IOS 26.0.1 camera are blurry on iPhone 17 Pro Max and older iPhones.

I have contacted Apple senior support for over 3 days about the camera quality, where i take photos of a book page (none macro, normal 1x) and only where it focuses is good quality and the rest of the texts and the edges of the photo and the content of the book are blurry/smudgy. I have only owned my iPhone 17 Pro Max for 5 days, my IOS 18.5 six years old iPhone 11 Pro Max outperforms today’s iPhone, with much sharper photo and clarity all sides and edges. Not even the senior support could point out if it was a hardware or a software issue. And they booked me in on a official apple reseller and even there they ”couldn’t see a problem” with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, yet it was pretty obvious. Until i tried the cameras on the demo iPhones both in Apple official reseller and a retailer store and they all had the same photos i got. Even the employees with their older iphone (15 pro max and 13 pro max) had the same issue since they had IOS 26 upgrade. So either please fix the issue as soon as possible, or recall the devices and refund them.

Also Apple senior support team tried to tweak some camera settings while i shared screen for them on my iPhone 17PM, and they told me to factory reset my iPhone and still absolutely nothing changed.

I can provide photo evidence of how blurry images are on the edges and smudgy on texts, and i would really like a confirmation if the camera of the new 2025 device supposed to be this bad, so that i can return it as it didn’t fill my expectations at all.

Posted on Oct 6, 2025 8:41 AM

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buglvr

Level 1

12 points

Posted on Oct 27, 2025 12:03 PM

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74 replies

Jeff Donald

Level 8

45,558 points

Oct 11, 2025 7:16 PM in response to Zubbuz

Please post examples of the blurring pixelated photos. There is an old expression that photographers use, if there’s no photos, it never happened. The person before you claimed blurry photos, but nothing gets posted. I -would have to suppose because it never happened.

Jonrow

Level 1

8 points

Oct 12, 2025 1:29 AM in response to Jeff Donald

Hi Jeff,

I don’t think I’m going to post photos. I know that there is some issue with my iPhone 17 pro camera so I’m adding my voice to the list. I don’t want to get into a long running discussion about why I’m not right.

In the old days when camera lenses were being reviewed in magazines they printed detailed grids showing the resolution of lenses and their ability to distinguish contrast and colours. Perhaps you might like to publish those comparing the iPhone 17 pro camera to a previous camera rather than explain to us why we don’t understand that the shots are better despite the evidence of our own eyes .

Could this be a little like the ‘Batterygate’ problem with Apple where the company denied there was any issue with older iPhone battery longevity until suddenly there was?

I’m hoping that the feedback you’re getting will encourage Apple to take a look at this issue and do something about it in a subsequent software release. All the best. Jon

Oct 12, 2025 9:16 AM in response to Mofasa7

Why you think the subject you took should be completely focus, when you clearly have the phone camera so close to the bottom of your keyboard, is a mystery? You're expecting total focus in a scene which is almost impossible to take every element of the scene in total focus. If you don't understand photography and how cameras focus, such as Focal Length, then why post photos which no camera could do a good job with, no matter how much the camera cost? Are you even aware that you can place your finger on the area of an object you want to take a photo of on your iPhone screen to ensure that area is in focus? It's clear you don't know that. But to expect all of what you wanted to be in focus from the angle you took it and the closeness to the bottom of the keyboard guarantees you won't get a totally in focus photograph.

You should take a class in photography and learn about camera basics. Once you learn about them, you'll better understand the limitations of what you can and can't do with a camera. Your photo you posted as having an issue, is unfortunately a fail.

Jeff Donald

Level 8

45,558 points

Oct 12, 2025 9:15 AM in response to Mofasa7

Are you sure the vertical is iPhone 17 Pro? Just want to verify. In any case you have to setup an identical experiment, objects are different sizes indicating you held the cameras at different distances from the subject. Photographing poorly lit computer keyboards is not something I’ve ever had to do or even wanted to do. Try at least a decent test, in decent indoor lighting. It’s acknowledged that all cellphones will exhibit issues indoors and in low light.

Oct 13, 2025 8:14 AM in response to PlsFixMyProblem

Just commenting here to affirm everyone that I also recognize this blurry issue with the 17 Pro compared to my 12 Pro.

However, I am hesitant to update the 12 over to iOS 26 if this is indeed software issue 😵‍💫

Nov 7, 2025 12:56 AM in response to PlsFixMyProblem

I’ve noticed that the iPhone 17’s camera performs very poorly at 4x and 8x zoom. The image is shaky and unstable, and the quality is significantly worse compared to previous models. Please fix this issue in the next iOS update.

guren96

Level 1

50 points

Nov 16, 2025 11:14 PM in response to PlsFixMyProblem

I knew liquid glass, etc. I waited until yesterday to move to 26.0.1, and the improvement was next to nothing.

Opened my camera for the daily cat eyeball picture and it felt like my camera quality dropped hard. I moved the zoom back out, swapped modes, and everything was still coming out grainy or not as sharp as they previously came out.

I just figured out how to get Portrait mode back. You need to hold down the “video/ picture” mode and slide it to the left or right to get all the old mode selections back. Hope this helps!

Use Portrait mode on your iPhone - Apple Support

Dec 4, 2025 9:27 AM in response to freddy2013

I just read what you posted before this update. Funny that when Apple ran diagnostics and i had to reset my iPhone no issue was found or resolved. And if i spoke with apple support online (we dont have apple store in my city, just a reseller), or the 3rd party retail store i bought from (i didn’t buy from Apple because the line to get the iPhone was very much longer), i was denied any replacement.

They wanted to crack open my iphone and i refused for the same reason you did, im not going to crack open a new expensive phone, might aswell give me a new replacement. But the retail store insisted to crack open it to look inside if it’s faulty to then determine to (fix it) first and then give me a replacement if it couldn’t be (fixed).

I boiled up refusing to get my BRAND NEW 1700$ iPhone ”FIXED” **** Noo, took my iphone and left. But i wasn’t going to let that slide, i had the law with me but i waited and digged for more about the camera before i took legal actions.

Worse part is if no issues were to be found when they unseal my iphone, i would get back the same phone but now has been unsealed. As a 1700$ brand new phone lol

At that time, i didn’t know if it’s a software bug or defect phone, until i got some answers here about DOF.. But what you just descriped is what sounds like i got right now, only blurry in the edge, so what problem did you have?

Jan 18, 2026 1:09 PM in response to PlsFixMyProblem

The only other time I've had such unpredictable results with a camera has been shooting 35mm film on a 100% manual focus / manual body camera 😂 which is exactly what I WAS NOT expecting from the iPhone 17 pro max. Super unfortunate that android corners the phone cam market.