iPhone 13 Pro camera not focusing on subject but on background

The 13 Pro Max Camera is a complete letdown compared to the 11 Pro Max i had before.

Whenever i take Portrait pictures it shows perfect focus and bokeh - but when i look at the picture afterwards in my camera roll it is completely different and useless. I end up killing off the portrait effect to be able to use the photo.

I'm on 15.2 and this is still (!!!) not gone!

The focus problems continue in video mode, where i currently have to manually tap-focus everything and instantly correct the lighting aswell (mostly over-exposes everything i tap).

Also: The Tele Lens Photos are completely different color, especially in the evenings. It's completely pale and the color correction does not seem to work. But that's a different story.

I have the same issue. I try taking pics on a mirror and I thought is was something related with using the lidar sensor. I had an 11Pro and I never experienced this before. The telephoto camera just seems to focus on everything but the thing you want.

This phone is honestly a huge disappointment. All that hype about the camera and lenses and the macro and I thought wow, the photos I will be able be able to take of animals with this phone, but no. It focus’s on the background, rarely the subject. If the subject moves it’s worse, the camera doesn’t know what to focus on and shifts it’s focus back and forth and often just goes entirely blurry.

The slight upgrade to that macro option with that flower in the corner of the screen I think has helped with close ups but it still prefers to focus on background stuff and if it wasn’t so horrendously expensive I could throw the thing against the wall most times when all I want you to is take a nice photo.

I have fish and when I video them, the focus is an issue too! It will focus on the fish…….if it stays still - I can opt to zoom in close with the x3 option but as soon as the fish starts to move and I move the camera with the fish, it often loses ALL focus and the ENTIRE screen goes blurry forcing me to have to zoom back out to try and get it to focus on something again, hopefully the fish, there goes my lovely video and I’ve lost my shot of the fish catching its food.

For the amount this phone cost? No. Give me my iPhone 8 Plus any day. Very VERY disappointed. 

And to market and advertise this phone using the camera as one of its main selling points? What a let down.

Right now, after years of being an avid Apple supporter, I’m currently not - I’m not recommending this phone to anyone who’s interested in buying it for the camera, and I’m thinking android is probably my best option if I want a good camera. My husbands new Google pixel phone takes comparatively impressive photos of animals and fast moving fish.

Looking at other posts here it appears I’m clearly not the only one.

Was experimenting.

Relatively small objects like bag, vase, are out of focus if there are space behind it. But putting it close to the wall - and pictures are sharp.

I hope service center will take my phone back, huge load of money for such poor camera!

I bought it only because of the camera ratings on Dxomark and reviews with stunning sharp and colorful pictures. Big marketing tricks?

The camera will not focus anywhere near as good as the 11 pro max will. At this point it really looks like I made a mistake to upgrade to the 13 pro max. It appears to be a serious down grade instead. Not happy with it at all and I just updated the software update today.

I have my iPhone 13promax for 7 days & had to return it today as taken photos with it was a DISASTER!

I have an iPhone 11 Pro Max & it’s far better for taking photos!

I have spent a lot of money on this phone & I just can’t believe that’s it’s such a disaster!

I use my camera every day to take photos of all my work that I do!

Apple needs to sort this URGENTLY!!!

I tried my camera out for the first real time today at my son’s soccer game. I could barely get the thing to focus at all! I’d get the image I want and it was like it was focusing on the glass on the lens and if I tried to tap on my screen to focus on a subject it wouldn’t refocus. It’s like it was locked on what it wanted to focus on. Also noticed that if I moved my camera to follow the activity and shoot later it did the exact same thing. It would suddenly try focus on extreme close-up. I tried shutting off all the auto tools in the settings and closing and reopening the app but nothing helped. I upgraded to this phone for a better camera and feel totally cheated. I had iPhone XS before and it shot way better photos. I also can’t seem to not get a pixelated picture out of the wide angle no matter what. It’s like the ONLY good pictures are from the preset zooms, 0.5, 1, or 3.

My issue is with the 3x lens mostly. If I try taking a photo in the mirror, it focuses on the glass itself even if it's clean, it's never sharp or clear on me if im snapping a pic. If I adjust to 2.9x (the 1x lens) it becomes much sharper. I've had this issue since iPhone 12 and thought it was just my hardware, I've wiped the device, got a brand new device, and now a brand new iPhone 13 and it's the same.

Hi

I am just after returning my second new iPhone 13 pro max !

camera in both were rubbish & last one lost connection on Vodafone network & wouldn’t re-connect again!

I am waiting for my replacement to arrive!

If it’s not right I will change from apple for

good!

They are totally overrated!

Regards mg.

very disapointed!!

I got my 13 Pro Max back from Repair a week ago. They swapped the whole camera unit after seing the glitches in Color and focus themselves.

IT DID NOT SOLVE THE ISSUE!

the camera is still unusable in telephoto mode and in video mode since the macro even with the control switch will continue to glitch its way into the video. And that is without being even close to a foot away from the objects!! The camera does NOT know what to focus on, when to focus and the Colors are completely bland when shooting with telephoto in any conditions that involve the low light feature.

UNBELIEVABLE!!

Apple is C***. I too can’t use my camera. It’s the main reason I bought it. Apple is rushing out garbage now. Their speech recognition is unusable too. It changes entire sentences at the end of the sentence. I sent my boss a message with a curse word because of this.

Trying to dictate a response while driving is dangerous. It takes several attempts, and if it completely changes what you’re trying to say , it takes your eyes off the road repeatedly.

Their cameras and speech recognition used to work. They’ve lowered their standards, rushed the camera and speech out to sell phones. Very annoying.

My next phone is an Android.

This is definitely not the only person with the problem. I’m so disappointed. I can’t believe with this many complaining and the number of updates we’ve done since buying, not one of them has been a fix for the phone. I am missing TONS of moments with my kids due to the camera not focusing. And I’m not trying to have to take every picture with macro… because it pixelates the photo. I have to exited out of my camera completely and it will focus for a split second and then the entire screen goes blurry again. It doesn’t even matter if I click on the screen to get it to focus. It does nothing. My XS focused wayyyy faster. One of the main reasons I upgraded, especially to the pro, was the camera, and it’s been a waste. That’s a very expensive purchase to not work!!! Frustrated with Apple. FIX THIS!