iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Blurry and Out of Focus

Completely agree, the main camera still has a focus issue.

One problem with how people are using the iPhone 15 Pro max is to not realise that the lenses are prime lenses. That is, they do not zoom. Zooming is done by switching between lenses and digital wizardry smoothening the transition. So the cameras are best at their native zoom. ie for 15 Pro it is 1X, 0.5X and 5X, for the Pro it is 1X, 3X and 0.5. If you are using the camera at any other zoom level you will get digital processing to upscale the image and loose quality.

The issue that I see is that even when using them as primes, there is still a focus issue and pics are worse than my 13 Pro. Also interesting is that the iPhone can still choose the main lens when you are at 3X on the 15 Pro for example, I think when it decides that a digital zoom of the main camera will give better results than the prime zoom of the telephoto camera. Apple needs to do some more work on optimising the focus and post processing. I really hope there is no hardware issue.

Unfortunately I had to return it. As a normal user you’d expect from Apple improvement in all aspects! I’ve tried all new iPhones at Apple store and can tell that all are the same. Why would Apple downgrade quality of camera? More pixels doesn’t mean better photos. I was so excited to get new phone , such a huge disappointment. Maybe it’s good or better for photos taken outdoors, or landscape but tbh… how many of us needs that? I’m expecting from my phone to take great quality every day photos but unfortunately Apple didn’t deliver that… oh Apple … you have to improve your phones otherwise you’ll loose so many loyal costumers.

I took my 15 pro max into Best Buy apple support after talking in to applecare. He set my camera format from high efficiency to most compatible. I don’t think it had much of an effect regarding focus - his thought was …that the camera was doing its post processing incorrectly. I agreed to try it for 2 more months to see if the apple iOS sw is to blame… thinking that the next release (17.2) may help.

i did learn something new …

…. iPhone version of Lightroom Classic - also takes photos (-hold the icon down to get to the options). All expected camera features are available… manual /shutter speed /stop /iso… are available.

The lens aperture, if you tap on top of the camera and open the menu you get the settings for lens aperture  f‑number (ƒ/#) that goes from ƒ/1.4 blurred background to ƒ/16 background in focus, it determines the depth of field, tap on either ƒx on the screen of the camera bottom left or on the menu of the camera and set it moving the cursor. It works both for the front and back camera

It's for iPhones 15 pro and pro max Leave macro toggled on in camera settings, and try this Open the Camera app and go to Photo mode, tap on the screen what you want in focus, you'll see a yellow square and the 'sun' focus icon, the f symbol will appear on the bottom left, tap it, it'll turn yellow. Tap the top of the camera screen where the up arrow is, it'll open the menu and show you the ƒx settings, it's a cursor you can adjust how much you want to be in focus, let me know

Same here, I recently traded in my iphone 11 pro max to Iphone 15 Pro Max and im extremely disappointed to see that the camera is not good for selfies. My iphone 11 was way better quality and resolution. Does anyone have a formal response from Apple about this?

tap the f on top right it should turn yellow, then tap on the top up arrow to open the bottom menu you should see the f settings

in photo mode the f is on the bottom left (as in my example)

in portrait mode is on the top right

UPDATED

Yes, if I type the f in portrait mode it works. But it’s in regular photo mode that I get horrible photos so I had hoped to find the f there and see if it changed anything. Whether macro is on or off (it was on) I can’t see an f in photo mode. Maybe it just doesn’t work outside the portrait mode since it’s meant for depth of field?

There are a lot of different issues being confused in this thread.

This is not an issue with the aperture bokeh or the portrait mode or macro mode.

This is a general issue with iPhone 15 having either poor focus or poor post processing of photos.

Some people may be getting poor results as they are not appreciating that anything other than using the lenses at prime zoom will result in more digital processing and some artefacts and generally less picture quality.

For example, if you use the iPhone 15 Pro max at 2X zoom you are outside of the native zoom of *any* of the lenses. This is why an iPhone 12 Pro will look better at times at 2X zoom. The iPhone 15 Pro will look better at 3X than a 15 Pro Max at 3X as the Pro has a 3x native zoom lens whereas the Pro Max has a 5X.

I believe that the "portraits in photo mode" settings in the camera app may be responsible for some of the poor focus. This mode captures depth information and I am not sure it is the best way to get a sharp, best focussed picture.

If I turn that off I seem to get more sharp pics but there still seems to be a general focusing issue.

Also, pets seem to confuse the focus. My partner has an iPhone 14 Plus and it is definitely taking better photos than my 15 Pro of non humans.

I’m at an Apple Genius Bar. Got a new iPhone 15 pro max. Same problems. They say the only way Apple will fix this or recall the devices is if enough users report the problem to Apple. This forum does nothing but allow us to commiserate. If you want Apple to fix please contact Apple support. The more of us that formally register complaints with Apple Support (this forum is not Apple Support and they do not look at this forum) the more likely something will be done.

I am experiencing the same. It's very disappointing. I'm sorry that you all are having the same issue, but I'm glad it's not just me. I keep hoping that the software updates will resolve it. Has anyone gone to the Genius Bar or contacted Apple support?

You need to have a pet or human face in focus for that f symbol to appear. Otherwise it won’t come up. But this thread is about post processing of general photos where there are no humans or pets in focus.

I took my 15 pro max to Apple today unfortunately they asked me to wait for the new patch. I do hope it will fix the issue. Regret that I’ve sold my 13 pro max. It was probably the best iPhone camera.

I spent about an hour in chat with Apple support yesterday; they ultimately reported that the software diagnostics looked fine. I have an appointment today for the hardware to be checked. It's dismaying, as I am an avid photographer and use my iPhone camera daily as a citizen scientist to document area biodiversity; in the past, my iPhone photographed better than my "real" camera, but now, I can't use most of the iPhone images because the quality/resolution is not clear enough. Sadly, Apple CarPlay doesn't work with my 15 Pro Max, either, even though I purchased the recommended accessories. (It will pick up audio but not video, so I can't see my navigation maps, etc.) Wishing I had kept my 11! PS: Thank you for the feedback link, @user1805; I just left my comments there.

I’m in the same boat. I miss my 13 pro max. Worse yet, Apple staff made it sound like I should not expect the camera to perform well due to the changes in the camera lenses. Such as- touching the screen to focus on a point I want will not work if something on the image is closer to the camera than the area of the screen I’ve clicked. And with the 48 mp they said that doesn’t mean the image will be better. the explanation was over my head, but I felt like they were setting my expectations of image quality DOWN and that’s not what I paid for. If they had explained that in their advertising I would have kept my 13 pro max.