iPhone 15 Pro Max autofocus issue

Same issue with auto focus. Apple replaced the camera in my phone twice, and it persists. I live in Colorado so I always have chapstick, so I use that as my auto focus test. When I went into the Apple Store I grabbed an iPhone SE, 15, and 15 Pro, and took a picture of the Chapstick from roughly 15 inches away with the main camera. I placed the reticle dead center on the Chapstick. The SE and the regular 15 were tack sharp. The Pro was blurry. I showed the tech and he took out his personal 15 Pro - it too was blurry. I can get tack sharp photos on my 15 Pro Max using third party apps with focus peaking, but it is a major hassle. The telephoto on my 15 Pro Max is tack sharp with auto focus. I am wondering if the f 1.78 on the main camera causes issues with the ability to auto focus. That is a really small aperture with a very small depth of field.

If you look at this chart there isn’t a lot of room for error - https://www.photopills.com/calculators/dof-table

You have to be a significant distance from the subject to get the f 1.78 DOF to be manageable when there are multiple subjects in the frame. The tele is an f 2.8 which is much more forgiving.

That being said, it is infuriating to know that I have a 48MP main camera that looks stunning when in focus, rarely be able to focus correctly.

I took the following photos on the main camera, stock photo app, ProRaw, 15.5 inches away, tripod, remote shutter control. The only difference is where I placed the reticle.

Photo #1: I placed the reticle perfectly centered over the Chapstick. The logo is blurry.

Photo #2: Same placement except I dragged the reticle down where about 1/4 of the reticle covered the table just in front of the Chapstick

Photo #3: Adding another Chapstick at 14.5 inches I placed the reticle over the left one, again with about 1/4 of the reticle covering the table in front of it.

Photo #4: Now with the reticle over the right Chapstick, again with 1/4 covering the table in front of it

If you look at the images with the two Chapsticks you can see a slight blur on the one not being focused on. The problem is that I constantly need to place the reticle slightly in front of what I want in focus. At least I think that’s what is happening. I’d be curious if anyone else could test that with their 15 Pro Max (or Pro).

My wife's iPhone 15 Pro Max does not focus for photos using the .5x and 1x lens, the 5x lens works correctly. Video doesn't focus for any lens. She has been working with Apple Support to fix the focus problem, with no success. Apple engineering claims it's a software problem and they’re working on it.

This appears to me a hardware problem. I am an electrical engineer with much computer experience. Apple diagnostics doesn't detect the failure. You can see the problem with your eyes, the diagnostic is deficient.  

I have the same iPhone, and mine focuses correctly on each lens. Identical camera's using the same software, where only one fails, is a definite indicator of a hardware failure. 

We have asked Apple to replace her iPhone. By declaring this a software problem, Apple prevents the support team from a costly replacement of failing iPhones. There are a lot of iPhones that have the focus problem.  

Apple is trying to find a software workaround for this hardware problem, but have not succeeded so far.  It's now Christmas season and many Apple customers with the flagship iPhone have a useless camera.

Has anyone found a workaround so my wife can take Christmas photos? Does this problem also occur on other iPhone 15 models?

hey, very dull flat photographs with no dimensions/details. They come out blurry & out of focus. I have a call from apple this morning - hopefully to swap it for another phone - if not straight return. Very disappointed. Glad you got sorted!

I'm having this issue as well on 15 Pro Max.

I took some lotto ticket pictures for my pool, and they kept coming out blurry. Same exact photo on 12 Pro comes out perfect focus.

I also noticed I had problems trying Macro pictures. I can actually see autofocus hit the subject perfectly, but then it keeps going and ends up out of focus by a bit.

Also, I have an app that scans said lotto ticket bar codes for winners. It works perfectly on 12 Pro. On 15 Pro Max it fails 9 times out of 10.

I'm reading through google results now to see how I can troubleshoot. I'm not a camera pro so I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. I hope I don't end up having to do a replacement.

I am so grateful for all of your posts to know I'm not alone though I'm sorry for the experience.

I chatted with support in March about the blurry macro photos on my 15 Pro Max. After checking all of the settings and being told everything was fine, I was told to try a case without a cover over the lens so I did. I also did a factory reset which did nothing. I still have the issue and have a genius bar appt tomorrow.

I tested it out today on a hike. I took several wildflower macros using my 15 Pro Max and my husband’s 12 Pro. The differences are obvious. My display is also faulty. The photos ohn hosnphone are clear and crisp but viewed on my phone they are grainy and the color is off.

The 15 Pro Max

12 Pro

He bought the 15 Pro Max for my birthday in November and I'm hoping they can exchange it for a functioning device.

I just went into UPDATED my IOS, did a restart and changed settings> CAMERA>PRESERVE SETTINGS and CHANGED / selected a bunch of stuff and it helped out a lot!!!! Including MACRO CONTROL

Yes, I believe we’re having different problems. Mine will focus at less than 1/2” when I’m in macro - something I don’t think it’s supposed to be able to do. Looks cool, but is useless to me. Mine won’t focus when using any other lenses. It just tries to focus on the entire area, doesn’t even focus when I tap on a particular area of the screen. Results are nothing in the photo is sharp. I can only take macro pics 1/2” away if I want sharp photos. I was really hoping this would be fixed with the 15s. I have read these issues may be due to the phototonic engine on the 14 and 15. Friends of mine say theirs works great outdoors but I mostly photograph portraits with natural light indoors. 14 PM has not ever worked for that.

I’ve had so many issues with the camera on the IPhone 15 PM & went into a genius today to explore the issues as you’ve described & was told “maybe the phones just not for me” :) thinking of returning - has anyone any wisdom on how to resolve these issues?

I'm probably about 7+ inches away.

I found another thread that said turning off settings>camera>portraits-in-photo-mode might help, but I can't tell the difference. lotto scanning app still misses 9 of 10.

I also discovered if I'm in photo mode around 6-7" away from subject item and the picture is blurry, if the macro flower is available, tapping it will instantly fix the focus perfectly. It zooms out a tad, so I'm don't know if it's the focus, the zoom, or both. This is the fastest focus fix for nearby objects for me. The ticket scanning app has no macro mode so I can't test there.

Hello! My question is with video - my new iPhone 15 pro goes blurry when going close to something while filming. shouldn't it automatically switch cameras while filming? I got this for YouTube where I make videos about houseplants (very niche I know) but I use this all the time, from wider view to close up leaves and it's been so frustrating!! I have to stop recording, go close up to activate the macro flower, then start filming again. this is so much worse than my old iPhone 11 that just would focus on anything! I hope you can help, you sound like you know more than me :) Thank you.

There is a lot of reports of close-up focus issues within Apps. I experience it too.

My iPhone 15 Pro Max doesn't focus closel… - Apple Community.

have to resort to taking photo and then loading that into the app or holding phone a long way away.. not very good but assume app makers need to update their software to manage camera, or Apple needs to update camera defaults.

Very good to know. I have the opposite issue on my 14 Pro Max - on the first phone & the replacement. It will focus incredibly well about 1/2” from subject is very low light on macro, but won’t even try to auto focus on any other lens and won’t focus manually either. Here is the macro and the 1.0 to show how zoomed in the macro is. The 1.0 is not in focus, not sure how much you can see here.