iPhone 14 Pro 14 Pro: camera occasionally "shifts" when taking photo?

[jollino]

Hello all,
apologies if this has been already mentioned somewhere but I was unable to find anything on the matter (quite possibly as I'm not sure how to best describe it!)
I've had a 14 Pro for a few weeks now, and noticed an odd behavior with the camera.

Often, but not always, snapping a photo will make the image suddenly "shift", usually along the longer axis and to the left (but I can't confirm the latter).
It's as if, as soon as I snap the photo, I move — even though I don't! — just enough to change the framing.
This happens with the stock app, Camera2+ and Halide, so I assume it's something API-related; hopefully not hardware.
It also happens with the 1x or 3x cameras, as far as I can tell. Perhaps it's just not noticeable with the 0.5x, and probably doesn't affect the 2x as it's just a cropped 1x. Shooting RAW or HEIC apparently makes no difference.

What's even weirder is that it does not happen again after the first photo, so I often end up taking the first, reframe, and take another.
It's frustrating, however, as it's quite jarring; besides, when shooting proraw at 48 mpx it's a waste of space (temporarily) and time (since I need to go back and delete it).

I admit I haven't followed the news and the forums lately as closely as I used to, but given the initial camera issues about the "vibration of doom" (which my own Pro never experienced as I bought it when 16.1 was already out), I'm wondering if it's something that's affecting others.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Torty]

Camera switches lenses?

 

[jollino]

Camera switches lenses?

No, it does use the lens I choose. It's not about it switching to "macro mode" when the MFD isn't enough (which honestly I don't mind!)

The issue I'm describing is quite different, and happens when I'm actually taking the photo. I frame a shot like I want, hit the shutter and everything's shifted slightly to one side, literally as if I had moved.

It's really hard to explain but very obvious when it happens. It reminds me of how certain stabilized DSLR lenses act when the OS is pushed beyond its limits, and they sort of "lose lock" and "jolt" as the OS disengages and reengages.
The difference is that with the phone I'm not moving at all, and it only happens *while* taking a picture; indeed, the OS itself seems quite smart as it doesn't fight intentional movement.

It's not a matter of long shutter speed to due low light, because it just happened to me earlier today and I was literally shooting into the sunset. I'm attaching a resized and unedited RAW-to-JPEG copy: the pole on the very left was not supposed to be in the shot, but due to the sudden "jolt" (again: it's a very noticeable thing because the live view suddenly moves) it made it into the frame.

 

[RabidMacFan]

Not sure if anyone can help besides an Apple Store genius appointment. But maybe you could do a screen recording of it happening?

 

[jollino]

That is a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. I will give it a go tomorrow, to rule out low light.
The nearest Apple Store is 200 km away... if it's a hardware issue, I'll try to get it done remotely.
Thanks!

 

[Fred Zed]

Hello all,
apologies if this has been already mentioned somewhere but I was unable to find anything on the matter (quite possibly as I'm not sure how to best describe it!)
I've had a 14 Pro for a few weeks now, and noticed an odd behavior with the camera.

Often, but not always, snapping a photo will make the image suddenly "shift", usually along the longer axis and to the left (but I can't confirm the latter).
It's as if, as soon as I snap the photo, I move — even though I don't! — just enough to change the framing.
This happens with the stock app, Camera2+ and Halide, so I assume it's something API-related; hopefully not hardware.
It also happens with the 1x or 3x cameras, as far as I can tell. Perhaps it's just not noticeable with the 0.5x, and probably doesn't affect the 2x as it's just a cropped 1x. Shooting RAW or HEIC apparently makes no difference.

What's even weirder is that it does not happen again after the first photo, so I often end up taking the first, reframe, and take another.
It's frustrating, however, as it's quite jarring; besides, when shooting proraw at 48 mpx it's a waste of space (temporarily) and time (since I need to go back and delete it).

I admit I haven't followed the news and the forums lately as closely as I used to, but given the initial camera issues about the "vibration of doom" (which my own Pro never experienced as I bought it when 16.1 was already out), I'm wondering if it's something that's affecting others.

Thanks in advance!

As it does when taking videos.

 

[ToddH]

Hello all,
apologies if this has been already mentioned somewhere but I was unable to find anything on the matter (quite possibly as I'm not sure how to best describe it!)
I've had a 14 Pro for a few weeks now, and noticed an odd behavior with the camera.

Often, but not always, snapping a photo will make the image suddenly "shift", usually along the longer axis and to the left (but I can't confirm the latter).
It's as if, as soon as I snap the photo, I move — even though I don't! — just enough to change the framing.
This happens with the stock app, Camera2+ and Halide, so I assume it's something API-related; hopefully not hardware.
It also happens with the 1x or 3x cameras, as far as I can tell. Perhaps it's just not noticeable with the 0.5x, and probably doesn't affect the 2x as it's just a cropped 1x. Shooting RAW or HEIC apparently makes no difference.

What's even weirder is that it does not happen again after the first photo, so I often end up taking the first, reframe, and take another.
It's frustrating, however, as it's quite jarring; besides, when shooting proraw at 48 mpx it's a waste of space (temporarily) and time (since I need to go back and delete it).

