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iPhone 14 Pro Max New iPhone 14 Pro Max has a serious issue with autofocus.

i'm having this issue with focus on Videos, its a major issue because I was video recording a family gathering and every video I started, the camera would go out of focus and take forever to get in focus, causing me to miss lots of important moments.

the issue has been going on since launch....getting a bit fed up...restarting the phone seems to fix it temporarily but can't keep doing that between every video....anyone have a solution? I am up to date.
 
Spoke to Apple genius today and they said they are aware of this, and that it’s not hardware issue so let’s hope the 16.1 release will fix it :)
 
kelvinktl said:
I noticed the issue when I was taking photo of a document using the main camera in both raw and Live Photo mode on my iPhone 14 pro max. (See attached)

For those who want to test their phones, try and take a photo of some wordy document and see if have the same findings. You might end up seeing what I’m seeing - the only part that’s in focus is the centre part, everything else is just blurry.

I went to a store to test other iPhone pro 14s on display - same finding so I am guessing it’s firmware issue.
Click to expand...
I’m having the same issue as well. I take pictures of my work schedule each week and on each photo, the middle of the document is clear, but towards the edges it becomes blurry.
 
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kelvinktl said:
Ok just checked - issue still here for iOS 16.1
Click to expand...
These are not good news... To me it seems like a hardware defect of the entire line, tried with 2 different iPhone 14 Pros and same thing. I think that the problem is that not everyone can detect these focusing issues with their eyes, but it's as plain simple as taking a picture of a sheet of paper with text on and zooming in to see the text.

Anyway, I tried comparing the same photos, iPhone XR (a "budget" 2018 phone) vs iPhone 14 Pro (2022 top of the line): iPhone 14 Pro camera struggles with focus while the old XR has ZERO problems focusing near objects.
 
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Just about all my videos are blurry, 99% of them. I cannot take a video at 1x or 2x without it being blurry somewhere along the way, ruining the video.
 
kelvinktl said:
Spoke to Apple genius today and they said they are aware of this, and that it’s not hardware issue so let’s hope the 16.1 release will fix it :)
Click to expand...
But is it a problem with autofocus on apps? I’m trying for enamore to verify my bank account for which I need to take a picture of my identification directly from the app. The problem is it’s not focusing. If I go to the cámara app there’s no issue, it will autofocus and change to the correct lenses but from third party apps it seems the camera just doesn’t change lenses and keeps trying the normal one which of course can’t focus on close objects so the picture is all blurry and my bank account can’t be verified. This happens also in WhatsApp, if I try to read a QR code for WhatsApp web you can try to close into it and it won’t work because it’s blurry
 
ken840 said:
These are not good news... To me it seems like a hardware defect of the entire line, tried with 2 different iPhone 14 Pros and same thing. I think that the problem is that not everyone can detect these focusing issues with their eyes, but it's as plain simple as taking a picture of a sheet of paper with text on and zooming in to see the text.

Anyway, I tried comparing the same photos, iPhone XR (a "budget" 2018 phone) vs iPhone 14 Pro (2022 top of the line): iPhone 14 Pro camera struggles with focus while the old XR has ZERO problems focusing near objects.
Click to expand...
Does it happen to you with third party apps? CN you check WhatsApp and try the option for WhatsApp web which will activate the camera from the APL directly? If you put your phone close to an object using that mode does it autofocus or does it keeps using the normal lenses that can’t focus on close objects ?
 
Same issue here, 14 Pro Max, ever since it launched I’ve owned it, picture quality is fuzzy, my 13 Pro Max was much better, this clearly is a widespread issue, pisses me off.
 
Same here, if I want to photography anything close ish I have to switch to the tele and step back. Think I am going to go the apple support route.

To be clear mine is not a focal plane issue it is the camera just refusing to focus at all on the main camera.
 
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To all those questioning about focus and macro mode:


The 14 pro and pro max sensor is much bigger, which now requires more distance for minimal focus (Physics), the approximate distance required for things to focus on the 14pro main camera is 20cm (7.8 inches), which is more than any iPhone released. Therefore it is normal when things you put close like documents and stuff to not focus, recommend to put the phone farther and shoot in 2x.

Regarding macro mode, since the phone requires much farther focus distance, auto macro is also going to kick in much sooner, resulting in lens change and a sudden visual kick. This is how the phone tackles the blurry problem, you may modify the settings in settings.app>Camera>Macro control, then you'll get a little flower button on the bottom left when the phone deems macro should be kicking in.
 
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GeoStructural said:
The new iPhone 14 Pro Max has serious issues with autofocus.

  • It is only 5 days old, no physical damage of any kind.
  • Photos are so blurry they are unusable.
  • Sometimes it will take about 15 seconds for it to reach decent focus, but this is way too long and chances are what I want to capture is long gone by then.
  • Many times the camera is unable to focus AT ALL, even when manually selecting the target with the crosshair.
Here are some examples:

View attachment 2086239View attachment 2086241

I contacted Apple support and they said I must send it back for inspection, which is so annoying.
Click to expand...
We had some down time at work and a colleague and I were messing around with our photos, s22 and 14pm.
It was unbelievably embarrassing the horrible quality then 14pm was producing.
Zooming the pictures would distort, macro focus in and out and final product was blurry.
Generally pictures seem to focus o. The closest object then blurs the rest.
At apples request I have se the phone up as new.
Same piss poor quality. Guess Wednesday I will be going to the Apple Store.
They will run their diagnostics and find nothing and send me on my way and mark it not able to reproduce issue.
 
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kelvinktl said:
Spoke to Apple genius today and they said they are aware of this, and that it’s not hardware issue so let’s hope the 16.1 release will fix it :)
Click to expand...
Didn't fix it. I had and appointment and the phone is getting the camera replaced. Good thing I am only renting the phone:rolleyes:

At the appt the genius two a couple minutes then went out back to see if there was a replacement camera in store.
The repair was set up and the phone is back in my hands.
The most significant issue I was having was the camera would lock onto the closest thing and blur the background regardless of AF was locked out unlocked, macron or no macro.
The zoom was horrible.
Anything over 3x zoom the picture would distort and really distort when zooming in after taking it.
I snapped a couple picks and it looks a lot better.
This is 8x then expanded in photos. Before that same image would have looked as if you were looking through a lightly frosted lens
 

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Same here, I can't add cards using the camera in 3rd party apps using the camera, banking etc, all blurry as fk same with google scan app, basically, any 3rd party app that uses the camera.
 
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GeoStructural said:
The new iPhone 14 Pro Max has serious issues with autofocus.

  • It is only 5 days old, no physical damage of any kind.
  • Photos are so blurry they are unusable.
  • Sometimes it will take about 15 seconds for it to reach decent focus, but this is way too long and chances are what I want to capture is long gone by then.
  • Many times the camera is unable to focus AT ALL, even when manually selecting the target with the crosshair.
Here are some examples:

View attachment 2086239View attachment 2086241

I contacted Apple support and they said I must send it back for inspection, which is so annoying.
Click to expand...
Can confirm that this appears to be a software and not a hardware issue. I have a 14 pro max and will get blurry photos often in portrait mode. If you that that blurry photo and open in google photos, you can refocus the shot and fix the blur. This shows that this is a software and not a camera hardware issue. I don’t think replacing the phone will do anything.
 
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OziusXavier said:
Can confirm that this appears to be a software and not a hardware issue. I have a 14 pro max and will get blurry photos often in portrait mode. If you that that blurry photo and open in google photos, you can refocus the shot and fix the blur. This shows that this is a software and not a camera hardware issue. I don’t think replacing the phone will do anything.
Click to expand...

Can you share how do you do the refocus; Is it only on Google?
 
I just received my 14 pro a few days ago and I'm having the same auto focus problem. Not sure whether to return the phone to Verizon while I can. However, support at Apple has just confirmed on the phone with me that there is indeed a problem and has said that the engineers are supposed to be working on this issue.
 
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Ekzapple said:
I just received my 14 pro a few days ago and I'm having the same auto focus problem. Not sure whether to return the phone to Verizon while I can. However, support at Apple has just confirmed on the phone with me that there is indeed a problem and has said that the engineers are supposed to be working on this issue.
Click to expand...
When I went in to have mine looked at, The tech looked at the reason why I was there and took the phone. The camera was replaced and it's still having the same issue. So either the camera is junk or its a software issue
 
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