iPhone 14 pro max zooming glitch

I’ve just changed my iPhone 11 Pro to an iPhone 14 pro. I’m a frequent user of Instagram so I take lots of pics and videos and I’ve encountered this issue too. It was so annoying and very disruptive when you need to take a quick video/picture of a specific moment. The camera switches among the lenses before and during taking a video/pic. I’ve checked for solutions and nope, the toggling off for macro lens didn’t help. As lots of my friends bought iPhone 14 pro n max, i asked them if they’ve experienced that and all have the same issues. Apple please update the IOS to solve this auto switching camera lens. It’s really not helpful at all and I’ve heard people complaining on iPhone 13 Pro too. Why do we need this auto function to switch between the camera lenses when we obviously know what we are shooting? Why can’t it be an icon on the UI to toggle it? I don’t have such issue on my old 11 Pro? I don’t feel like I’m having an upgrade on the UX

The more videos shot on my 14 Pro Max I look at, the more I am convinced it is NOT parallax error switching between camera lenses but rather inferior quality of the telephoto and zoom lenses because I see notable CONTINUED difference in brightness and color depth (how rich/vibrant the colors are) in the ENTIRE footage shot with the telephoto verses primary lens not just at the point of lens transition. Parallax error would only explain a momentary glitch at the moment of lens change. But I see washed out colors in the entire length of footage shot at telephoto and richer color depth in the entire length of footage shot with the primary lens. So, of course, when colors are more muted/washed out with one lens and you switch to another lens with deeper and richer colors, you're going to see a transition.

It's not software, it's hardware.

When you shift between lenses, the point of view of that lens will change.

I've stated before, close one eye, then close that eye and open the other and you will see the scene shift.

Same issue.

iIwas told by Apple Chat Support to update to 16.6.1 and it would fix the issue. Installed but to no avail, not fixed. Interestingly must be a software issue as when zooming in whilst 'photo' is selected the jump does not occur. Only if you select 'video' or are actually recording a video does it occur. For me it's as soon as camera switches to anything over 3x zoom.

chaib48 wrote:

Hello

i had the same issue here, so please anyone have a solution or i have to change the phone

You will need to do whatever suits your use case, but I've played with the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Google Pixel 7 in stores since this thread came out and they both do the same.

I don't think any vendor with multiple physical lenses can solve this issue, there will always be a jump when parallax changes.

I have iphone 14 pro. The zoom problem is not when you choose the zoom distance from the list. It is happening when you zoom in/out gradually. A jump in the video will be there and, I think it is because the switch between the cameras.

Responding to rwillia532a, could be a parallax error but disagree with the statement that it "physically must happen". My Canon 24-200 SLR lens has barrel distortion at the widest range, arguably something that "must" happen on a lens with such a huge zoom range. However, Canon digitally corrects it so that, as long as the photos are viewed through their software, the problem is unnoticable. Horrible design on Apple's part. Inexcusable really.

Responding to Dogcow-Moof, that 100% wrong that it can't be fixed. It CAN be addressed with software correction but Apple has been too lazy to do that. See comments above about digitally correcting barrel distortion. If barrel distortion can be digitally corrected, so can parallax error. Explaining why video looks like crap when the zoom crosses from one lens to another doesn't excuse the problem.

I'm not sure it's even parallax error at all. As you said, when you switch from one eye to another, an object appears to move. The problem I'm seeing isn't so much a motion problem as a change in brightness and clarity. I think the actual problem is a difference in quality between the primary lens and the "secondary" telephoto and macro lenses. I've noticed in low light shooting, inside museums for example, that the secondary lenses are not as bright as the primary lens. I don't think they capable of opening to as wide an aperture (because they're inferior lenses due to Apple cutting corners) so you see a difference in brightness at the lens switch.

Responding to mega-watts, bingo! It's an Explanation not an Excuse. The bank can Explain how your deposit inadvertently went into someone else's account, but that situation is still Inexcusable and the bank needs to resolve it. Explaining why video looks like crap when the zoom changes from one lens to another does not excuse the problem.

