iPhone 13 pro lens flare

It's not "that bad," in fact it's no different than it was on the IPhone 12, 11, Xs, X or 8.

If you search the discussions you'll see people making the same "lens flare has never been this bad" argument with each of those devices.

As shown above you will also see the same issue on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones.

I have had the same issue but with much bigger flare than the one shown on some photos on my IPhone 13 pro max ,even if changing the angle and reduce the light on spot metering on the screen.it seems to me that this is a bug on the camera selection .last night during the focus and noticing this large flare ,i have obstructed alternatively each single lens , I don’t remember which one it was but when the camera had refocus after i removed my finger ,then the photo has been exposed perfectly .

I will try again and show the large flare i have had and mention which camera was the one creating this issue .

Which would be a completely normal effect.

Each of the lenses is in a different position on the back of the phone, yielding a different angle towards any light source, plus each has slightly different optical properties.

Lens flare will not look the same between the lenses and in fact may occur under different circumstances.

No it is not in the case as describe ,the camera did nto focus correctly and chose wrong lens .the focus or lens tha tthe camera chose was wrong and could not adjust the ligth properly until i occult one of the lens. I will show photo when its happen again as the flare was so important htta the photo was usuless

Seems to happen when shooting into any light source….needs to be behind you. Kinda a drag since that eliminates like 50-60 percent of your shots! Lame. Trillions of operations per second and this can’t be eliminated automatically post production?

Low hanging fruit, Apple!

There are apps you can download with eraser tools, like Lightroom for iPhone. To expect Apple to automatically remove data from a photograph is not going to happen. You the photographer should decide what data you want and then you can remove unwanted artifacts after the photo is taken.

Of course, you the photographer can also see lens flare easily on your iPhone screen before you take a photo and often, simply reangling the camera relative to the scene can greatly reduce and often eliminate lens flare. But you seem to expect the camera to be able to do this all on its own, which is not possible.

like any other option you can set on the camera, seems like this could be one. Imagine all the tech in these phones, LIDAR, 5 nm circuits, trillions of operations and something known to be the most powerful phone on the planet, all the pre/post production settings you can have not the camera, etc. etc. Surely, these AI helpers could easily find these flares and extrapolate the background to illuminate them. Like any filter you can apply, make that a thing!

I’m sure they are looking at that for unskilled photographers in the future but you are looking at a lot of processing and battery power. I think we are going to need a battery breakthrough to make it happen and they are going to need an option to turn it off. I also think in its first 3 iterations that you and others will have a thread saying it doesn’t work right and ruins your photos

How can this be any kind of "expectation" when it's never happened on previous iPhones as tons of people are saying to you? I've never seen it til now on my new 13 Pro Max. I've never seen it on other iPhones. Why would I suddenly "expect" lens flare that didn't happen at all before? You can't just tell people "Oh you never noticed it," that's just nonsense and calling people liars about what they are saying.

We have a legitimate complaint here. It wasn't present for most people before, and suddenly it is very noticeable all the time. I had one white flare floating around when I first took a picture, I thought it was a stupid bug flying around, because it was so unusual and totally UNEXPECTED. Now I see flares like every time I take a photo and have to make adjustments. With or without a protective cover on the lenses, makes no difference.

We don't use or own $50K cameras. We use iPhones. The problem has not been so prevalent as in this new one. Apple needs to just tell people the issue and that it will happen, and should have done it before selling them, if it's such a "normal" occurance now. Because it most certainly was not "normal" before!!

But you are not correct. It has happened on previous iPhone's just as Dogcow-Moof has demonstrated. I know he has more imgages as well, because he has posted them in other threads. Perhaps you didn't notice flares, but be assured they have existed through many generations of iPhone, Samsung Phones, Google Pixel Phones, and just about any good camera phone in-between.

And has been explained, it is optical physics when photographing bright lights directly. If you can find a way to eliminate these artifacts without having to be more careful and angle the camera differently to avoid capturing flares, be prepared to become very rich. Because no camera maker, whether it be cell phone or higher end (Nikon, Cannon, etc.) has figured out how to alter optical physics. NONE.

Physics doesn't work like that.

Ironically, the better the optical performance of the lenses, the more noticeable lens flare will be.

A cheap digital camera with poor plastic lenses will display little almost no flare at all.

Look at all the people complaining the iPhone 13's photos are over processed; imagine if they tried to automatically remove flare and buttons and other circular objects started disappearing from photos.

And there it is again. Basically calling all people liars who say they haven't seen it on previous iPhones. I'm sorry you HAVE seen it, the majority of people coming here are saying WTH is this I've not seen this on previous iPhones.

I won't repeat myself. Apple needs to acknowledge this. Argue all you want to. I've never seen it on an iPhone til now. Not mine. Not my friends. Started on 12 for anyone I know.

Unfortunately this is a common issue on majority of mobile phones and their sensors. However reading all comments and replies I have to disagree that this can't be avoided and is present on all expensive cameras. Having myself goPro Hero 7 Black, lens flares are present but does not appear as a ghost artifacts or UFO dots like some are calling them. As for the mobile photography there are brands that have partnered with ZEISS and optics are coated with their T* Coating, which significantly improvers this physics phenomenon. Example phones are Vivo X70 Pro +, Sony Xperia 1 Mk III, or new Xperia Pro-I. It is heavens better compared to iPhones Pro begining from 11 models until the present ones, which are known to be more sensitive to this issue, then other mobile phones due to the design of their camera optics and materials used (plastic in most cases) vs. glass for Xperia Pro-I. Apple is also not on the same level of computing photography as e.g. Google, who is using multiple algorithms to make it better post photo shoot. At the end of the day it is take it or leave it decision and if take it, learn to live with this and try to make it better by adjusting angles. This however only applies to still photography and not to the video.

Kris

Lobsterghost1,

I am not sure why so defensive. I own Pixel 4a 5g and Pixel 6 Pro myself, same as iPhone 13 Pro. What I wrote is a pure fact and thousands of photos and videos taken from all three devices, on the exact same lightning conditions and positions of all mobile devices. The true fact is that iPhones are more exposed to the lens flaring and that is due to the optics and materials used by Apple. You can find multiple videos on YouTube using multiple different mobile phones, demonstrating what I am trying to describe. Don't get me wrong, Pixels also generate lens flares (different in a way, like reddish flower flakes), however the 'ghosting' itself is not as severe and present as on iPhones. Vivo X70 Pro Plus on the other hand with ZEISS lens coating is in my personal opinion, the mobile phone where lense flares and ghostings are nearly non-visible. So yes, I am not questioning physics itself as there are no arguments about the light phenomenon itself, but materials used and coating is defo the factoring here on iPhones. Apple could do more to improve this but choice is not to.

That question has been answered multiple times, if you read back: Change the angle of the camera or put the light source behind you…. there are also shrouds you can attach to keep the light angle for hitting the lens directly…

The topic here is pretty lengthily so there’s more detail in the history.