iPhone 13 Pro camera not focusing on subject but on background

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.

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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.

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.

Yes! You worded that better than I did, thank you.

And yes - I haven’t noticed an improvement with the update. Someone wrote about a rumour that Apple was going to add the option to turn off macro switching as part of an update by the end of the year so I still have my fingers crossed.

Three lenses, cinematic mode, the styles you can choose…yet something as simple as turning off automatically switching to macro was left out. Leave the auto macro feature there - some people must find it useful, but including an option to turn it off seems like a no brainer… Better yet and what I’m hoping for (hoping it’s why the fix is taking so long), is both the option to turn off auto switching and the option to choose to use macro. I’m usually pretty aware of when I’m trying to take a macro shot so give me access to that lens only and let me sort out and decide what is/isn’t in focus. If someone wants the camera to be fully automatic cool, and if someone is trying for a certain shot or effect then they can control it. Not like someone is going to choose the macro lens, screw up where they wanted focus or not realize what was/wasn’t in focus, and be able to blame Apple - user error. I want the chance to make user errors.

Hi - no, I haven’t found a solution. I did a factory reset in the very beginning but none since. That was before the latest update so maybe it would be worth trying it again…?

The closest I’ve come to a solution is giving it more time to focus before clicking the shutter and keeping as still as I can (beyond what I’ve had to with other iPhones or dslrs etc), and then taking multiple photos of the same thing (especially if it’s not full sun/all lights on bright or if what I want in focus isn’t the biggest, most central, highest contrast object or there is a lot of pattern or edges - a lot of objects at different distances). I end up checking the photos after I take them and zooming in to see if what I want in focus is, and if not I try again.

Honestly though, I’m not taking many pictures. I used to take 100 photos a day (leftover habit from a mindfulness exercise I was doing), and they wouldn’t all be great but anything out of focus was because of movement or lighting. I can’t recall every feeling like the camera wasn’t doing what I wanted it to automatically or what I asked it to if I touched on a different focal point. I have a phone because I have to - it’s nice enough to be able to go online or check my email wherever I am, but 90% of my usage was the camera and music. Not a lot of enjoyment in using it to take pictures so I don’t reach for it unless I have to. I keep my phones forever and who knows what phones will be like in 5-6 years, so I’m no loss to any phone company but it’s gotten me away from using or relying on my phone.