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?
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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.
Apple went so far as to have a complete session on it at WWDC 2021; that’s pretty much the Apple version of buying billboards.
What’s new in camera capture - WWDC21 - Videos - Apple Developer
complete with sample code:
I’m not trolling you, I am telling you actual facts; Apple can’t help it if developers ignore the changes they go out of their way to tell them about.
Apple’s apps can do it, of course, but so can apps from Amazon, Walmart and other third parties.
You can prove it to yourself by following the instructions I gave above.
@ Dogcow-Moof, many apps require a QR code scan from within app to « register » devices. 2 such apps for example Sensibo and Somfy TaHoma fail to scan the QR codes as they bovine blurry ONLY with the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Older iPhones and iPads scan fine so I’m sorry to say this is a bug as it is bad business for Apple to not implement backwards compatibility and have their flagship phones fail autofocus and require new code to basically function.
I own an international QA testing company and trust me this I a bug or at s minimum VERY POOR design decision if it forces all apps to require rework to get things working ok again.
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
My iPhone 14 Pro with 16.1.1, can focus down to about 4 inch in third party apps, in 16.0.2 it was about 15-20 inch.. /Richard
I was able to use camera on iOS 16 - before updating to iOS 16.0.2. When I first set up the phone on iOS 16, in third party apps it would switch between the normal and the other camera, depending on the distance to the object that you wanted to take a picture of - just like it does in the literal camera app. After updating to iOS 16.0.2, nothing works. Now here is what I'm 99% convinced is going on:
People on Twitter have reported the camera shaking issues on the iPhone 14 Pro. The stabilizer and autofocus would just freak out whenever you have opened a third party app's camera screen.
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Than the option was there in error.
The bottom line is if something works in all Apple’s apps but fails in third-party apps, the third-party apps were not programmed properly to utilize the new hardware.
For example, Walmart Pay for one works properly on my 14 Pro Max.
It's not my responsibility to read Apple disclosures on their APIs and upcoming new features to determine what may or may not work on future revisions of hardware and in future versions of iOS.
Further, even if I could link to the information, it may be information requiring that you sign up with a developer account to read.
But as an example, new to iOS 16 is the
maxPhotoDimensions
property, which must be one of the values defined by the
supportedMaxPhotoDimensions
property:
The dimensions you set must match one returned by supportedMaxPhotoDimensions for the current active format.
Apple Developer Documentation
These settings are new to iOS16 and the previous method of checking whether "high resolution" capture is supported has been deprecated as of iOS16:
isHighResolutionCaptureEnabled
Boolean value that specifies whether to configure the capture pipeline for high resolution still image capture.
Apple Developer Documentation
Hello from Germany! I have the same problem and not just with third party apps, but also with Apple‘s Code Scanner. Now it is mid November and nothing has changed - it seems to be a specific 14 pro (and 14 pro max?) problem. While the stock camera app works fine, none of the other apps (none!) switches to the right lens and can’t focus on a QR- or barcode. I talked to senior advisors, however, until now no suggested solution helped.
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.
Just to be clear: Amazon, Walmart, Target, and several other 3rd party apps DO NOT work. They do not use the camera properly to focus on close range (ie scanning barcodes).
Amazon example, anyone feel free to try theirs out:
It doesn't matter if it appears blurry to you, the app will be able to read the bar code with no issues once you get the camera far enough away from the bar code.
The app will instantly recognize the bar code and will take the appropriate action no matter how it looks to you.
I do this every day.
Just slowly move the phone away from the bar code and it will eventually read just fine.
All I can say is I've had iPhones for over 10 years and I've never had the issues with the camera, both native and third-party apps and accessing the camera as I've had now with the new iPhone 14 Pro. Look at the picture attached. I made it this morning using the native camera unfortunately due to the focal distance, the iPhone could not figure out which camera to use and kept switching back-and-forth and ended up with a blurry picture. That is an issue with the iOS that did not exist before this version of the iPhone. I am seriously considering going back to an iPhone 13 as the issues did not exist with that phone.
Again, the issue is NOT present in the iPhone's native camera app. The issue that everyone here is experiencing, YOURSELF INCLUDED, is that 3rd party apps are not able to use/work with the camera's close-up feature. This was not the case when the iPhone 14 Pro Max was first released. The issue started shortly after release when Apple made a change to the software.
Until the authors of those third party apps correct their apps, this issue is likely to continue.
The fact that it isn't an issue in Apple's apps shows it's not an issue with the phone.
iPhone 14 Camera is Blurry
