iPhone 14 Pro Stock Camera takes Blurry Photos

Always nice to see a fellow Nikon shooter; I shoot a D850 myself.

The camera system will always have depth of field that is a bit shallow by design; not quite as bad as you claim, but apertures are fairly large to allow for enhanced low light performance and there is no mechanical aperture iris in phone cameras.

For the 14 Pro/Pro Max, Apple specifies:

• 48MP Main: 24 mm, ƒ/1.78 aperture, second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization, seven‑element lens, 100% Focus Pixels

• 12MP Ultra Wide: 13 mm, ƒ/2.2 aperture and 120° field of view, six‑element lens, 100% Focus Pixels

• 12MP 2x Telephoto (enabled by quad-pixel sensor): 48 mm, ƒ/1.78 aperture, second-generation sensor-shift optical image stabilization, seven‑element lens, 100% Focus Pixels

• 12MP 3x Telephoto: 77 mm, ƒ/2.8 aperture, optical image stabilization, six-element lens

People did complain about similar issues with the 13 Pro/Pro Max, but it is true the newer camera has a longer minimum focus distance when not using macro mode due to the larger, higher resolution sensor despite the larger aperture for the 13 Pro/Pro Max's default "wide" lens:

• Pro 12MP camera system: Telephoto, Wide, and Ultra Wide cameras
• Telephoto: ƒ/2.8 aperture
• Wide: ƒ/1.5 aperture
• Ultra Wide: ƒ/1.8 aperture and 120° field of view

That having been said, it's very possible to get images with wonderful DoF with the 14 Pro/Pro Max's cameras, and if you consistently cannot, I suggest you have your phone examined to make sure yours is operating properly:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

You may also wish to try downloading one of the third-party camera apps that gives you more control, such as Halide or ProCam.

Greetings Bca2022,

You can find guidance to get the most from your iPhone camera here:

Take and edit photos on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

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

"Adjust the camera’s focus and exposure

Before you take a photo, the iPhone camera automatically sets the focus and exposure, and face detection balances the exposure across many faces. If you want to manually adjust the focus and exposure, do the following:

1. Open Camera.
2. Tap the screen to show the automatic focus area and exposure setting.
3. Tap where you want to move the focus area.
4. Next to the focus area, drag  up or down to adjust the exposure.
5. 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.

On iPhone 11 and later, you can precisely set and lock the exposure for upcoming shots. Tap , tap , then move the slider to adjust the exposure. The exposure locks until the next time you open Camera. To save the exposure control so it’s not reset when you open Camera, go to Settings  > Camera > Preserve Settings, then turn on Exposure Adjustment."

Take care.

Having this exact same issue. Every picture I’ve taken since I got the 14 Pro Max is blurry, they look absolutely terrible! Made a huge mistake by already sending my 12 Pro Max in for trade, it took way better pictures. Seems like either a major fail with this pixel binning or whatever… My wife’s 14 Pro is also doing it so I’m thinking it isn’t just a fluke with my particular phone.

I too have been looking into why me and my wife’s iPhone 14 Pro Max are taking blurry photos. At this point there are multiple threads of complaints on the issue.

It’s already been stated in another thread that Apple has told a customer that they are aware of the issue.

Blurry pics on iPhone 14 Pro Max (iOS 16.… - Apple Community

[Edited by Moderator]

To clarify, after using for a few weeks I do get decent pictures in bright lighting conditions, but I find myself having to delete and retake because of grainy or blurry photos even in those conditions occasionally, never or very rarely had to do that with my iPhone 12 Pro Max. The real problem is indoor lighting or not direct sunlight. Attached are a few examples of pics where the pictures turn out blurry or grainy in those conditions. Not sure if it’s image processing or image stabilization causing the issues. Before I take the picture the shot looks good on the screen, but after I snap the photo it turn out like what you see in the pics below.

You haven't given anywhere near enough information to be useful.

For example, when in Night Mode, anything moving, including you, will blur the image.

Likewise, in anything other than bright lighting, motion will blur as the phone needs to use a slower "shutter speed" to get the shot.

I am having the exact same problem. The only reason for my upgrade from my iPhone 11 Pro was the camera and I’ve been so disappointed by the quality of the 14 pro max. I have even put photos side by side from the 11 pro and 14 pro max in similar conditions and it shows the same blurred grainy effect on photos from the 14 pro max. I am thinking of returning this phone …

Hi Apple.

I thought this was just me. I was taking a pic (RAW) of my snow-covered house this morning on my way to work. I was static, and the house wasn’t moving…but the image came out super blurry. I traded my 12 Pro Max, thinking the camera would be better. What am I missing?

What were you focused on?

Were you taking the photo through a window? Through a fence? Either may confuse the phone's LIDAR distance sensor and will require you to tap to focus on an area of interest.

You also aren't addressing Apple here, only other Apple users.

If the sun was slowly coming up there may not have been enough light, forcing the phone to take the photo in Night Mode, in which any movement at all will be magnified greatly (rather like a slow shutter speed on a conventional camera.)

For best results you need to use proper technique and be aware of the camera's limitations, and when you do that multiple reviewers have shown the cameras produce extraordinary results, and I concur from personal experience.

Is the camera system perfect? No, but neither is my professional camera equipment.

There is clearly an issue with the camera on the 14 Pro, and I’m not basing that on anything but experience.

I have been into photography for quite a while now (currently shooting with a Nikon Z9 as my primary, D850 as a backup), and I frequently use my iPhone now for certain things, as the cameras have become very good over the past couple of years and it makes them simple to share. That said, the 14 seems to have taken a step backwards (may just be a software issue, but that’s Apple’s job to figure out…if the advertised information is correct, then it would have to be in the software)…I don’t use it for anything but stationary photos, and regardless of settings, I cannot get it to focus on the entire frame (for example, if I take a picture of a sports card, I get a picture that looks like it was taken with an f-stop of 1 or lower, creating a bokeh effect on the corners/edges).

I’m curious to know if any of the people having issues shooting moving objects are having the same issue…it may not be the “movement” causing the issue, but rather the same “glitch” that’s causing the Bokeh effect on my stills.

**Note: I’ve been using iPhones for over 10 years now, and have had every model since I started. The 13 Pro/Pro Max was excellent and didn’t have any of these issues…I wish I had kept it now…**

[Edited by Moderator]

yes, same. just posted about this. lots of issue and apple has no answer

they tried all different settitng and now they came up with BS answerr that its ios 16 to blame. BUT my 10 with ios 16 didnt have that isses, nor my husbands 11 with ios 16.2

I’m having the same issues with the 14Pro camera. I was told I could return the iPhone 14Pro or wait for Apple to optimize the camera software as the current solution. The problem I am told byApple support is that the software processing is optimized for 12MP sensor and not the new 48MP sensor… yet..That’s why the iPhone 11-13 camera takes better photos when using it as a quick point and shoot.

For now in the Apple camera app, hold still, frame your shot, touch the screen to set focus and set exposure for a great photo.

The default camera app also over sharpens, evens exposure across the frame, and adds lightening to all areas and especially to faces in the image after 1-2 seconds. That’s why your sunset picture may look great when you take the shot but then is overly processed and the colors are washed out when stored.

If you don’t like the over processed images, you can use a 3rd party camera app until Apple is able to optimize the processing.

Hope this helps.

It's actually entertaining, there are now videos on the Internet complaining that compared to the 13, the 14 doesn't enhance photos enough.

Apple can't win; people no longer want photos to look like what they see, they want their photos to look like what they think a photo should look like based on what they've seen on IG and elsewhere.

Here's an article discussing it from an Android point of view:

https://www.androidauthority.com/what-is-computational-photography-3218656/