IPhone 12 Pro Max Lens flare

I personally have posted photos from more or less every other phone on the market showing “multiple dot” flares, and it all depends upon the source of the reflection.

Point sources lead to “dots,” multiple sources multiple dots, and large bright objects ghost images.

Apple can't do anything about it because it's a limitation of optics.

Feel free to choose an Android next time.

Oh, and once again, here's a wonderful comparison of flare on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

This photo came through my FB stream. Because of the ghosting I suspected it to be a 12 PM. This is the 3rd time I have identified a potential 12 PM because of the obvious ghosting. This could have been shot with any camera or phone. It was a 12 PM. I’m 3 out of 3. So if I move the sun in multiple positions following the Rule of thirds the ghosting would go away? I think not - I tried it and it didn’t. Maybe I should have moved down the beach a mile. Sure, that’s the ticket.

Hey Dogcow-Moof 👋

I didn’t see any references on other phones like we have here. Your links only lead on dot glares. But we have here full mirroring of light sources. It ruins the whole video shooting and it cannot be avoided.

I have never seen such a defect on the video, either on DSLR cameras or mirrorless or on the phones of other companies.

Will be glad to see exact the same level of video defects on other devices.

Terrible 😕

Yes, the green dots, lens flare, visible on photos at least as far back as the iPhone 6, phones from Apple, Google, Samsung, as well as professional cinema digital cameras using professional lenses.

Here is “green dot” lens flare from a movie shot using a $36,000 Arri Amira digital cinema camera with a lens that runs around $10K itself.

You can see the two green dots caused by flare from the two bright lights directly behind the subject.

this is taken from my iphone 12. im not a professional photographer but this seems to be disgusting. even the iphone 11 has much lower lens glare but why they cant fix this issue with software update at to a certain point ?

What can I say. I'm a gluten for punishment.

Sadly, they will not be fixing this until they lose those big disks that cover the tiny lenses.

those big lens covers are, I believe, there only to make the device instantly recognized. Actually marketing over function. What a flat out disappointment. I returned my 11 for this reason. Most of the pictures and all the videos I took were useless in the short time I owned it. The fact they reflect green light shows Apple knows and tried to fix it. Good phone, really bad camera.

Those disks as you call them are there to protect the cameras. Those disks are sapphire. Remove them and you'll unleash issues you can't fathom. So many of you keep your cameras in your pockets. Grains of sand would damage the cameras very quickly.

This is actually just evidence that not all lens 'flares' are created equal. This is a typical, aesthetically pleasing flare on a light source that is reminiscent of film and SLR photography. The ghost reflections and multiple green dots all over the place are aberrations of a different character. That this is the type of lens flare you get on a M10 shows that it's not just 'physics' and that it's a lot to do with lens design, coatings etc. it would be nice if the iPhone hardware/camera implementation could be refined to produce this kind of smartphone photography result.

Short of discoveries in optics or physics, it can't be.

Even Leica, who has been making lenses since 1914, can't solve the problem in the smartphone space despite working with Huawei to do so.

That M10 flare is just plain obnoxious to me - across the entire frame and something typically only obtainable with a star filter.

The dots and ghost images you complain of are very easily avoidable using basic photographic techniques.

The normal iPhone 12 has the same problem. This should definitely be classified as a defective. The light reflection/ghosting is why more prominent and distracting than it should be. Apple should fix this issue, not on Next year's phone but now. the lenses do not have the proper coating to reduce the reflection.

[Link Edited by Moderator]