Camera on IPhone 12 Pro Max not focusing

Adjust the camera’s focus and exposure

Before you take a photo, the iPhone camera automatically sets the focus and exposure, and face detection balances the exposure across many faces. If you want to manually adjust the focus and exposure, do the following:

1. Tap the screen to show the automatic focus area and exposure setting.
2. Tap where you want to move the focus area.
3. Next to the focus area, drag  up or down to adjust the exposure.
4. To lock your manual focus and exposure settings for upcoming shots, touch and hold the focus area until you see AE/AF Lock; tap the screen to unlock settings.

I visited an Apple authorised reseller today and tested the focusing on two iPhone 12 Pro Max phones. Neither of them would focus as close as the 12 Pro, 12, and 12 Mini phones in the store. Indeed the other phones could focus almost 50% closer than both the 12 Pro Max phones. I do hope Apple comes out with an update that will fix this. I am holding off buying the 12PM until Apple fixes this.

So far it is not clear whether this a software problem, or whether it is a inherent limitation in the 12 Pro Max camera system. Whatever the case may be, it is a shame that Apple’s flagship iPhone is exhibiting such issues. As a loyal Apple user for over 30 years, I do find it’s discouraging that Apple’s flagship phone can’t focus as close as the other iPhones in the 12 series, or indeed as close as previous generation iPhones. I do wish Apple would clarify this issue.

it seems that on iPhone 11 Pro Max you can focus at about 8 cm and with the 12 pro max you need to go to at least 13 cm..

i really hope it is some kind of a software bug because it feels like a downgrade...

100% I already am using my iPhone 11 Pro Max again. I felt disabled with the 12pro Max. Unbelievable for a $1400 phone. I really hope they are able to fix it. In the meantime I am returning my 12pro Max.

Just received my new iPhone 12 pro max today and the first thing I get is camera issues. I only upgraded because they said my camera issues couldn’t be fixed on my XS Max and now taking pictures close up doesn’t work 🤦🏽‍♀️ Blurry version is new 12 Pro Max and clear version is from XS Max

I have the same issue and now I’ve heard the official statement from Apple... It’s not a software issue. It’s the larger lense. The macro focusing distance is larger than on 11 Pro Max, and also than 12 and 12 Pro, because of the larger lense.

I called Apple support last week and the guy took the questions to the Apple engineers. Called med back this week with the answer that the fact that the 12 Pro Max cannot focus as close to a subject as the previous models is due to the larger lense. It’s the lense itself and not a software issue.

I asked him if he could forward the email that the engineers had sent to him, so that I could feature the mail in my YouTube-video, but that wasn’t possible. Apple will be putting this info up on their webpage in some way, and they wanted the facts to come straight from them and not from any other source.

I’m making a follow up video on the issue and will be releasing it tomorrow I hope. Until then this is my initial video, when I first discovered the difference between focus on the 11 Pro Max and 12 Pro Max:

https://youtu.be/cSOPV8jJZCQ

In every other regard, the camera on the 12 Pro Max is better (compared to 11 Pro Max, which is quite frankly the only phone it should be compared to since this is the first year that we’re getting a difference between cameras on Pro and Pro Max). Way better low light performance, faster focus etc. Just not being able to focus as close up, which is quite important for me because of the nature of my channel 🤷‍♂️

They told me that too. COMPLETE DOWNGRADE. This is exactly why I returned my 12 pro Max the next day. My iPhone 11 Pro max has never felt better. I felt disabled without that close focus function on the 12 pro max. If Apple is smart they will try to find a work around for this.

This is so trash. How does Apple think it's okay to release an inferior phone like this? I'm more mind blown that regular people who are buying this phone aren't saying anything. Are you guys seriously on the Apple band wagon that much, where you can't say something when they do wrong. My XR focused ten times better and took better phones. I'm already past the return period and I am now stuck with this phone. I use macro shots for work and I am beyond mad.

I just spoke with "apple care" and he said he has the same phone does the same thing and that the camera is working how it should be. What???? I thought this was their top of the line latest and greatest smh if I could return I would my 8 plus focused without a problem, sad thing is I can no longer return it. Very disappointed in this phone but apple gives not one you know what about it.

I am facing the same issue and Apple support team on chat does not know about this. He asked me to do reset settings which did not work. This is how iPhone 12 Pro Max pic looks like when IPhone 7 Plus is able to perform AF.

iPhone 7 Plus

I have the iPhone 11 Pro Max I just bought two months ago and unfortunately we are having this issue as well. The autofocus only works when you tap on it and if your trying to get close like let’s say a picture of your finger up close, the camera doesn’t want to focus even when you tap to autofocus. Apparently this is an issue after the updates? Idk... but I paid almost $2,000 for this phone so I would like to know what the heck can be done we shouldn’t have this problem with a phone over one thousand dollars. 🙄🤷🏼‍♀️

Did they tell you anything about the issue?

Same problem here, even bought Pro Cam to try it out and fix it but I had no success.

I am suffering from this with my new 12 Pro Max. The workaround I’m using is to use the zoom (2.5?) and that’s the only way I can focus on a close object