Regarding the numerous comments referencing Apple's reply that it is just to be expected, absolutely pathetic. Other multi-camera phones don't have this problem. Just another example of how Apple doesn't live up to the hype and isn't worth the money.

I had this looked at by Apple on my iPhone 14 pro and after several tests was told this is the expected behaviour for the camera as it switches between lenses. Disappointing. If anyone has any success resolving it pls let me know.

Responding to rwillia532a, could be a parallax error but disagree with the statement that it "physically must happen". My Canon 24-200 SLR lens has barrel distortion at the widest range, arguably something that "must" happen on a lens with such a huge zoom range. However, Canon digitally corrects it so that, as long as the photos are viewed through their software, the problem is unnoticable. Horrible design on Apple's part. Inexcusable really.

Responding to Dogcow-Moof, that 100% wrong that it can't be fixed. It CAN be addressed with software correction but Apple has been too lazy to do that. See comments above about digitally correcting barrel distortion. If barrel distortion can be digitally corrected, so can parallax error.

I'm not sure it's even parallax error at all. As you said, when you switch from one eye to another, an object appears to move. The problem I'm seeing isn't so much a motion problem as a change in brightness and clarity. I think the actual problem is a difference in quality between the primary lens and the "secondary" telephoto and macro lenses. I've noticed in low light shooting, inside museums for example, that the secondary lenses are not as bright as the primary lens. I don't think they capable of opening to as wide an aperture (because they're inferior lenses due to Apple cutting corners) so you see a difference in brightness at the lens switch.

Responding to mega-watts, bingo! It's an Explanation not an Excuse. The bank can Explain how your deposit inadvertently went into someone else's account, but that situation is still Inexcusable and the bank needs to resolve it.

Regarding the numerous comments referencing Apple's reply that it is just to be expected, absolutely pathetic. Other multi-camera phones don't have this problem. Just another example of how Apple doesn't live up to the hype and isn't worth the money.

I was having the same issue too. Only kinda fixed when I changed my video recording mode to 4K at 60fps. But this setting doesn’t allow you to zoom in from 0.5x to 9x in one video. Different zoom ins also cause different lights and the light jump in the videos are not subtle at all. Really dissatisfying.

You can reproduce the same issue on the iPhone 13, borrow someone's and try it.

Hi, For me the same issue. Especially when recording a video, when zooming gradually from 1 or 2x toom to 3x zoom. The camera switches from lens i suppose, but than my view shifts (what i see on mij screen) So it looks like the whole view moves upwards. And it is annoying because therfore my focus-object of my video changes. It is also noticeable when playing the video.

The strange thing is that when zooming in while taking a 'foto', this 'shifting' doesn't occur.

I'm having the same problem and absolutely hate it. I saved up to buy the 14 pro after waiting years for a new phone to try and do vlogging and this jump especially between the 0.5 camera and the 1x camera is horrible!

What's weird is that if you zoom VERY slowly it's sometimes smooth but most time it just wobbles for a split second and and shifts image placement.

Absolutely NOT smooth. My partner has the iPhone 12 and I can't believe his video quality is better than my 14 pro because he doesn't get the jankiness happening with my phone.

Really hard to search if others are having this issue too because most search results are about the physical camera problem happening in apps instead of this separate issue happening in Apple's own video mode.

I do have a lens protector on my lenses as I didn't want them scratched. But I don't see how it would be that. I'm surprised not many people are talking about this issue.

Did you take off your Lens protector? Is it still happening for you?

It's not a problem per se because the Apple app is doing exactly what you are asking it to do.

Once you impose more parameters like only giving you options that don't require a lens change, then third party apps come to the fore.

You can also manually shut off lens switching:

Take macro photos and videos with your iPhone camera - Apple Support

I got my IPhone pro (not max) with the same problem, before sending the device to Istore, I had also grey screen when sliding between the zoom options, and when recording a video, it gives me limited options of zoom - 0.5-1/ 3-6 and so on… Today I picked my new device, went home, and guess what? No grey screen but the exact same problem !!! 😡😡