Love the cameras. But horrible lens flares.
And it seems it’s defective:
One the right, above the window. Green flares from tube lights to the left.
In the middle of the picture:
On the TV screen:
Will try out during the day and post
I've had only Samsung phones for the last 10 years or so...I have never had these camera issues on any of them.
Decided to switch from an s10 to a 12 mini because I’m tired of huge phones...but it looks like I’ll be returning it because the lens flare issue is so bad in low light. These are expensive phones, this shouldn’t be a problem.
I've had only Samsung phones for the last 10 years or so...I have never had these camera issues on any of them.
Decided to switch from an s10 to a 12 mini because I’m tired of huge phones...but it looks like I’ll be returning it because the lens flare issue is so bad in low light. These are expensive phones, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Defend what? That the photographer didn't do anything to avoid the flares? Had the photographer simply looked at the iPhone screen before taking the photo, the photographer would have clearly seen the flares. And had the photographer simply altered the angle of the camera relative to the bright lights, the photographer could have eliminated the flares.
What the photo you are thanking the photographer for, just shows how little time or effort went into taking the photo.
I have posted this too many times now, but this demonstrates the difference between a Night Mode photo where the flares were easily seen (yes I took it anyway) and how I never moved my position at all and managed to take the photo without any flares. You see, if you think cameras are simply point and shoot and you get perfection in every shot, you're expectation is totally, utterly unrealistic. Good photos, even from a camera in a cell phone still take some technique.
See these two photos to understand what I'm talking about.
In the photo below, notice the flares corresponding the lights on my deck:
Without moving at all, I saw the flares, and altered the angle of the camera relative to the lights and guess what? The flares are gone.
If you cannot understand this, I'm not sure there's anything anyone can do to help you. No camera is perfect. But as the person behind the lens you have more control over the quality of the photos you take if you put some effort into taking better photos.
Finally, if you do take a photo you particularly like and you want to fix it, download the following app from the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/snapseed/id439438619
Then simply use the Healing Tool to remove the flares.
NOTE: I did not use Snapseed with the photo samples. I really did alter the angle of the camera to remove the flares.
Closing this thread. It has been established the iPhone 12 pro max, has tremendous lens flare and green dots issues.
I am keeping the phone though. I like the fact that it does take brilliant images.
In cases where there are problems, I will be using my dslr.
But day to day the pro max is a solid phone.
Florian Wardell wrote:
How about “I’m not just seeing the quality from my Chinese 2-year old android former flagship”?
Then you've just saved yourself the price of the 12 Pro Max and can go on boards dedicated to your two year old Chinese Android phone and explain to their users how to avoid the same artifacts they are complaining they see when using that same device.
If that former flagship is the Mate 20, then I assume you also saw my earlier post:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252037681?answerId=253907208022#253907208022
Florian Wardell wrote:
You contact Apple support, post on discussions.Apple.com and hopefully if enough people complain Apple will devise a fix, or at least improve the next generation.
You specifically do not post here, unless you have a technical issue other users can give you a solution for.
You can contact Apple Support here:
Contact - Official Apple Support
You may provide feedback here:
If you have a solution for this issue, you may want to contact Huawei, because they haven't been able to solve it despite their collaboration with Leica.
LG and Samsung would also likely pay you seven figures or more for a fix.
Florian Wardell wrote:
Tomorrow I’ll send you two videos of the exact same location and time, one filmed with the 12PM and one filmed with a two year old android device. You’ll tell me which has acceptable flare.
Please don't, as that won't prove a thing.
It's not a "If you don't like it, leave" mentality, it's a very reasonable "If this annoys you, get a refund now because it won't be changing, and because it's a limitation of optics, it likely won't be changing on future devices, either issue." It's not a fanboy thing, it's that posting more and more photos of an artifact we all know can be generated on any premium smartphone camera on the market does what, precisely? If you won't return it for a refund, it gives you what, the right to complain about it and post more flare photos for the next year or two? If so, feel free, it won't change anything.
If you manage to not get those effects on your Android, good for you. As I said, you should visit Android boards and tell users how to avoid it, because they certainly see it using the same device.
Once again:
You can contact Apple Support here if you feel it is a sample defect:
Contact - Official Apple Support
You may provide feedback here if you think it's something Apple devices "shouldn't do":
If you can't stand to live with it, you can return your device within 14 days of purchase for a full refund (and actually, as of right now for US purchases (policies vary worldwide):
Items purchased at the Apple Online Store that are received between 10 November and 25 December 2020 may be returned up to 8 January 2021.
