How to Fix iPhone 16 Pro Max Camera Focus Issue

I've had an iPhone 16 Pro for a month or so. Everything with the 5x camera, photo, macro and video is soft focus. This is very disappointing.

I’m having the exact same issue. My iPhone 12 Pro Max literally took better pictures. Super annoying.

here is a comparison and what to look for:

I am having the same issue. If I take a photo of two people, the focus is only on one or the other. And if I take a photo of one person, only either the clothes are focused or a small area of their face, but not the whole person.

Has anyone found what the issue is?

I think there’s a bit of confusion in this group… and for those who are confused the simple answer is, for generations iPhones have been taking good photos on the main lens at 1x (simple) and when you view the photo taken, you zoom in on the edges and they are very clear(non-blurry), and now the iPhone 16 Pro/ Pro Max photos are not clear and they are blurry. (SIMPLE AGAIN)

No need to complicate it, the culprit is the main camera (or fusion camera) takes bad photos on the 1x main lens whatever you wanna call it, forget lighting, focus of subject etc. it’s SIMPLE, it takes bad and blurry photos from previous generation iPhones. That’s it.

Don’t worry around is it in sunlight, is it under artificial light, etc. it takes bad photos on the main lens from previous generation iPhones and when viewing the photo taken and zoomed into the edges of the photo it’s blurry…… SIMPLE

I’m not sure what people don’t understand. It was good, and now it’s not, and people are complaining about it, obviously.

Yes, we are all waiting for 18.2 hopefully it will fix the problem. I just came off from online Apple support chat - they asked me to send them so many photos (front camera/back camera/video etc); no matter what setting you choose it is still blurry - I shared with them a photo I took with iPhone 12 mini; the sharpness is unbelievably different from 16 pro max. now they set up an appointment for a technician to see my phone this week. Let’s see what happens.

I was really looking forward to getting the 16 pro Max as I do a lot of photography for my Watch business. The camera is absolutely useless. Whatever I try the subject or at least part of it is out of focus. It doesn’t matter if it’s close-up photography or just taking pictures of people.

Over Christmas, I took pictures of family members and on every photo somebody’s face will be in focus and another persons will be blurred.

Apple need to acknowledge and fix this problem ASAP. Let’s face it the iPhone has really plateaued over the last few years. All they wanna talk about is how the camera is twice as good as the previous generation. So if that’s the big sell for buying the top of the line iPhone 16 then Apple needs to step up and fix this now.

Hey mate, more proof, and i mean this is consistent throughout when using the main lens, so basically if you try and take a photo of a menu at a restaurant, you will get good quality in the middle of the page and then the corners, and also top, bottom, left, right of the menu it will be all blurry.

Here are more examples:

Just for context also, I have had every version of iPhone since the iPhone 3G except the 15, and sometimes had multiple versions like the 12 pro max and the 12 mini, so it can’t be that all of the sudden, we all lost our touch, all at the same time with the iPhone 16. There is a fault 💯.

I’ve been taking the same close up photos of the same exact serial number sheets for at least 6-7 years, so there no possibility that all of the sudden now I can’t take clear and crisp photos with the iPhone 16 pro max, but I have no issues “STILL” taking it with any my other five iPhones (which I still have all of them).

12 pages of comments in a few months - has anyone found a solution or was able to return their 16? I unfortunately discovered this blurring issue just outside of my 30 day return window. My boyfriend has the same model (16 pro max) and both have sharp center that blurs out, almost like a vignette filter, while my old 13 pro max does not.

Hey Mate, this is the best i could do with the photo, I had to shrink it so to be honest it looks worse when you have it all side by side on the phone screen but this is basically the gist of it, it iPhone 11 and 13 are extremely good, 14 is ok and 16 is terrible, but again this doesnt do it justice as i had to shrink the photo etc....(i can only upload a 5MB photo here.... like, how are we meant to even upload some solid proof when a single photo nowadays starts at 6MBs)

Mate, respectfully i know your trying to help and diagnose, but i still don't think were on the same page. I'm sure everyone in here knows what macro is, what 0.5x zoom is, what 2x zoom is and what 5x zoom is.

We are talking about people unboxing their new iP16 pro / pro max and taking a simple 1x zoom(24mm, 24MP) because this is how most people take photos AND it is meant be better quality/sharper/crisper than their previous iPhones shooting at 1x zoom at 12MP.

Again i'm going to add yet another example which I shot on the iP16 Pro Max and i will circle / draw IN RED where i think the text is blurry. this is what i have asked you to do for us and still have not done which is get a pamphlet / brochure / menu etc. which is an A4 format (A4 because its globally recognized) with clear text on it as it is the easiest to see where the blur happens because the text is razor sharp on a pamphlet, and take the photo so all 4 corners are in the shot at 1x zoom (NOT MACRO) and try not to get much else around the A4 such as wall / table/ ground around the pamphlet / brochure / menu etc. Just a simple at 1x zoom 24MP, 24mm lens (NOT marco, NOT 0.5x, NOT 2x, NOT 5x, NOT 1.3x, NOT 1.5x).

Below is the iP16 shot without cropping, it's an A4 pamphlet with sharp text on it taken at 1x zoom, 24mm, 24MP, and i have circled / drew where the smudgy / blurry text is on the pamphlet.

This was shot in natural daylight

So inside the circles/ markup / drawing the text is blurry and anything outside of the circles/ markup / drawing the text is ok. And once again i had to shrink the image to be able to upload it.

Please see below:

Jeff, I did not question your photography skills. However, I did object on the use of photography jargons since the iphones are not specifically build for the professional photographers. All a normal consumer cares about is taking a good photo if he has heavily invested into the phone (that also makes one of many others), merely for taking a good photograph. Coming back to your point, you are talking like a photographer where you could have tweeked the taken shot with editing softwares and third party apps. However, any normal person, with a latest iphone, would like his/her phone to act on AUTO and decide the settings just like the previous iphones did. However, this particular iphone 16pro is an exception since its acting quite weird when it comes to taking 1x shots, i.e. the 24 mm lens. You have been asking every person to post the EXIFs/settings of the photo. Again that is not the point. The phone's cam is supposed to do it on AUTO specially such a basic thing which a cam is supposed to do so using computational photography. Like many others, I am waiting for 18.2 and hope it will fix this issue for good. Cheers!

Yeah I’ve already sent two “feedbacks” and I’ve copied and linked this very thread for them, everyone needs to get onto them. I’ve rocked every single iPhone pro/max or the highest level iPhone at the time every year since the iPhone 3G (except iPhone 15pro/max) and I’ve been taking the same photos for at least the last 10 years (scanning docs, shots of A4 with serial numbers, info sheets, menus, pamphlets, etc) so I’ve noticed straight away that something was wrong when I shot the same thing I’ve been shooting for the last 10 years I noticed that only the iPhone 16pro/max has the issue that’s when I came across this thread, so it seems like “the lens is really good” but apparently all of the sudden WE are the problem and the way WE take the photos in 2024/2025 🤦🏻 Apple can’t/doesn't want to admit that it’s their issue….

Apparently the lens is too high tech that’s why we get blurry and smudgy photos of texts 🤣🤣🤣🤣