AF/AE lock not turning off in video

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Level 1

11 points

AF/AE lock not turning off in video

Hi! So on my iPhone 12 mini, when previewing a video shot, once you tap an area to go into af/ae lock, you need to just move the phone a little and it goes into autofocus mode. But once you’re actually filming a video, it always stays in the same area, and tapping on other parts of the screen just moves it there, making is impossible to use. You have to stop filming and start over and never tap the screen. Has anyone had this problem? Am I just doing it wrong, or is this a bug? Will it be fixed?

iPhone 12 mini, iOS 14

Posted on May 8, 2021 9:45 PM

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Answer 1

May 9, 2021 2:09 AM in response to Valentinaoui

You may tap and hold your finger on the screen to focus and hold it there for a few seconds. The message “AE/AF LOCK” will appear on your screen and means that your focus and exposure have automatically been locked.

To turn this off, tap your finger on the screen again.

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Answer 2

Fastraph

Level 1

4 points

Jun 2, 2021 11:08 PM in response to Valentinaoui

Yeah I have the exact same problem, it’s very annoying as sometimes I want to focus on something else but then I can’t change back to auto focus after moving away. Hopefully they fix this or create a workaround.

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Answer 3

Fastraph

Level 1

4 points

Jun 1, 2021 9:45 PM in response to Valentinaoui

Did you manage to find a fix to this?

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Answer 4

Valentinaoui Author

Level 1

11 points

Jun 2, 2021 11:05 PM in response to Fastraph

No, sadly, what SravanKrA wrote about works fine - I’m talking about the thing circled in my screenshot. It goes away automatically if the frame changes dramatically, but say a person walks into shot - and the focus is still stuck where the square is. You can tap to focus on the person, but then they move closer and out of focus and the box isn’t where you need it again. Seems like this is a feature rather than a bug, sadly 🤷🏼‍♀️

But if you start filming and don’t tap the screen, so no box appears, then the auto focus is wonderful, it’s almost always following moving subjects and focusing on points of interest in the shot. But you can’t just not use manual focus when filming, sometimes it’s a necessity.

Does this cause problems for you too?

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AF/AE lock not turning off in video

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