iPhone 5 Purple Flare

I'm not sure which problem. The purple flare problem is a lighting problem. If the light source is way off to the size the lens coating is illuminated. As it is purple it shades the image that color. All cameras have this problem to some degree, but it is worse in the iPhone because the lens is not recessed.

I have my iPhone for approximately a half year now and noticed the same problem yesterday while shooting a video. I am not a heavy camera user so that could explain why it took so long for me to encounter this problem. I have googled this and apparently it is a very common problem. I've found stories of users getting their phone replaced and still having the issue with the replacement phone. Therefore I presume this is a software problem, which hopefully can be fixed by a softwareupdate, or a general pruduction fault affecting a lot of phones. I have put on a SGP Glass.t screen protector on my phone so I am a little reluctant to get it replaced right a way. Since the problem does not occur very frequently and apparently is a widespread problem of which at this moment it is not yet known if it is hardware or software related, I have decided to wait a little bit longer and see what happens.

What you describe has nothing to do with software, and nothing to do with hardware. It is a fact of life that all serious photographers know about; it is caused by "lens flare" and happens on every camera when the light source's angle of incidence is less than the angle of refraction of the lens material. It is purple on the iPhone because the lens is made of sapphire crystal; on other cameras it may be white, or other colors depending on the lens coating. To mitigate lens flare photographers use a lens hood that keeps the light source from striking the lens directly, or arrange themselves and the camera so the light source is behind the camera.

It is more pronounced on the iPhone because the lens has no protection from the light source striking the lens directly (that is, the lens isn't recessed). So it is your job as the photographer (as it would be with any camera) to keep the light source from reaching the lens directly. You can do this by buying a lens hood for the iPhone camera (they exist), keeping the light source at your back, or, if you can't, by holding a hand between the iPhone and the light source (but not in front of the lens, of course).

There have been a number of articles (including one by David Pogue, technology editor for the NY Times) about lens flare and cell phone cameras. It can be seen on any camera, but especially cell phone cameras (regardless of manufacturer) because the lens is usually flush with the back of the camera and thus has no protection from the light source (or a bright reflection of the light source) from striking the lens directly.

Thank you very much for your response. However, I was not talking about lens flare but about pink lines apearing on the screen. Like this:

This is also the problem the original poster was referring to, I suppose.

Ah, that's different. I only read the message subject, which is a different problem of a purplish cast on some photos. I don't know what causes your problem.

I am having exactly the same issues with my ipad air. have you been able to resolve it and how?