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 can't remember if I showed these two photos here in this thread or in another one on this topic.
Here's a picture I took with flare. I could easily see the flare on my iPhone 12 Pro Max screen before I took the photo, which you could have seen if you were holding my phone as well:
Is my phone defective? No, of course not.
Without moving my position at all, I moved the angle of the camera relative to the scene and took this photo seconds later. Notice anything different? The flares are gone.
Recently I was trying to shot a picture and then a video in low light conditions and when I saw the super annoying flare on the iPhone 12 pro max, I took my old Iphone 8 plus, my iPhone 6 plus, and my Samsung galaxy to see if the issue was there too. Result: nothing on those phones, no flare (again, I am talking of low light situations with a weak light source - a candle in my case)
Well, Dogcow-Moof has convinced me. Lens quality is significantly higher, and this is why everyone is noticing the artifacts now. Older iPhones lenses just wash out the quality so they're either not there or less pronounced. I'm not yet convinced that Apple cannot solve this with some math and live processing. They know all of the metrics on the lenses, they know the pitches and movements of the camera, and for indoor shoots, they can probably even get ranges. They have all of the factors they need and the computational power to do it. Also, the color of these green flares is extremely consistent. The simplest transformation is to adjust those pixels. More complex computations would calculate the probable region of flares, look for obtuse pixels and normalize them. I think if that were an option in the camera app, everyone would be a lot happier and it would truly push this phone's picture and video quality to its real potential and set them apart from competitors that everyone is pointing out that have similar artifacts.
The reality is no matter what camera you're using, photographing directly into the sun with water reflection is EXTREMELY difficult. On my Nikon DSLR, with a $1,000 lens, I'd make sure to use my lens hood to minimize the suns reflection against the sensor. That's not an option on a cell phone, so some flares are simply unavoidable.
No it's not normal, the glass that covers the lenses needs some special coating to fix this, I never had any of these lense flares on my older iphones like the 6 and 8 plus. So something has def. changed with the newer models. Some also suggest that maybe the lenses are placed to close to each other and thats what causing the problem maybe because the light is being reflected from one to another. Thats why if you look at the iphone 13 the lenses have been seperated a bit more, so im exited to see if maybe this will fix some of the problems with lense flares.
It is the way it is supposed to perform.
You are taking photos that are textbook examples of how to induce flare.
The devices are not faulty.
Professional photographers and videographers take the time to frame and setup their shots to avoid any potential artifacts or, if they want them, to use them artistically.
$40,000+ Arri Alexa cinema camera being used to shoot a Hallmark Channel movie:
Lens flare:
Other manufacturers have stated it is normal, let alone for Apple.
Once again, you can read Samsung’s explanation of why it happens on their phones here.
They won’t be going away no matter how many times you exchange phones or what other brand of phone you choose.
I wish you the best of luck in your search for a phone camera that meets your needs.
If you have to ask such a question, you should learn more about photography. Do you understand anything about Aperture, ISO, focal points, etc? I'm guessing you don't. Even if you don't, as I've mentioned numerous times in this thread, simply altering the angle of the camera to the subject will have a dramatic effect on flares.
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.
I saw that video last week when it was posted by them. Not really a smoking gun to prove your points. Then clearly mention personal preference over what they recognize was better photos for various personal reasons to them. And some they mentioned were nearly equal but they preferred something minimal like white balance.
My 12 Pro Max and Note 20 Ultra photos don’t both display the same issues. My Note doesn’t show the same green dots in the exact same photos, so clearly it’s not user error both are framed in multiple different angles and the green dots always show up on the iPhone and do not on the Note. I can’t say it’s defective but it’s a iPhone issue more than laws of physics. To be fair I do the same exact Christmas photo every year and a couple years back I had the dot issues with whatever current gen iPhone that was back then and last year I did not get it on my 11 Pro Max. So it’s a hardware produced issue with whatever process they use with the lenses or coating.
Which is exactly what we've been trying to tell many here. There is no defect with the camera system. People need to learn how to minimize these artifacts in framing their subjects, ESPECIALLY using Night Mode. It's clear many here are simply unfamiliar with Night Mode. Until iPhone 11 was released, Night Mode didn't exist for iPhone. Now we have people using Night Mode without really understanding it.
Between the blue green artifacts and the daily kernel panics experienced with Big Sur, I am not real happy with Apple right now.
With normal lens flares, you can usually get rid of them with lens hoods or by changing camera angle slightly. On the new iPhones, however, these artifacts will appear in almost any picture with a bright light, no matter how much you adjust the lens angle. Yes, throughout history in photography some shots are "impossible photos," but with the iPhone it appears that making all photos "impossible" is now "normal."
IPhone 12 Pro Max Lens flare
