iPhone 13 Pro camera not focusing on subject but on background

I hadn’t heard this so I’m going to link the Apple explanation for anyone else that might find it helpful. I have an Apple brand case with a magnet so there shouldn’t be an issue but I’ll try anything and if this does fix it I’ll update. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208747

Thanks - appreciate that it doesn’t look like I’ve missed trying something or adjusting an obvious setting. It seems more and more people are posting about the issue, and that it has to do with the camera automatically switching back and forth to macro (there’s no override or option to turn that off), and if you take a photo mid-switch before the camera has refocused, then the photo obviously won’t be in focus.

The fact that the switch back and forth to macro changes the framing so much is incredibly annoying and also probably adding to it. Thee ‘why is what I set up as the focal point of my image now blurry, out of position, halfway obscured, etc, when I had it how I wanted when I pressed the shutter’ is maddening. Wonder if Apple Care covers damage caused by hurling ones iPhone 13 Pro across the room…?

Seems this is related to the auto switching back and forth to macro that the phone does. It’s choosing to switch/autofocus on what it thinks I want to be in focus and between when I’ve framed my shot and pressed the shutter it’s decided to switch to macro (or back), and I’m getting photo during that refocusing or after it’s reframed and focused on something other than what I had set the shot up to be. Fun.

[Edited by Moderator]

What auto button? The only place I’ve seen where I can control it switching to macro is in Settings - second highlight from Apple screenshot.

Apple says - first highlight, that the camera switching while “maintaining framing”. But it doesn’t on my phone (and for a lot of the other people commenting here). Does your camera maintain the framing you chose when it switches back and forth to macro?

Thanks - starting to see more and more that’s written about the issues with the camera and most /a lot of what I’ve seen posted says that it’s to do with the automatic switching back and forth to macro that the phone does. Apparently there will be an update to address it - I’ve read everything from the option to turn off macro completely, to chose/turn off the automatic switching and have it be a sort of editing option, AF lock also locking the auto switching, etc. Agreed it’s super annoying and really confused how it wasn’t noticed by anyone before the release how disruptive it is - it’s not just an annoying to professional photogs type thing. The reframing that happens, and how that completely changes the composition of a photo - sometimes to the point of the detail you were trying to photograph being obscured by something else, is insane.

Hoping that there’ll be an update similar to the flash (auto, on, off), - feel like that would solve the issues I’m seeing anyways.

I’ve been avoiding trying to figure out and adjust settings and just hoping the update fixes most of not all of the problems. A camera that reframes your shots (and no way to turn off that feature), and an autofocus that overrides my AF lock are irritating. The amount of time between when I click to take the photo and when the camera decides which lens and what it’s going to focus on is long enough - longer than any other phone I’ve tried, that I’m missing shots. It’s great that video will track and keep a subject in focus but the camera is slow to the point that an in focus snapshot of our dogs is a rarity.

Same - the photos on my iPhone 8 weren’t as sharp but they weren’t out of focus blurry. The video focus tracking thing is cool, but I take way more photos than video and not being able to get a passably in focus snapshot of our dogs without making them sit/stay is ridiculous.