iPhone 14 Camera is Blurry

The Apple camera should auto switch to the ultra wide lens to be able to focus on close objects unless you've shut that function off:

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

If you feel your phone has an issue, take your phone in to be examined:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

or contact Apple Support directly.

Contact - Official Apple Support

If you're worried that you can't scan codes, as I've said it's not an issue, scanning codes works fine; the way the camera system and iOS work together a bar or QR code does not need to be in what appears to the user to be sharp focus for the code scan to work.

The Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart and Walgreens apps can all scan on the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro model phones as can the third-party Scandit app.

If you're trying to take a photo and want to focus on something closer than the minimum focus distance for the wide lens, you need to use Macro mode on a model that supports it:

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

It is.

When you take photos at night, the camera usually uses night mode, which often requires stabilization of some type like a tripod:

For the best results, hold your iPhone steady until the capture completes. Try placing your iPhone on a solid and secure surface, or use a tripod to increase stability and control of the exposure clarity.

Use Night mode on your iPhone - Apple Support

Move the camera further away from the QR code.

As the focus sharpens it will be read without issue, usually around seven inches away.

You don’t need to have it fill the screen or if the app shows a box, that box.

Scan a QR code with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

I can't say which QR codes you are having difficulties which, but I have yet to see my iPhone fail to read a properly formatted QR code.

That doesn't mean there aren't certain apps that don't, but Camera and Scandit both have, the Best Buy app reads QR codes without issue, and the Walmart app reads the QR code on registers for Walmart Pay instantly.

When it comes to bar codes, the Amazon app has read every product bar code I've aimed it at as has the Walmart app.

You are too close for the wide camera to focus and the photo must be taken by the ultrawide camera in Macro mode.

The iPhone 13 Pro/Pro Max had similar issues, but the 14 Pro/Pro Max does have a longer minimum focus distance with the standard wide lens, about 7.8" compared to 5.9" or so for the 13 Pro family.

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

Companies need to update their apps to properly use the new frameworks.

Try a free third-party app like Scandit and you'll see it can scan virtually anything, usually indicating it's the other app that's at fault, not iOS or the device.

If Scandit can't read it, it may show an issue with the code or yes, the OS.

I recommend Scandit as a test as the free app is basically an ad for their scanning solutions so their free app is highly optimized to read various codes from bar codes to QR codes to the format used on the back of many driver's licenses.

There was not automatic switching when third-party apps use the camera; Apple didn't remove anything.

If you're using the Camera app, auto switching with Macro mode works well.

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

If the capability to work with macro mode in third-party apps was removed in iOS 16, it would be complained about all over the Internet at large, and it was not, even on Reddit.

iOS 16.0.2 did resolve an issue with the vibration reduction system that was causing vibration and blurry photos under certain conditions with some 14 Pro/Pro Max units.

About iOS 16 Updates - Apple Support

Macro mode as present in the Camera app is unavailable to third-party apps, but they may be able to switch in various ways using existing frameworks.

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

PS: and it is NO hardware issue - as Apple checked my hardware, but they do not have a solution for this problem. Of course they try to make me believe, it is just an individual problem of my 14 pro; however, in the meanwhile, I read of many others, who describe this in English or in German (in other languages, I just didn’t search for it). I am really annoyed, when a luxury article, which costs about $ 2.000 in Germany, doesn’t work as it should. My older and cheaper iPhone SE 2nd gen and my former iPhone 8, which someone else uses now, do not have this problem, both with a single camera. These two of the three lenses do not switch.

This shows how far away from the page the Code Scanner app requires you to get to focus (same QR code as in the previous post), but it works perfectly, even as you can see when the page isn’t quite in focus yet.

Note I’ve altered the photo below because this isn’t meant to be an ad.

Here’s a sample from the Amazon app; the barcode was scanned and the app took me to the product page a split second later (bar code and product somewhat obfuscated as this is not intended to be an ad):

I think part of the blurry photo issue is that the iOS gets confused about which camera lens to use. See the image below, I'm using the built-in magnifier and it switches between lenses while using it in under 3 inches. It should not be switching at that distance.

That’s kind of a strange QR code that none of my devices will read easily, though my 14 Pro Max will read it eventually (but as “_R1-AT0_630/097_001-2022-12-03T11:25:34MSR9217_2022-12-03T11:25:34_79,65_102,88_0,00_0,00_0,00_2W8XW6ymrV4=_U:ATU24963706-1_zRRUQdC4lug=_5/Ndx259Ves5QxM2ubrATw9T3IvQqMm3/eqbu1Mf0kM/NnqsPMGQcVYlfZawPPfwRZSO9xkgxTwN3JGOKAP5rg==“)

For a normal QR code, Camera can be read a code like this instantly, far away and at this size: