iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Blurry and Out of Focus

On photo mode, press hold with your finger the screen for a few seconds to pop out AE/AF LOCK in yellow print above as the screen lightens up. When you take the selfie shot and check the photo, you will notice on top left of that photo PORTRAIT is written to show that its quality is portrait although shot in photo mode. Your selfie photo looks better then. However I still miss my iPhone 7 Plus and even my iPod I bought in 2014 wherein my face on the screen (actually the whole screen itself) when doing selfie photo automatically lightens up that is why the photo looks clear, sharp, bright and my skin looks smooth.

Actually when you just tap (not hold) the screen on photo mode, it will make the screen light up a little bit and then the picture will still have the PORTRAIT word written on top left of the photo taken.

I’m having the same issue indoor and low light images look terrible like from an old vga camera, in my opinion. What I have noticed is that my lidar sensor is very dirty from abrasion of the original silicon case, the howl area around the camera extrusions collects dirt like crazy, given that the case is so high around the cameras. Could anybody here please be so kind to check if they might use the same case? Cold this be a commonality?

I have an OCD when it comes to new devices, so I always check everything. I never expected the selfie camera to perform so poorly. The scenario in which I am testing the selfie is tried and tested because I have clips of the past two years so it easy for me to compare. with the 15 pro I’m getting an autofocus zoom in-out effect during video recording (with selfie camera) when the room is dimly lit. This never happened on my 13PM. Also it’s more blurry than my old phone.

Well, one Apple Support chat and three Genius Bar consultations later, I have no resolution other than one tech who agreed that the 15 Pro Max camera is bad. Really bad. I, too, upgraded from my 11 Pro only for the 15 Pro Max camera, as I use it in the field every day to document biodiversity for a citizen science project. The photos are such poor quality, I can't submit most of them. While wishing I had my 11 back, all I know to do is hope that a future software update/patch will resolve the issue. Such a disappointment.

I don't know if the 15 Pro has the same camera issues as the 15 Pro Max. But, it might be worth testing it in the store, if you're still within the return window. (I've had mine less than a month but more than two weeks, so, unfortunately, returning it is not an option for me.) Wish I knew where my 11 was -- I'd trade this 15 Pro Max to have my 11 back!

Would love to hear about the camera issues from someone who has tried the new 17.2. Some people in here mentioned that they are fixed, or at least greatly improved. It’s disheartening buying a product this expensive and having to deal with issues that shouldn’t exist. I miss my 13 promax.

In order to find commonalities i would like to ask again what cases anybody is using, since i experienced serious dirt abrasion from mine (original apple silicone) on the lidar sensor and wonder, if this might have an impact for the focus algorithms.

I’ve encountered the same issue. My iPhone 15 pro max just don’t perform like my work coworker’s who have an iPhone 14 Pro Max. With similar camera settings his photos looks by far much better than mine’s. I hope that’s a software problem and next update will solve this.

I am using a Speck Presidio Perfect-Clear ClickLock Case with MagSafe for Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max (with a Speck ClickLock Wallet for Apple iPhones with MagSafe). At the advice of the first Apple chat support specialist, I removed it to see if the photo quality improved. (It did not.) We were ruling out the possibility that the magnetic elements in the case might be affecting the focus/resolution. But, with or without this particular case, it doesn't appear to make a difference. Speck ClickLock Case

Apple has leverage even now with a flawed expensive product because we’ve all gotten rid of our old phones, mostly as a prerequisite to getting a new one and therefore no choice to go back to old one and it’s not like we can go without. I am everything Apple/Mac and you make the excellent point: I’ve got a brand new $1K product and I’m on a pointless company discussion board hoping for a fix instead of getting this fixed immediately. We are just “hoping” some day it gets fixed. Imagine if this was a car. It’s not far off.

ps. The camera is sharper when not using raw but it is absolutely mind-blowing that Apple has made such an obviously massive mistake in selling the 15 (pro in my case) before the cameras and software were delivering results we expect from any camera let alone one that touts all it does. (I’m left with this: I can: record video, and take pictures (with a big asterisk **** 1, for best results, don’t use raw nor heif but you still won’t get expected sharp results (remember it’s not you, you are holding the camera still), 2. Don’t ever take a selfie again with the main button. Take only with the volume button for multiple images in a row so it bypasses processing, but of course that button isn’t quite convenient). And prepare to be aggravated using camera for anything but video (which I believe is fine but not 100% sure).

I just can't believe it's such a common issue... I've just read a post where a guy tested 8 units, every one had this issue more or less visible.... Seriously, just for fun I took a photo with my old iPhone 6s, and the text looks sharper.... I think if that's a hardware issue, this is gonna be a BIG one. I've noticed that on mine 3 weeks after the purchase, while I tried send photos of documents to my client. I couldn't believe I took 5 blurry pictures, so I started investigating this... I believe there are thousands of people that took picture on their phones and didn't try to look at them on computers etc. Let's wait a month or so, I bet this is gonna be a big news....

So like everyone else, both my wife and I have this problem. I, iPhone 15 Pro Max, my wife iPhone 15 Pro.

This is the first Apple phone I genuinely regret buying. It’s awful and buggy. I’m sure it’s a mix of hardware/software issues.

We’ve gone through Apple care and replaced both our devices and same problem. Absolute joke. We have a young kid and can’t even get a decent family photos. My 12PM was better, as was my wife’s 13P.

So frustrated.

Apparently Apple doesn’t read this forum. I’ve been in contact with support who claimed weeks ago they knew about problems. But haven’t heard anything since. And no software update has so far changed anything.

If you return your product for warranty (at least in Poland) every company has 2 chances to fix the issue. If they don't and 2 times they give you back faulty device - you can ask for refund. So that would be the only chance, but I guess they will say "everything is ok, it should work like that"