Camera Focus problems: iPhone 13 Pro Max - Blurry photos.

I bought the Iphone 13 PM 256 a month back and the camera lens is switching to macro mode automatically and the picture quality is bad. If I turn off the macro mode the camera is unable to focus at all and the subject is blurry. This is big problem and I expect apple to fix this ASAP.

Me toooo! It is SO ANNOYING! I bought my 13 pro in November. And it’s only gotten worse. If I turn the macro lens off, the lens just gets blurry and completely out of focus. Even if the subject is within a normal distance. And it’s every time I open the camera app. I used to be able to close/reopen the camera and it’d be fixed. Or just turn off the macro option and it’d work ok. But now, it’s almost completely unusable. It only focuses on subjects 10+ feet away. I tried taking video of a storm, nope, blurry the whole time. Picture of my husband on the couch? Nope. Blurry. For how much the phone costs, I expected WAY better. A functioning camera for example.

This issue can be annoying. Here is what worked for me:

in the video or photo view

1. Tap and hold wherever you want to focus on the screen.
2. Keep holding your finger on the screen for a few seconds till you see the AE/AF lock prompt appear at the top of the screen.

this way the auto focus features of lenses are closed and no more focus blurring issues.

I do not understand how this is still a problem, or why on earth it was a problem in the first place.

The jumping between lenses at close range makes the camera basically non-functional for almost everything I need it for (lots of small jewelry product photography and nature macro). I've deeply regretted upgrading ever since I got my 13 pro max, my old iphone might not have been as powerful, but at least the camera functionality was reliable. Not being able to count on my camera to focus on what I need when I'm in the 2-5 inches range is infuriating. I've found it's especially problematic if the subject I'm shooting is "smooth" (flowers or leaves or plastic surfaces with little texture), objects with texture seem to be picked up easier, but if it's anything smooth in the foreground, the camera just automatically jumps to focus on either the background or the ground (especially in outside environments).

I don't understand why you'd build a camera this powerful, but not have the options to set the focus range. Apple has spent millions advertising this phone to "professional" photographers, but I don't know any professional photographers who would ever purchase a camera where there was no manual focus functionality.

I have the exact same issue. The macro functionality is useless.

Some Apple person links to this:

“If the camera or flash on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch isn't working

If your photos are blurry or the camera screen is black, here's what to do.

Remove case, accessory, or film and test”

Are they serious!?

I tried with and without. Believe me it’s not the cover.I dont understand why they dont just make an extra mode only for macro so it doesnt interfere while taking a normal picture. It can sometimes really destroy the moment because sometimes you dont have much time to take a shot and then you struggle with this and even have to close the app in multitasking and reopen…

[Edited by Moderator]

Please dont just ignore that it isnt working properly the way it should :-)

Yes it’s supposed to change automatically, but it does that very often in moments where it shouldn’t and sometimes has problems to focus because of that. It should have a full manual macro-mode. It just shouldn’t happen at all for a phone in that price class and is incredible that in almost 1 yr since i habe the phone this hasn’t been fixed yet. Because macro is something you barely use usually so why would you make it an automatic mode.

I got my phone just about the same time you did, and I noticed it within a day shooting flowers. What is the point of macro video if the camera will NOT just pick ONE focus range, or better yet, LET ME SET THE FOCUS AND STOP AUTO ADJUSTING IT.

I've worked around it, and the phone is a wonder in many other ways, so I've given it a pass, but this would be intolerable in any pro video environment, and is no fun for a consumer either. The whole rack focus concept is a bit preposterous as well, but anyway, it should be a firmware fix, something, to make this stop. I'm shooting something in macro on video tonight and I can't get as close as I want because when I pan out, it stutters, skips, refocusses with another lens. It's really stupid, but I guess it's because if it didn't do it, it might fall out of focus as I pull away. I'd rather have THAT than this. For video, it should let me pick macro or standard, and deal with the outcomes of testing those ranges. Whoever decided this JARRING switching in the middle of every macro video was the best solution needs a talking to.

It is indeed a very bad design. I can’t tell you how many times that camera changed to macro-mode altough I was not too near to an object. It supposed to be an extra mode or button that u have to press for macro, it could be that simple…

The 13 Pro Max judges focus distance among other things using a LiDAR Scanner you need to be careful not to block; there's certainly nothing wrong with the photo you posted.

iPhone 13 Pro Max - Apple Support

Foto21 wrote:

I got my phone just about the same time you did, and I noticed it within a day shooting flowers. What is the point of macro video if the camera will NOT just pick ONE focus range, or better yet, LET ME SET THE FOCUS AND STOP AUTO ADJUSTING IT.

Do this:

To lock your manual focus and exposure settings for upcoming shots, touch and hold the focus area until you see AE/AF Lock; tap the screen to unlock settings.

Use iPhone camera tools to set up your shot - Apple Support

The auto switching to the wide lens occurs because you are closer than the minimum focus distance for the normal lens.

You can shut off the switch to the wide lens, but if you are closer than the minimum focus distance for the normal lens, your subject will be out of focus.

Even after the newest update the issue is still there. Try shooting through a chain link fence, never had the problem before this w/models prior to the 13 Pro Max

normally will easily allow me to use the middle lens and zoom in, but now always switched to macro even w/macro turned off… I have nothing covering the lenses from my case.

In this case, its just bad design.

I bought the iPhone 13 because of the camera (insects, plants). It is simply unusable for this use case, the focus does not work properly and much too slowly. Regardless of the settings. The old iPhone SE was usable. Annoying.

The focus problem persists even if you disable lens switching (with videos) - it switches anyway. Disabling the Marko lens also does not bring success.

Something urgently needs to happen here. Otherwise, the competition will be happy.

Im having the same problem and my wife too. I have the 13 Pro max and she has the 13 pro. And the camera lenses jump around and my wife has big problems taking normal pictures of landscapes and stuff. I managed to turn on in the settings that u can turn off the macro setting which helps off the macro-lens once it comes but still it would get blurry and you have to close the camera app and reopen it. I just wish that it wouldnt be automatic in the first place but just an option to choose. It‘s really horrible like that and often makes problems to shoot normal pictures because the macro-lens is something one would barely use.

The problem was it took forever to get that photo where it wouldn’t lock onto the fence like attached. I’ve shot through the fence 1000’s of times before and never had the issue I have now w/this phone.

as mentioned in my first post, there’s more than enough room in a link to focus on the plane and not grab the fence.