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.
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.
EtaoinShrdlu wrote:
Nope.
The very relevant point is: “If you are using [the] camera to read them […]”
If you have to use a third-party app or Safari it does not work reliably.
I repeat: If you have to use a third-party app or Safari it does not work reliably.
I repeat again: If you have to use a third-party app or Safari it does not work reliably.
As an example, download the free app Scandit - I've yet to see it not read a QR code.
It is NOT just 3rd party apps. Did you try Apple‘s own „Code Scanner“. It doesn’t work properly neither. This house of cards of the „user“, who is commenting on everything in this thread is collapsing.
If you don’t know how to find the code scanner, which is implemented in iOS, go to the Control Center, where it is more or less hidden and where you can activate it (may be there are other ways, I just know this one).
At those distances it’s easy for it to select the wrong object to focus on and depth of field is minimal.
You may want to tell Apple if it bothers you:
Snapchat images are the responsibility of the Snapchat app.
I love the camera as do most others.
Regardless, if you don’t, let Apple know:
Yes this is happening to me too, have switched recently from an iPhone 11 to an iPhone 14 pro max purely because of the “good” camera, however whenever I open 3rd party apps my camera will not focus without several prompts to do so. Alongside this I appear to be facing the same issue even on the camera application. Really dissatisfied as this was the main reason I bought this phone!
This happens regularly with almost every new hardware release not to mention new release of iOS.
What the issue is, I couldn't say, but it also makes sense that if something is making multiple third-party apps misbehave they disable it until more third-party apps can be brought into compliance.
Apple is completely up front about these things, through their Developer Services, but you would be shocked at how many developers do not take advantage of beta access and instead wait until a product is released to update their products for compatibility if they do so at all.
Apple does not make "secret sauce" changes that only their own apps are aware of.
You misunderstand.
It's possible that Apple disabled the option in 16.0.1 because so many third-party vendors got implementation of changes in iOS 16 wrong, but only Apple knows.
The fact that Apple apps functioned correctly and third-party apps did not puts the blame squarely on third-party app developers.
As I stated, it's also not an issue for all third-party apps, as some like Walmart Pay focusing on register QR codes work perfectly fine.
I suspect new settings like those I mentioned can be used to have the iPhone automatically switch to the wide camera to allow it to focus on bar codes to generate an image of the appropriate dimensions for reading.
We'll see how it works out in future releases.
> It's possible that Apple disabled the option in 16.0.1 because so many third-party vendors got implementation of changes in iOS 16 wrong, but only Apple knows.
You are correct if you want to assume that Apple would voluntarily risk iPhone customers breaking their cameras by using non-updated apps. There is no way that they would call that a reasonable choice. That also doesn't explain Apple's silence on the whole issue.
> The fact that Apple apps functioned correctly and third-party apps did not puts the blame squarely on third-party app developers.
If they didn't work with iOS 16.0 I'd agree, but again they did work with iOS 16.0
> Walmart Pay
That app doesn't switch cameras either. You assume it does because their physical product codes are large enough to be scanned with a distance of the focus length. Can't expect every barcode from now on to be "Apple size"™ because of that.
Just received my 14 pro after having an 11 pro for almost 3 years, same issue. 3rd party apps are horrible but also just the normal camera on the phone, will not focus up close without macro mode which still isn’t that good and I’m hating how it so obviously switches between with different quality as well.
I only updated for more storage so am thinking about going back to an 11 with more gb.
Dogcow, I'm honestly interested if you can point me to a Third Party app that is currently doing this Macro switch correctly? I have tried it on Turo (license scan), Target (barcode scan), Walmart (barcode), Banking apps (check deposit picture), and none of them are working properly on my iPhone 14 Pro Max.
It looks to be an issue with how the apps are interacting with iOS.
Whether that is an iOS bug or improper coding of the apps or a library they use in common, I couldn't say.
If it's an iOS bug, it will get fixed at some point, but if it's the libraries or apps, only an update from the app vendor will fix it.
I will once again say that some apps do at least function with iPhone 14 models, such as Walmart Pay in the Walmart app.
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.
Many thanks for all your comments. I think like me, many expect their IPhone 14 pro max to have additional features and not lose some of the basic functionality from previous models.
Just using the camera on its own proves no issue at under an inch. The issue as did river is with third party apps. All of which worked previous but now do not. Apple has done something ( way above my head) with the programming and I think we all agree that is the issue that has to be addressed. With their high levels of programming I believe we all expect a fix. Not to have to play about with settings to allow 3rd party apps to work again.
Man…you are relentless. While apps may need to be updated to use the new cameras correctly, it has been made VERY clear in this thread that Apple did not explain this “update” to their developer community properly. Your comments are not assisting people, so why do you insist on trolling?
iPhone 14 Camera is Blurry
