iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Blurry and Out of Focus

bumbklaatt wrote:

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, it's called depth of field, and is an issue if the light is low; in strong lighting a smaller virtual aperture can be used resulting in enhanced depth of field.

Ultimately the 1x lens is ƒ/1.78 so only so much can be done.

That is an insane difference. I agree with what you are saying. I just want to point and shoot with my phone. I don't want to have to worry about making settings different each time I take pictures. I am not a professional photographer, but to be honest if I was looking to take more professional quality pictures I woud probably use my Nikon. Taking photos for my website was easy with my 12P, with my 15PM the picture quality is just inferior. I really wish I didn't have to trade in my old 12P to get the 15PM.

I disagree with that. Since I've bought the 15 Pro, I've probably already taken 100 photos of people and at most every second one of them is really sharp, rather less.

I've had many iPhones before (3GS/4S/5/6S/XS/13Pro) and none of them were so unreliable for portraits. Maybe I'm being very picky, but even without zooming, it's immediately obvious to me if the eyes aren't 100% sharp in portraits.

But i´m feeling happy for you when you don´t have any issues.

Your picture is not a good example of the depth of field-AF problem, as the faces here are very far away and the autofocus is therefore probably already in the infinity range.

For me, the problem always occurs with classic portraits of one or two people who are about 1-2 meters away from the camera.

Apple's given us the tools, it's up to us to use them.

I can say the same for photos taken with my DSLR, which the cameras on the 14 P/PM and 15 P/PM are nearly the equivalent of.

Personally I find most to be razor sharp, especially if the face is detected with the yellow box.

If the face isn't detected, you have to set focus, and if there are multiple subjects, as always with large aperture lenses, you need to pick and choose to get the result you want.

I regularly shoot with a 105mm ƒ/1.4 lens and encounter the same issue, it's just the way optics work. You can pick extreme focus on their eyes or their nose but you won't get both.

That's not the camera's fault.

If you shoot those portraits in areas with a lot of light, it will approximate stopping down of the lens yielding greater depth of field.

I also wasn't trying to demonstrate a depth of field problem (or lack thereof), but rather I was disputing the notion that these cameras are horrible and incapable of taking a good photo.

For every portrait, I make sure that the faces are framed in yellow and therefore rely on the focus being correctly positioned on the eyes and that's not always the case, which bothers me because it no longer works as reliably as with the older iPhones.

Of course, you don't have to use the automatic function with the yellow frames and then you are responsible for the focus yourself, there is no question about that. But if the frame is displayed, I expect the focus to be perfect.

I know exactly how camera optics work and I expect Apple to improve the AF measuring mechanism when the depth of field decreases due to the larger sensor and this is exactly where I see the problem.

The autofocus is too slow or too imprecise for the increased requirements due to the larger sensor.

You can't stand here and blame the users, because Apple has become so popular precisely because everything just works and users don't have to deal with technical things. And I am by no means a normal user, I know a lot about photography.

What else in the world should be sharp in a portrait if not the eyes? Especially if the face is correctly recognized and bordered yellow. It has always worked perfectly so far. I have the feeling that you're trying to defend Apple at all costs.

It's clear that I can't get all the eyes sharp in a portrait of several people if they are all at different distances from the lens. But if I want to take a photo of a single person and the iPhone is framing the face, the eyes or at least the eye that is closer to the lens should be perfectly sharp and this has always worked wonderfully in the past and now it no longer does. It would be stupid if the yellow frame signaled that the nose or mouth and not the eyes were in focus.

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 have the same issue but worse. When I take photos of documents in our office, it always has the big shadowy thingy on the photo. I don’t know how to fix it. I thought it was just the lighting but every time I take pictures of any document, it has the big black shadow in the middle. It’s so annoying knowing that this is the most expensive iPhone today. My 13 pro max is way better when it comes to photo quality. So disappointed.

I’m having same issue with my selfie camera and even back camera changes pics after clicking but front is worse

I’m still under return period but not sure if this can’t be resolved in future software upgrade

view before taking pics is perfect so I assume it’s a software processing issue

anyone has a partial fix

So, I updated 15PM to the latest iOS release couple days ago. Today me and a friend who has 14 PM took the same photo from the same distance with exact same settings (it was a group photo of 20 people). We exchanged photos and I verified all the settings were identical including the focal length of 24 mm and f of 1.78. 15 PM was much more clear when faces were enlarged. Other than that photos looked identical. I feel like maybe latest iOS update did something to improve the quality. Before the update I felt like my old iPhone 12 PM was much much better in terms of photos across all the settings and focal lengths.

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, **** .

[Edited by Moderator]

I’ve had the 15 for 3 months. Upgraded from an SE and it’s amazing until today and I’m having the same issue. As soon as I zoom in it gets extremely fuzzy. Taking it back to Apple Store tomorrow. Worried what they will say.

There really isn't an issue here per se, it all depends on what you are taking photos of and how.

For example, the 1x camera on the 15/15 Plus has the exact same resolution as the 15 Pro/Pro Max, and even has a shorter minimum focus distance because of its use of a smaller 1/1.56" sensor as opposed to the 1/1.28" sensor used on the 15 Pro/Pro Max.

Also obviously, there is no optical zoom level above 2x on the 15/15 Plus.

The 15/15 Plus also do not support ProRAW/RAW photos, but those options may be of no concern to you.

If you find the 15, 15 Plus or the Pixel 8 Pro, all of which independent reviewers have found to have not quite as good a camera as the 15 Pro/Pro Max, to better suit your needs, those are the devices you should use.

Many people "upgrade" to a Pro or Pro Max series phone, but if you never use the additional capabilities, there's no reason to do so.

For example, the sensor size differences I mentioned above have obvious side effects in terms of minimum focus distance, but many will never notice the additional quality provided by the larger sensor in the Pro/Pro Max, particularly if you don't shoot in 48 MP mode.

It then just becomes specsmanship for those who don't need and won't use the additional capabilities.

For example, if your photos are never used anywhere but Facebook, Facebook automatically downsamples photos with resolution of anything greater than 2048 pixels, so photographic resolution over 4 MP is completely useless for that site.

If you're never going to need a 3x (Pro)/5x (Pro Max) optical telephoto lens, there's also no reason to get a 15 Pro/Pro Max if the camera is a primary consideration.

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.