Posting here accomplishes nothing constructive as Apple does not officially read these forums to gain feedback on current or future products, they only do via the Feedback link mentioned above.
cjcampbell wrote:
The camera has an obvious design flaw, not seen in similar cameras. I'm sorry, but that is the way it is. Yes, we are all good enough to know how to work around it. The point is, we shouldn't have to. I didn't come here to be talked down to. I came here for advice about the problem and information on whether Apple was going to deal with it. Apparently this is the wrong place to come for that sort of information.
Yet there is photo after photo in this thread of the same artifact on smartphones from other manufacturers along with support links from Huawei and Samsung noting that these artifacts are normal for their devices.
So if you want to demand something common to all high end smart phones is a defect and Apple needs to "do something" to correct something all phone cameras do… you're not going to have much luck.
Once again, if you think it is a defect with your phone, contact Apple Support directly:
Contact - Official Apple Support
If it's that Apple needs to "improve this in the future":
We are all just users here.
No one works for Apple, and none of us can tell Apple to do anything.
If you feel your phone is not operating properly, contact Apple Support directly.
Contact - Official Apple Support
However, as you note, Apple has already told you the behavior is normal, so you may want to return your phone for a full refund if you are within the applicable return window.
See my post immediately above yours as well as here:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252037681?answerId=253947931022#253947931022
You may have just been lucky with your 6S because it most assuredly suffered from the same issue.
If you feel that way, return your phone for a refund.
It's no more pronounced than it is on any other premium smartphone.
If you honestly believe other manufacturers have done more to minimize it, purchase their product, that's how consumer economies work.
Really, you can do two things here:
1) Return your phone for a refund and purchase something else that works better for you. This seems the most stress-free choice.
2) Don't return it and complain about the issue here, which will accomplish precisely nothing because Apple is not here and does not read these forums except to monitor for adherence to the Apple Support Communities Terms of Use.
These forums do not exist to commiserate or "form a consensus," they exist to provide specific answers to specific technical questions; there are literally hundreds of other sites at which you can do that if you so choose.
You can't. Feedback to Apple goes here --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple
If you want a fast shot however, instead of defaulting to night mode, choose the flash, which will turn off night mode. Keep in mind if the light is so low night mode would be required to take a decent photograph, without flash or night mode, the picture will be grainy, maybe even unusable.
Yeah. I love Apple products. I love almost all the features and capabilities of the new iPhone 12 Pro Max. The battery life is amazing, and I'm making great progress taking advantage of the new Lidar and latest developer kits. Heck I even own a little Apple stock because I believe more innovation is in the pipeline and generally they are a solid company making high quality products. BUT, the majority of my photos AND videos with this latest and greatest model are littered with green ghosts. It's truly disappointing. Even for indoor photos and videos, you're going to have ghosts and green alien ships flying all around in your videos. If there are multiple lights in a room, even far out of frame, you're going to have green orbs for most or all. Interestingly, I've discovered that ONE of the cameras does NOT have this artifact, which tells me that it's not impossible for them to solve the issue, that at least one camera + lens arrangement is different, of what I believe is same quality, yet artifact free. I seriously doubt Apple is going to willingly do a recall to address it, but I also believe they could at least minimize if not reduce it via a configurable, optional software image processing technique. (And I wish they would. I also wish I could get the same quality photos and videos out of mine that I see flooding various forums boasting of the quality. Those forums and the intense opposition to what we're all observing here, and their support is all starting to make it feel like an ad campaign against us or gaslighting)
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252037681?answerId=254594664022#254594664022
Most of the photos posted here are of normal lens flare and can be duplicated with any modern smart phone with a high end camera.
Green stripes with no obvious intense light source sounds like a hardware issue with your camera, and you may want to discuss it with Apple Support directly:
If you're really that unhappy with the camera on your phone, you can take it back to Apple and get a replacement phone, which will do the exact same thing. That leaves you with two choices.
Just realize that every other high-end cell phone camera system from Samsung to Google Pixel will do pretty much the very same exact thing.
_leefy wrote:
this particular green dot problem is an iPhone only problem, as far as I have seen.
Ignoring Samsung’s discussion of the issue I posted earlier.
Or reports of it on LG phones.
Perhaps the Google Pixel?
Or in the M10 photo you praised?
IPhone 12 Pro Max Lens flare
