iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Blurry and Out of Focus

You're now complaining about noise reduction and the effects of computational photography, which are what most users want to see from the camera; that's the new norm whether it's the iPhone 15, Galaxy S23 or Pixel 8.

If you've never seen a "correctly working" photo from a 15, then it may be that your expectations are not what Apple and other phone makers have opted to provide, compared to the duller appearing lower resolution output from older phone cameras. I'm also presuming you're using the 1x lens with absolutely no digital zoom.

For example, do you think this photo has aggressive noise reduction and plastic features?

It was taken with a $5000 Canon R3 mirrorless camera and $2000 lens and produced by an award-winning photographer who was paid quite well for their work. It is an accurate reflection of what clients and others expect from their photos today (despite the fact I personally find the smoothing rather over-aggressive resulting in a "plastic" look, but I'm not the one paying them for their work.)

People don't want "accurate" photos anymore, they want what they believe the photo "should" look like according to what they see on Instagram and Snapchat.

Sometimes I also think the iPhone's processing is a bit aggressive, but I also know Apple provides ProRAW for less processing and RAW mode via Halide or Lightroom for those who want none at all that they don't add; most people demand photos they can post to social media with zero edits, not even hitting the magic wand button to optimize brightness/contrast.

Computational photography is a sometimes controversial topic, but in the end these are the results consumers demand from their devices.

There is an excellent YouTube video you can search for entitled Smartphone Cameras vs Reality! that covers these issues in great detail.

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, **** .

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I took my iPhone 15 pro to the Apple Store, but they said there wasn’t a problem!! The photos had lots of ‘noise’ around the edges, which made everything out of focus. I complained to customer services a couple of times, and eventually they suggested a fix that actually worked. They talked me through a phone reset, which was very straightforward. My camera now takes good photos, and I now feel happy with the phone. I would suggest that you talk to customer services, or go to an Apple Store, and get them to reset the phone. The reset keeps all the settings, other than your home WiFi password. Good luck, I hope this works for you.

When you crop you're zooming in on pixels that are already there, and they are always going to be noisy and lossy.

You can't create pixels out of nowhere; that only works in movies and TV shows.

You can see this if you tap the "i" in a circle of your photos in Photos.

For example, if you look at a photo taken with the normal lens, it will report it is 24 MP in size.

However, depending upon the amount you zoom and crop, the result could be as little as 0.7 MP.

You can't just crop like that; you can crop a tiny bit, otherwise if you want a closer image use the telephoto lens.

That's true of digital photography no matter what camera or device you use.

This does not address the issue.

some phones have camera hardware issues. You can improve that by getting the phones exchanged from Apple Store. Even if ur over the 14 day policy you can show them the grainy camera pictures and ask them to change it under warranty.

i was able to get it changed and new phone and it’s better than before though not perfect.

Apple has to address this issue

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Hello everyone , after research I just found that we got faulty camera phone ! 99% I am sure that this is hardware issues! Please request all of you go to service Center and request them to return or replace!

I posted on your YouTube video how to stop automatic switching.

Go to settings>camera>Macro Control. Turn that on. When the yellow macro symbol comes up bottom left of your shot, click it and it will stop that happening.

The thing is that on the 14/15 due to the larger sensor and the wide open apperture, the depth of field is insanely short means that if you want sharp eyes in portraits, the AF needs to work extremely fast and accurate, so much more precisely than on previous iPhones with smaller sensors.

For the user it is impossible to tap exactly on the eyes of the object, thats why the AF uses the yellow border around faces so that the user can see, that the iPhone recognized the object properly. Unfortunately this mechanism in many cases isn´t fast/accurate enough to get the eyes of the object (most important part of a portrait) 100% sharp because +/- 2cm movement of the person/object to the front or the back decide if the eyes are 100% or just 80% sharp and that´s why the perfect point and shoot experience with the 12MP iPhone generations is completely gone when it comes to portraits.

In other scenarios (Landscapes, Buildings) the 14/15 shoot perfect pictures.

JGreloaded wrote:

Yes lucky I’m in my 30 day window. I am taking this phone back to the store today and trying another one. Don’t worry.

If you bought the phone directly from Apple, the return window is 14 days.

I went to the Applestore at the weekend and got the entire camera unit on my 15 Pro replaced. The pictures are still mushier at higher ISO values than on my 13 Pro under comparable lighting conditions.

My problem with the front focus has improved slightly, but the basic problem is that the focus range is so small due to the large sensor that it is almost impossible to get two people next to each other in focus at the same time unless their eyes are exactly the same distance from the lens.

Yes. Go to General - Transfer or Reset Phone - Reset. This then restarts the phone. But as I’ve said before, you then have to reconnect to your home wi-fi with password, as that password is erased during restart. I was told that Apple Pay would also need to be set up again , if installed. I don’t have that, do not an issue.

it was very quick, and my camera is taking much sharper photos now. If people have concerns as to how to reset, visiting an Apple Store would be a good idea. I was guided by Apple customer services, who shared my screen during this this procedure.

I hope this helps many of you who are having camera problems.

I think this is a problem on some, but not all iPhone 15 cameras. My wife and I have identical iPhone 15 Pro Max with the latest IOS, and all camera settings the same.

My camera takes perfectly focused photos and videos. Her camera only focuses correctly on the 5x lens for photos, but no lens focuses correctly for videos. This occurs for photos taken at the same time with a common subject. So the lighting is exactly the same, as well as all camera settings.

For her camera, the photos are extremely out-of-focus. So there also seems to be a difference in the magnitude of the problem, with some cameras only a little out of focus, and others extremely out of focus.

It’s not good for people to keep resetting and restoring the devices when the problem may lie with the phone itself. I was able to get this issue resolved by exchanging the phone and I’m willing to share actual exchange details with people through PM if anyone has doubts

After cleaning the lenses the blurry issue disappeared. I suggest you try that

That's because it's impossible to do what you suggest.

A larger sensor (for improved photographic quality) coupled with physically small lenses will result in blurring around the edge; this is common with all photographic lenses and all cameras.

The iPhone X had a much smaller, lower resolution sensor (1/3" 12 MP vs the 15 Pro/Pro Max's 1/1.28" 48 MP sensor.)

The bottom line is these are the limits of optics, so there's nothing for Apple to "fix."

If it bothers you, you can return your device within the Apple return period, but all other premium smartphones will exhibit the same issue.