My brand new iPhone 14 Pro Max’s camera is blurry whenever attempting to take close up pictures in 3rd party apps like Amazon, Target, Walmart (ie barcode scans). Phone is brand new out the box, updated to latest iOS (16.0.2), and have reinstalled the apps.
Anyone else with this issue?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 14 Pro Max
You are correct, there is usually no hardware issue as it works as designed, third parties need to update their apps as stated.
There are several third-party apps that work perfectly scanning bar codes on the 14 Pro Max, as does the QR scanning ability that is now part of the Camera app.
Scan a QR code with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support
The Code Scanner that Apple provides in Control Center also works perfectly, the key is not to try to force the block to fill the square but rather back the phone up until the QR code is in sharp focus and the scanner will read it instantly.
This obviously won’t work but backing the phone up a few inches/several cm until the code is in sharp focus will, every time.
If it doesn’t work for you, then there may be something wrong with your device; I recently visited an Apple Store and it worked with every iPhone 14 they had on display, too.
The interesting thing is the Camera app will switch to the macro lens to be able to focus more closely where the Code Reader app instead requires you to hold the phone further away so it can focus.
Back up from the code until it is in sharp focus.
Dont try to fill whatever box the app displays with the code.
Apps can read the code perfectly when it’s what looks to you to be way too small.
That's not a bug, it's by design.
The larger sensor in newer iPhones means that the 1x "wide" lens has a more distant minimum focus distance, which is why the Camera app will automatically switch to using the Ultrawide lens in macro mode to focus closely.
Third party apps can do the same thing but they need to properly use the appropriate APIs to do so.
What you cite is the issue, as you shouldn't be choosing a camera at all.
Instead you should tell the device what you need in terms of resolution and allow the device to choose.
I outline the basics here:
The issue is apps are apparently just asking for access to the camera rather than properly following the specified API to ask the phone which cameras are available and selecting the one with the shortest possible minimum focus distance.
That is a technique that was recommended with the release of iOS 15, but apparently app authors just got away with not doing it on iPhone 13 and it's biting them now.
iPhone 14 Camera is Blurry - Apple Community
Different minimum focus distances due to different lenses and larger sensors.
That doesn’t make the old cameras “better” unless you’re trying to focus at something closer than the minimum focus distance.
The James Webb Space Telescope can’t focus on something three inches away, that doesn’t make it a worse lens than the one in an iPhone 7.
Update 11/27: visited the Apple Store and all of the Genius’ were aware of the issue. They have been told it will be fixed in an upcoming iOS update (yes, known software issue on Apple’s behalf). I have a call scheduled with a senior engineer from Cupertino this week. I’ll keep everyone posted.
16.1.1 seems to have fixed it today.. /Richard
With such a small and hollow object, it may be focusing on the background instead.
You may want to try tapping the screen to refocus.
Update 9/27: it seems to be an iOS 16 issue, not specific to iPhone 14s. My wife just updated her iPhone 13 Pro Max to iOS 16. We tested apps before and after the update: they all broke (blurry close up scanning/pictures) after the update.
Update 10/8 - Apple support confirmed they are aware and working to address the issue (possible via software update):
“Thanks for that, but a call will no longer be necessary. Apple is aware of this issue and has started an investigation. There is not a time frame for a resolution nor is it known if the resolution will come in the form of a software update or article with instructions. We can only advise keeping your software updated at this time.
Thank you for your patience.”
Sometimes those authors have their hands tied. I work with a cross-platform framework and have recently gotten bug reports on my app that the iPhone 14 has the issue described in the thread. The reports have been solely from iPhone 14 users. After some research, I've seen the issue personally and confirmed that the 14 is the only phone my app is deployed to that has this issue. There is no documentation from Apple that said there were camera API changes between 16.0 and 16.0.2, yet I only started getting the reports after the release of 16.0.2.
I bet most of the 3rd party apps don't access the Apple API directly but rather use cross-platform libraries to make the calls. I can't do anything about my own situation, where nothing has changed in the API that I use (I still access the iPhone camera through the same device ID that I always have, using the same configuration for focusing. There's no new device IDs listed in the system on the 14 that wasn't available on the other iPhones. The same code works on every phone except for the iPhone 14). The developers in this case can't simply "code it better" without re-coding the entire App specifically for iOS in Swift or Obj-C, which isn't feasible for any business. Regardless, Apple has been very good in the past about making their interfaces backwards-compatible with existing code so that Xamarin/Qt/Flutter/etc. can continue working well with no changes even after major updates to iOS. Maybe the Walmart apps for different platforms were written specifically for those platforms, and that's why the Walmart app you mentioned earlier isn't having the same issue.
If an Apple engineer is reading this, perhaps you might take a look into whether it's cross-platform frameworks specifically that have this issue?
your "advice" is absurd, I have tried to use the "waitrose" in-store scan app, some item I had to hold as far away as i could to scan.
also, apps that require a cheque to be photographed (banking apps) and apps that scan your credit card require the card/cheque to be placed within a virtual box and they are all blurred so can't be used. Those apps don't allow you to control the focus by moving the device away manually. It's clear that one of the lenses has NO focus at all.
I have replicated the issue using the native camera app and Instagram, but they switch lenses when they realise the item is out of focus
southernboyuk wrote:
Above my head, I just want it to work as previous models did. Let’s hope Apple are all over this!
They are, they told developers how they should be using the APIs, some just didn't follow the rules properly.
southernboyuk wrote:
Yes I’m doing that, however, when you need to use 3rd party apps ( as previous) the 14 pro max has a major design problem when taking close up photos of ie driving licences which must fit into a a certain sized app frame.
The device doesn't have a problem, the way third party apps are using the device is incorrect.
If you don't believe me, download the free Scandit app I mentioned earlier and you will see it has no issues scanning things.
Also, I did watch the Apple presentation. In reference to the barcode scanning part of the video: I find it a little disappointing that they don't show how to take advantage of the different camera lenses but rather tell us to "zoom in if it's not in focus, and tell the user to hold the device farther away." Clearly their own camera app will swap lenses if something is not in focus because it's too close, so I do wish they would have shown us how to access that functionality instead.
By “not choosing cameras” I meant you shouldn’t select based upon what you (as the developer, not as your app) know about available cameras but rather based upon characteristics reported by the API. In that way whether the device has one camera or twelve, you will get the most appropriate.
This is different than the old approach and may be why frameworks have yet to catch up, and why native iOS development is always best but obviously isn’t always possible.
To quote the video (this is all getting too technical for a general non-developer thread):
That's where the new minimumFocusDistance property of AVCaptureDevice comes in. It's new in iOS 15. Given the camera's horizontal field of view, the minimum barcode size you'd like to scan -- here I've set it to 20 millimeters -- and the width of the camera preview window as a percentage, we can do a little math to calculate the minimum subject distance needed to fill that preview width. Then, using the new minimumFocusDistance property of the camera, we can detect when our camera can't focus that close and calculate a zoom factor large enough to guide the user to back away. And finally, we apply it to the camera by locking it for configuration, setting the zoom factor, and then unlocking it. After recompiling our demo app, the UI now automatically applies the correct zoom amount.
As the app launches, it's already zoomed to the correct space. No more blurry barcodes!
iPhone 14 Camera is Blurry
