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12 points

iPhone X Camera Issues - Excessive Lens Flare

Hello,

I purchased my first iPhone (iPhone X) last November and I have never been happy with the camera. Obviously, I can't compare apples to oranges (pun intended), but my old Google Nexus 6P camera seemed far superior when taking photos.

While I can't say blurry zoomed in images is worth complaining about, but when going out for dinner with family the other night I found that an iPhone 6 Plus was clearly taking much better photos.

My iPhone has been reset and the lens was cleaned with a soft sunglasses cloth before using the camera. Live Photos and HDR was turned off but did not fix the issue. All other settings are default and were taken with the Photo mode, not the Portrait or Square option.

I booked an appointment with the Genius Bar today and after a quick diagnostic test, my iPhone got the all clear. Even after showing him the photos from my iPhone and that from an iPhone 6 Plus, he said I have to play around with the contrast to fix the issue. To me, that is a not a solution and did not fix the issue. I would like to point out no changes were made to the camera settings before the photos were taken with the iPhone 6 Plus. It was a matter of being pulled out of the pocket and take a photo. Point and shoot, if an iPhone 6 can do it why can't an iPhone X?

I took a photo of a street this evening and even with the contrast down there was lens flare (image 5 below).

I have 18 months left on my Apple Care but surely this issue is covered under warranty?

My question is, is there an issue with my iPhone, or do older iPhone 6 Plus just take better photo's?

Should I go back to Apple and say fix it or do I put up with taking crappy photos?

Posted on Jul 11, 2018 4:07 AM

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21 replies

Jul 20, 2018 10:29 AM in response to RugbyFan05

That is good news. So he used another X and took the same shot as your phone.....and that phone had less flares??? Too bad the others just suggest that test or just give you a new phone right away. Persistence paid off. I will have to take mine in now. Thanks

RugbyFan05 Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 20, 2018 7:44 PM in response to Gary Buffam1

Yeah. We went outside to test by taking a photo of the street. Just holding both phones up together side by side you could clearly see the issue (camera settings were the same). All the car headlights and street lights had severe lens flare issues on my phone, and the image was darker and not as clear as the other. No issues at all on the test iPhone X.

On my previous visit to the Genius Bar, and although it was daytime, all he did was take a photo inside the store before saying there are no issues. The lighting in the Apple Store is almost perfect, so of course he would see no issues.

I was just lucky I could get a nighttime reservation at the Genius Bar as I had been trying for well over a week to get one. The problem is you can only see three days ahead when making a reservation. I was also fortunate to find someone who was interested in my issue and would come out of the store to test taking photos. I will be writing to his manager today with an appreciation letter for his efforts.

Not sure if it means anything but the model numbers have changed between my iPhone X's. The old model number was MQA52X/A and the replacement one is NQA52ZP/A.