I admit I haven't followed the news and the forums lately as closely as I used to, but given the initial camera issues about the "vibration of doom" (which my own Pro never experienced as I bought it when 16.1 was already out), I'm wondering if it's something that's affecting others.

Thanks in advance!

I see that as well on my 3x camera more than the others. I believe it’s the optical image stabilization causing this. It doesn’t affect the final image but it does look weird. The 13 pro max I had had the same shift in the camera, mainly the 3x. The 1x has sensor shift image stabilization so it’s not affected the same way. Also I think the haptic sensor might cause some shifting as well. It appears to be a normal thing. Don’t let it discourage you unless it affects the photos you take.

 

[Mik@]

Hello all,
apologies if this has been already mentioned somewhere but I was unable to find anything on the matter (quite possibly as I'm not sure how to best describe it!)
I've had a 14 Pro for a few weeks now, and noticed an odd behavior with the camera.

Often, but not always, snapping a photo will make the image suddenly "shift", usually along the longer axis and to the left (but I can't confirm the latter).
It's as if, as soon as I snap the photo, I move — even though I don't! — just enough to change the framing.
This happens with the stock app, Camera2+ and Halide, so I assume it's something API-related; hopefully not hardware.
It also happens with the 1x or 3x cameras, as far as I can tell. Perhaps it's just not noticeable with the 0.5x, and probably doesn't affect the 2x as it's just a cropped 1x. Shooting RAW or HEIC apparently makes no difference.

What's even weirder is that it does not happen again after the first photo, so I often end up taking the first, reframe, and take another.
It's frustrating, however, as it's quite jarring; besides, when shooting proraw at 48 mpx it's a waste of space (temporarily) and time (since I need to go back and delete it).

I admit I haven't followed the news and the forums lately as closely as I used to, but given the initial camera issues about the "vibration of doom" (which my own Pro never experienced as I bought it when 16.1 was already out), I'm wondering if it's something that's affecting others.

Thanks in advance!

Happens to me also, but only with Procamera app, the native app nor Camera+2 do not shift, at least not the 1x lense. It is quite noticeable in the preview. Mine actually "jumps" a little bit to the right and also only for the first shot of the same object. Will check other lenses soon.
BTW, I prefer Procam over Camera+2, mainly because of the 2x button and good compression level adjustment options. Both allow to take very clean photos with low noise and reasonable file size. Apple's own camera app produces too soft jpeg images. Of course this is not an issue on small phone screen size. The culprit is the new 50 mp sensor. Maybe less would be more.

 

[jollino]

Thank you for chiming in, I really appreciate (and I'm glad I'm not going nuts!)
I may have gotten my tests mixed up as I was sure it was happening with the stock app, but I may be wrong. What's weird is that now that I'm trying to make it happen... it's not happening.

@ToddH you're right, as long as it's sort of expected it's less of a problem. I'll just use the old rule of "shoot a little wider so there's some stuff to crop off" as needed . It just surprised me because, coming from an iPhone 11, I had no such things.

@Mik@ I'm going to give Procam a go, I had never heard of it but it seems nice. I bought Camera2+ back in the iPhone 4 days (and, to their credit, they honored the "yours for life" promise) but I find it a little clunky. I'm on Halide's trial and it seems pretty neat, especially as it offers a nice workflow with RAW pictures.
Now if only we got decent weather to actually take interesting photos to test all of this with.

 

[ToddH]

Thank you for chiming in, I really appreciate (and I'm glad I'm not going nuts!)
I may have gotten my tests mixed up as I was sure it was happening with the stock app, but I may be wrong. What's weird is that now that I'm trying to make it happen... it's not happening.

@ToddH you're right, as long as it's sort of expected it's less of a problem. I'll just use the old rule of "shoot a little wider so there's some stuff to crop off" as needed . It just surprised me because, coming from an iPhone 11, I had no such things.

@Mik@ I'm going to give Procam a go, I had never heard of it but it seems nice. I bought Camera2+ back in the iPhone 4 days (and, to their credit, they honored the "yours for life" promise) but I find it a little clunky. I'm on Halide's trial and it seems pretty neat, especially as it offers a nice workflow with RAW pictures.
Now if only we got decent weather to actually take interesting photos to test all of this with.

Well actually it’s not uncommon. My previous Nikon camera with OIS in the lens also shook when a photo was taken because of the floating prism / gyroscope moved around. So I guess it’s a new norm…

 

[jollino]

It's a little surprising to me because none of my IS lenses did this, neither on DSLR nor on mirrorless. The only one that got somewhat close to this kind of jolting is my Sigma 105/2.8, which has a pretty aggressive IS due to being meant for macro work. It only happens when you start the IS and move the lens too much for it to compensate, so it will temporarily disengage and re-engage. One never stops learning.
I do wonder why it only happens with the first shot on the 14 Pro, however, and only in specific cases. Maybe moving the phone before taking a photo moves the IS off-center, and snapping a photo sort of forces it to recalibrate. I'll be keeping an eye on it, just out of curiosity.