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Level 1

39 points

iPhone 13 Pro camera not focusing on subject but on background

I’m noticing that when I touch the screen to get it to focus on a certain point it will adjust focus and I can see it get that point in focus, but then it will settle in/lock onto a different spot in the frame - meaning the point I touched is blurry… I can fill +75% of the screen with the subject or the depth/distance I want in focus, and it will still settle to focus on a small section away from the center of the screen… Distance from subject, .5/1/3 lens, hand held, setting the camera down/tripod, and nothing effects where it ends up focusing…

Someone mentioned turning off the lens correction but I haven’t seen a difference after doing that… No screen protector, Apple case, no magnets, updated and battery fully charged… I’m comparing photos of the same plant, taken in the same location, various lighting conditions (pot lights, halogen, incandescent, a mix), and nothing seems to effect the focusing…

Comparing the iPhone 13 Pro photos to my iPhone 8 and while the iPhone 8 doesn’t produce as crisp an image (comparing in focus to in focus), it focused on what I wanted it to and did so quickly… The length of time it takes the 13 Pro to focus is long enough that it’s noticeable and effects me being able to take pictures as I go about my day… I can’t just point, touch focus, and click… I need to stop, try and get it to focus, and find a way to keep the camera still - handholding it just adds more time to how long it takes to focus…

I can’t believe it’s this bad and I am sure I’m doing something wrong or missing a trick… It’s been a week and I didn’t expect this much of a learning curve… I’m not excited about the learning curve I’m going to go through when I start playing with Portrait, Cinema, video, etc LOL I’ve watched a bunch of videos and don’t see others having this same issue… Is anyone else experiencing this, or does anyone have an idea about what might be causing the problem? Fingers crossed it’s just user error…

Posted on Oct 4, 2021 11:48 AM

Top-ranking reply

sshine2

Level 1

23 points

Posted on Oct 8, 2021 3:22 PM

No way. This is not a problem just she’s having. I have a 13 pro max and am having the same problem along with numerous other camera issues. Apple needs to do something — and fast. This is truly unacceptable.

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95 replies

daisy_emm Author

Level 1

39 points

Nov 9, 2021 4:13 PM in response to danigolborne

I traded in my 8 so I’ll be with the 13 for a while. I should I probably search around and see if people smarter at this stuff have found a fix but I’m expecting that I’ll be turning off all the troublesome features as much as I’m able and go back to using a clip on macro lens.

solei256

Level 1

8 points

Nov 10, 2021 9:39 AM in response to daisy_emm

Me too!! It’s really annoying, while im trying to take the picture it’s just like switching lens and frames so many times takes forever to take a picture. The main reason why I wanted this phone was for the camera but I’m really disappointed in the camera quality right now and how difficult it is to take a picture I’ve never had this issue.

daisy_emm Author

Level 1

39 points

Nov 11, 2021 7:49 PM in response to rebecca in san francisco

I haven’t found a fix. I think there might be a couple things causing problems - the last updated fixed it for some, a factory reset fixed it for some. You can now turn off the camera switching to the macro lens under Settings > Camera and some people have done that.

For me, it feels like the camera is just slow. I tap on the screen to focus and it tries, but runs out of time and stops trying. If I get something in focus and press the shutter, it takes a noticeable amount of time between me clicking it and camera actually taking the picture.

I feel like I have to pause and hold the phone still for 0.5-1 second the same way you have to hold it still taking a low light photo. Half a second feels like a long time if the lighting is good and everything is still. As soon as you add movement - nothing big or fast, just someone’s average facial movement or a plant moving slightly in a breeze and it goes to refocus again, then it’s just luck if the camera takes the photo at the moment stuff is in focus. I don’t expect to see any improvement until whatever’s causing that lag is fixed for my problem.

daisy_emm Author

Level 1

39 points

Nov 20, 2021 5:33 PM in response to daisy_emm

I’ve had that happen - I exit/close the camera and then open it again. I don’t move, the lighting doesn’t change, but the majority of the time when I reopen the camera it will focus and work fine. If that doesn’t work I’lll close and reopen it and then that fixes it. It’s hard to think that it’s anything other than the phone/camera when closing it fixes the problem. The odd time or if I haven’t updated or some other obvious reason and that would be fine, but this is too often and when that’s all I’m asking the phone to do.

Nov 22, 2021 3:22 PM in response to daisy_emm

I called Apple in this problem, they told me to take it to the Apple support which I did. I showed screen records of what was going on and they didn’t know what was going on. It’s really annoying to take pics and videos and hardly any turn out good.

daisy_emm Author

Level 1

39 points

Nov 22, 2021 6:27 PM in response to mikrae275

I agree. It’s annoying when taking photos to not even know what’s causing it, let alone find ways to stop it from happening. I just know that I have to be prepared to take multiple photos until I get one that works. I don’t take a lot of videos, but when the lens switches back and for and focuses on random things then you’re stuck. Short of asking or trying to get whatever was happening to happen again, you’ve missed the moment. My dog can be 6-8’ away so there’s no reason for the lens to switch, and yet it will. She’s laying there chewing on a treat so not a lot of movement, and all of a sudden it switches and is trying to find something macro to focus on. Being asked what I did at that moment to cause it gets old - I do nothing. Sitting down holding the camera still and it does it all on it’s own.

