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

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.

You’re welcome and I’m happy to assist with your photography any way possible. If you still want to see sample comparisons, let me know.

What lens did you use for this photo? Did you use a mode such as portrait? What is the ISO and shutter speed?

What lens did you use? What ISO and shutter speed did the camera app pick? How far are you from the subject?

I want to update my iPhone 7 Plus

dankwahmarvin69 wrote:

I want to update my iPhone 7 Plus

This has absolutely nothing to do with this thread. But simply said if you're on iOS 15.8.5 that is as high as an iPhone 7 Plus can go.

I have issues in iPhone 17 . Photos not good after the update I can’t believe this bcz some of poco nd nothing mobile photos are too good compare with this iPhone 17 photo

Too many contributors, anyone mentioned how to solve !

I have to correct my previous post. Though I’m still not convinced with the quality of the camera chip (at least under low illumination conditions), I found a simple and reasonable explanation for the blur. If you look at the file size of a 12 MP pic it is around 1.2-1.4 MB, which is about 30-40% higher compression than the typical 2.0-2.1 MB of previous iOS. Higher compressions means more condensed data and more interpolation in between data points which causes the blur effect. Play with the settings, select different raw modes and you’ll see the difference. Also, keep bi***ing to make reduce the compression. ;)

iPhone 16 Pro’s were the same. There’s a 30+ page thread about blurry closeups buried in community. Not a fix in over a year, because the Apple doesn’t view it as an issue. Apple changed a lot when they moved from iPhone 15 to 16 models.

Apple could have made changes, but evidently chose not to. If you do a lot of closeup photography provide feedback to Apple.

Product Feedback - Apple

Hi all, I'm new to this forum after looking for a thread about iPhone 17 pro camera focus problems.

I take thousands of photos of buildings to use in Reality Scan to generate 3D models. I switched to using the iPhone 11 for this mostly because all the photos would be in focus, not something guaranteed with a traditional camera.

I recently upgraded from the iPhone 14 Pro to the iPhone 17 Pro for the three 48mp cameras and am now having severe focus issues with up to 30% of the photos out of focus.

After extensive testing (and more to be done) I think Jeff Donald may have the right answer but for all the wrong reasons!

If you look at this photo on flickr:-

https://www.flickr.com/gp/padraiccollins/0d9yu37473

This image has severe depth of field (but absolutely nothing tack sharp) - this is completely software generated. I didn't ask it to do this and in a series of photos taken by walking around the building some are completely in focus and some are completely out of focus. Indeed the centre of the "false" depth of field can be anywhere on the focal plane to the point it sometimes looks like a rolling shutter effect, half the image in focus and the rest out of focus, unrelated to the depth of the object.

This is computational photography at its very worse....... software bug or software feature?

I believe at the heart of this is the "Fusion Focus" system interfering with my photography. I think this is what PlsFixMyProblem is also seeing. I get the feeling the software is using all the sensors (motion, lidar, all three camera sensors etc). This might be great but is currently out of control.

Today, under the camera app settings, I switched the "Fusion Camera" option to "24mm only" and I am hoping this solves some of the issues, but an "off" option might be even better.

It would be useful to have a technical explanation of exactly what is going on "under the hood" for this and other features (prioritise faster shooting???) to be able to take back control of the cameras. The camera focus on the iPhone used to be sharp and reliable in conditions beyond that of a traditional camera.

For Jeff to suggest the depth of field is hard wired and one should go back to an older iPhone is strange. The iPhone depth of field is completely computational and should present little challenge to give some user control. Melding multiple images from different sensors when one just wants a sharp image is not the way to go!

[Edited by Moderator]

Hi, we can debate the merits of computational photography or I can help you take sharp photos. I assume the latter.

Step one, only use the numbered settings for lens choices. No more pinch to zoom, no more spin the dial. You only use .5X, 1X, 4X, and possibly 8X. That’s it. Once you do that, the Depth of Field will be governed by Laws of Physics and not Apple Engineers.

Step Two, tap and hold on the object or part of screen containing your subject (point of focus) and wait for AE/AF lock symbol to appear near top of screen.

Step Three, gently press Camera button or shutter release button. More consistent and sharper images will be obtained if you use a good tripod.

Your hit rate should go up to about 90% or higher with a little practice.

Jeff, I'm sort of lost for words.

"Depth of Field will be governed by Laws of Physics and not Apple Engineers."

As google will tell you - due to the iPhone's smaller sensor size its effective depth of field is much larger than the equivalent large camera sensor. The depth of field shown on the image I posted is impossible under the laws of physics on an iPhone. It is completely generated by software engineers.

I've take tens of thousands of photos with various iPhones. My focusing issues are not related to inexperienced use of the camera. Using the same process and techniques on a iPhone 14 Pro produces 99% sharp images and this has dropped to under 70% on the iPhone 17 Pro, depending on the colour of the subject.

This isn't about holding the camera steady. Describing a studio process for taking sharp images is not a real world situation where there are a number of changing variables.

The thing is I don't want depth of field. I want a sharp image across the whole photo. If I'm ten feet from a building why is the iPhone presenting the image as if it was a product shot from a studio?

Its not about debating the merits of computational photography, something is "broken" on the iPhone 17 Pro focus system and how it then computes the image. The thousands of photographs I've taken in the last two days suggest the fusion focus system is getting confused, particularly if the subject matter is predominantly red.

Nothing to do with my and old and shaky grip.....

For the past month, I’ve taken photos indoors and outdoors with my 17 Pro Max and the image quality is worse than what I was getting on my 15 Pro Max before iOS 26 was released. I have no idea what Apple has done from a software standpoint that has taken an incredibly capable piece of hardware on paper and turned it into a digital camera from the mid-2000s. This isn’t a sudden inability to take a quality photo or user error; this seems to be over-aggressive processing by the software to “fix” images after they’re captured.

There are too many people reporting the same concerns for this to be down to a handful of phones with bad cameras. I’m hoping that a software update to dial down the processing of images to restore better quality present on older phones with “inferior” sensors and lenses.