise Apple made when introducing the larger sensor, and sensorshift stabilization, found in the pro max.

While many of us feel that Apple made a huge mistake here, it is a design choice they made and so from their perspective, there is nothing to fix. so there will be no update/fix!! if you can’t live with it ,return it. A lot of people are doing so, myself included.

Hi there!!!

sad sad sad.... bought my 12 pm 4 days ago. Found this problem with focus, googled and now im here. Id be happy to return it, but i cant. Dealer in my country says ( following EU customer statement), that i can return only unused phone within 14 days. If sim is activated, phone is activated, screen stickers are off , so they state its been used. But its only 4 days past!

i dont want it :((((( what can i do?! What would you do?

I have the exact same issue, and I’ve been using the iPhone cameras for many many years. Please stop saying it is operator error and fix the problem. It’s very annoying.

One of the things you guys touted about this new phone was the excellent auto focusing features.