Nov 24, 2021 10:59 PM in response to daisy_emm

Hi i figured out how to fix this, when you see it do the double focus thing, you can click the auto button and bring the tick all the way down till it says off at the very left of the scale and it stops doing it

ZbyszekW

Level 1

8 points

Dec 1, 2021 7:04 AM in response to daisy_emm

Ok - so I am having the same problem with autofocus on my 13 PRO Max. I came from 12 PRO Max - and didnt have ANY problems there. I am not sure if this is related to macro mode, becouse I cannot manually focus (taping on screen) on objects that are far from my phone when they are in the center of the screen if there is anything CLOSE at the edge of view for the photo camera. I supose there is some problem with the lidar / other focus mechanism - it detects something on edges but does not see that there is nothing in center of the screen. It is very sad becouse I can compare photos from both phones (take same photos with both phones in both hands) and there is a lot of blur on some of my photos taken from 13 PRO Max. Apple - please fix this as the rest of the phone is great! Screen in beautiful, battery is great, but... photos are definnetly worse...

Dec 1, 2021 9:00 PM in response to mikrae275

Same here. Having a major issue with the auto focus situation with the camera. The photo and video quality significantly decreases when it switches lens. I also showed the workers at the Genius Bar in apple and they just told me to reset the phone. They have never seen this issue or even know about it. It’s completely frustrating when spending so much money on a phone and it turns out to be a piece of crap.

Dec 6, 2021 6:21 AM in response to daisy_emm

This is exactly what happens to me and I thought I was the only one 😭 I’m so happy to see I’m not crazy because when I tried to show other people they just thought I don’t know how to take a picture!! I have a jewlery business and I spend over two hours on one picture because of this phone and it’s horrible cameras and setting! It upsets me so much and I miss my old phone for that reason. Did the update come out at all? Did anyone find a solution?

TravisEn

Level 1

8 points

Dec 8, 2021 12:32 PM in response to daisy_emm

I'm experiencing the same problem as well, brand new phone and it seems to be switching back-and-forth between macro and normal lens or simply failing to focus on the area I tap. My broken iPhone X camera worked better than this, hopefully they have a software upgrade that fixes it.

Dec 17, 2021 2:11 PM in response to daisy_emm

I am having the same problem with my camera, won’t focus on subject and problems with low lighting (mainly video) very disappointing as the I phone 13 pro is meant to be one of the best cameras on a phone, and my i phone XR recorded better video atm. I hope they will sort it, as it seems to have got worse per update. Other than that the phone runs very very well, although apart from speed and smoothness I do struggle to notice a difference to my old phone.

nicbex

Level 1

4 points

Dec 17, 2021 3:44 PM in response to daisy_emm

Something is definitely not working as it should on the iPhone 13 Pro. I too have huge issues with focusing, if I tap focus it tries to focus, you see the focus going in and out and then fails. I am unable to find a single portion of the picture where it actually finds focus, and definitely not where I tried to manually force it to. Focus lock doesn’t work either.

ZbyszekW

Level 1

8 points

Dec 19, 2021 3:51 PM in response to Dulakshan

Dear Apple! Just updated to 15.2 and the problem still exists! In some cases there is a very light step forward in focusing - VERY LIGHT but in some situations its even worse becouse the new „turn off macro” button is total disaster! I don’t know how can you push to people such not tested feature! Button shows and disapers, then shows and disapears - its like flickering even when I hold my phone in place! Why it cannot be all the time on screen? Why does it have to show and hide? Why does the touch focus still has such huge problems even with macro off? Once it shows everything very blury, and one second after it cafches the focus and lost it a second later? WHAT IS GOING ON APPLE? Should I send You a comparation between my 13 PRO MAX and my Wifes 12 PRO MAX? Why cant You check it by yourself? I bought my iPhone mainly becouse of the camera! The photos from 12 PRO MAX where the best I have seen! No focus problems! But the screen was worse! Now I have situation where screen in 13 PRO MAX is one of the best I have seen! But the camera is worse than camera from 12 PRO MAX becouse of the focusing problems! Please DO SOMETHING WITH THIS becouse it is very frustrating and as I see here a lot of people have very simillar problems!

daisy_emm Author

Level 1

39 points

Dec 20, 2021 8:07 AM in response to Sfern81

Not that I’ve heard. There was a rumour back when the phone came out that there was going to be a fix in the next couple months/updates, but haven’t come across anything since then and none of the updates have helped my issues so far.

iPhone 13 Pro camera not focusing on subject but on background