iPhone 12 Pro Max camera issues

As for the issue of light flickering, studying a little this whole issue I have been able to verify one thing.

This only happens to people who live in countries with PAL format (like Spain), where artificial light works with FPS multiples of 25. In many other places like the US it does not happen because they work with FPS multiples of 30.

I have downloaded the RCam app, which allows you to vary the FPS and I have been able to verify that in video recording with 30FPS and 60FPS this flickering of the light occurs when recording video, which does not happen if I set the recording to 25FPS or 50FPS.

I know Apple is going to introduce 25FPS recording and would ask if they can introduce 50FPS in the future for better and smoother recordings.

Setting the camera's FPS to 25FPS or 50FPS eliminates this problem. so... PROBLEM SOLVED!

No, filming at 60 FPS will always result in flicker when filming under artificial light flickering at 50 Hz as in the UK and Europe.

Cinema digital camera company RED explains it nicely here:

https://www.red.com/red-101/flicker-free-video-tutorial

Ask Apple to add 25 and 50 FPS video modes here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

In the mean time, some third party video camera apps do support filming modes of 25 and 50 FPS which should eliminate the flicker for you.

Hi there, Ive had the exact same issues but just my 1x Optical Zoon on the normal camera, I figured its a software issue and have been in contact with apple and they have said theyre well aware of the issues and apple is already onto releasing the next software update for it! Though it is very frustrating being a photographer and relying on your camera every day, really all I can do now is use the wide angle and crop it in :(

I can't speak about stuttering as I don't own iPhone12.

But flickering (exposure "warrble") is a bug known for a long time, which is related to other iPhones too (in my case - XS and 11Pro) and apple does nothing to fix it for sooo long...

Even you lock the exposure (by long pressing on the screen), it still changes - which makes no sense at all.

The exposure shifting is basically Apple's DTM (dynamic tone mapping). It's impossible to turn this "feature" off even by app makers like FilmicPRO. I see a lot complains about this all over the web!

There was a commercial movie taken entirely with an iPhone 8 - "High flying bird" by Steven Soderbergh and he also was so frustrated about this issue. https://momofilmfest.com/soderbergh-reveals-issues-with-iphone-filmmaking/

Look also there:

https://youtu.be/BX85W1VFUuA

Change the light bulbs from the one that flicker to the ones that don’t. It could be the frequency of the light that does it

Wether shooting videos in 1080 or 4K pls know that 60fps will work better only with bright and matured outdoor day lights. For indoor and low lights it is suggested to switch to 30 FPS for better result or Auto FPS 30&60 where camera automatically decides the FPS while understanding the lights, subject to shooting indoors or outdoors. Also there needs sufficient lights when shooting indoor especially in low light in order to get rid of flickering. Know that more light means less flickering and you can always play around with focous exposure. Having said that i still feel apple can do lot more better for low light videography. But at present these are the only possibly settings. My OS is up to date which is 14.4 at present.

Some basic tips for shooting videos in low light.

1) Add extra powerful focous lights or ring LED lights as per the requirement in order to achieve cleanest possible looking video

2) Always shoot in 30FPS and adjust focous exposure in your phone’s main camera app.

3) Always clear the ram and restart your phone before shooting any video.

4) Clean all the 3 lenses gently and nicely before shooting the video.

One can’t do anything more then these. Hoping that Apple resolves this serious issue in their next update and looking forward to much better shooting experience.

Happy user of iPhone 12 Pro Max. Happy Shooting Folks! :)

• Harsh

If your 12 Pro Max won’t focus but another does, yours should be looked at as it likely needs to be serviced.

Contact - Official Apple Support

Quick update, I have submitted a 'ticket to engineering' via the support team to investigate further after providing them some example videos. This sounded like an unfamiliar bug to them. I would encourage other uses to get in touch for support/build awareness. I started simply with Live Chat.

PLEASE BEWARE! (before you buy iphone 12 pro as this phone has lots of issues)

It's 4th of March 2021 and Apple still didn't do anything about Camera Issues that thousands of people have. They

didn't fix this issue and also didn't fix many other critical issues that are within Apple camera app when using iPhone 12 pro 128 GB.

I have purchased second time iPhone 12 pro 128 gb. First time I had all issues described below

and second time my phone had again the same issues (maybe there are thousands of faulty - not tested phones out there ?)

and I have the issue described by Kris and also other issues that will be described below + i will

add later videos when I will upload them on youtube so people will know before they buy this phone how faulty camera it has.

Critical issue 1 - HDR doesn't work,but it was advertised by Apple it is so good.

Steps to reproduce :

1. open apple camera app

2. make sure to have video HDR enabled (settings/video/video hdr)

3. record sun or white surface in 4K 60 fps or any other option

Actual Result :

the white surface or sky starts to flash / flickering

+ this is also visible when you upload video on your pc / laptop

Critical issue 2 - Movement of camera is stutettring/lagging (camera stabilization doesn't work)

Steps to reproduce :

1. open apple camera app

2. switch to any video mode

3. record anything with holding it horizontal or vertical

Actual result :

the image is stuttering/lagging after few seconds

Critical issue 3 - Clips, app made by apple has lags and is stuttering.

Steps to reproduce :

1. open Clips app

2. switch to front camera or back camera

3. move your phone to left and then right

4. watch how image is lagging and stuttering

Actual result :

image is lagging and stuttering

and Bonus Critical for Clips here...

1. tap on camera switch button 5 times or more in a row

2. watch how clips just freeze for few seconds and doesnt respond

Actual result :

app is being freeze for long time

Critical issues 4 - lowering brightness in 4k 60FPS wide-camera freeze the screen ...

Steps to reproduce :

1. open apple camera app

2. switch to 0,5x mode on video 4K 60FPS

3. touch with finger and lower brightness down

4. now move your camera and watch the lag

Critical issue 5 - photos in '2' mode (telephoto i guess?) image is jumping and colors are changing

Steps to reproduce :

1. open camera app

2. switch to mode '2' in photo mode

3. point your phone with camera on object thats 1 meter away

4. point now your camera to focus on object that is close to camera

Actual result:

image is jumping after 1 second

Question to @All or someone who knows : How can I call attention of Apple Developers to fix it in next upcoming IOS update ... ? if its not being fixed I will return phone and buy Huawei.

because I see them they are doing IOS updates that are not useful but they are not fixing these critical issues, thank you!

I did that and they ran diagnosis with my iPhone and they said no errors, they said do restore to default and it did nothing at all, then they said go to nearest apple store for repair and i didnt do that yet. I’ve returned iphone instead and purchased new one (still it has same issues!) im sure it is software issue now or faulty hardware in more then thousands of phones maybe. If it is software issue it wont be fixed at apple reseller store by any technician so what should i do now? :P

You are still assuming it is a hardware issue with the phone and that there are not other combinations of settings or other factors that are causing the issue.

I wouldn't speculate as to what those may be, but I assume you've tried erasing your phone and setting it up as a brand new device without transferring any of your data or installing any of your apps and seeing if the issues remain.

It depends upon the lights that are on.

Fluorescent and LED bulbs actually all flicker at 60 Hz, too fast for your eye to notice, but the exact shutter frequency of 60 FPS video.