Improve Your iPhone's camera quality

[Celedral]

PROBLEM: Horrible camera pictures, even when the lens is clean

When I first got my iphone the quality of the pictures were amazing. Then after sometime, maybe a month the camera quality started degrading. The culprit of this is the coating on the camera lense. These UV coating are not very durable and tend to last only a few weeks in real world condition. This really irritated me since the quality went down 70%. The entire coating in the middle of the lens were gone leaving residue that clogs the lenses.

Results of worn out UV coating:
This gave the image a bloom effect or over exposed effect and a lot of artifacts.


SOLUTION: I just used some rubbing alcohol or white board cleaner and applied to the lens. Of course you gotta use a microfiber cloth to do the scrubbing. Make sure you scrub off most of the coating since they are no longer useful in its state.

YES I always clean the lens before taking pictures, all the pictures were taken with clean lenses.



Brand New iPhone
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/9803/img0001wr7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/9803/img0001wr7.5348535516.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=401&i=img0001wr7.jpg)

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/1677/img0002nr8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/1677/img0002nr8.a6a905ac6c.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=164&i=img0002nr8.jpg)


1 Month old iPhone
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/1571/img0124ze9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/1571/img0124ze9.fc0666bc5d.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=164&i=img0124ze9.jpg)

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9202/img0126zo3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9202/img0126zo3.c371771f10.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=402&i=img0126zo3.jpg)

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2305/img0127ur5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2305/img0127ur5.e81d4c668a.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=258&i=img0127ur5.jpg)


NO Coating iPhone

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5632/img0132xk6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5632/img0132xk6.829b21ceca.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=153&i=img0132xk6.jpg)

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6039/img0139ds4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6039/img0139ds4.169687bdb1.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=147&i=img0139ds4.jpg)

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/1070/img0140qy1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/1070/img0140qy1.90c5aa54b7.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=126&i=img0140qy1.jpg)

[Ctt9492]

Ok thanks for posting I thought I was going crazy because my pictures where so fuzzy!

[Celedral]

Ok thanks for posting I thought I was going crazy because my pictures where so fuzzy!

No problem, I thought I'd share this since it gave me a lot of frustration and horrible pictures. I thought I'd had to get a new iphone, but this little tip solved everything.

[7on]

I'm getting the bloom and I've been unable to fix this. Any more advise from the OP?

[fastbite]

Wow!!! It works!!! I never could 'clean' the lens of some sort of 'film' I could see on it on certain angles against the light, but using your instructions it finally clean and the pics are once again OK.

[Ori]

Ok,

I didn't even know I had this problem until you pointed it out and now I can't stop seeing it!!! Damn you!!! ;-))

Anyway, I will try to clean it using the white board cleaner, but what is that UV film there for? I presume it's put on there for a reason??

I hope they address this in the new Iphone? Do you think people have complained to Apple?

[Celedral]

I'm getting the bloom and I've been unable to fix this. Any more advise from the OP?

Make sure that all the coating is removed and the screen is free from scratches. You have to scrub a few times to really see the results.

[Celedral]

Ok,

I didn't even know I had this problem until you pointed it out and now I can't stop seeing it!!! Damn you!!! ;-))

Anyway, I will try to clean it using the white board cleaner, but what is that UV film there for? I presume it's put on there for a reason??

I hope they address this in the new Iphone? Do you think people have complained to Apple?

The uv coating is there so the camera would not be exposed to too much ultra violet radiation from the sun. Since apple did a poor job with the coating it tends to rub off easily causing unwanted effects and blurryness from the pictures. Apple have not address this issue yet and has left it the same for the 3g iPhone.

[rawrmac]

could i use the iphone cloth for the scrubbing?

[Celedral]

could i use the iphone cloth for the scrubbing?

yea sure. Make sure you have some rubbing alcohol too. Well thats what I used

[Ori]

The uv coating is there so the camera would not be exposed to too much ultra violet radiation from the sun. Since apple did a poor job with the coating it tends to rub off easily causing unwanted effects and blurryness from the pictures. Apple have not address this issue yet and has left it the same for the 3g iPhone.

Well that is just poor from Apple. I have never had to do this with any other camera phone that I have ever owned. Maybe I needed to, but surely Apple should know better. Surely I could just keep claiming this on the warantee as it's obviously failing within the warantee period? So I will just claim a new iphone 3g every other month?

[Jacksteruk309]

I've not got an iPhone and I've never heard of this problem before, is it a common problem?

[know-it-all5]

The uv coating is there so the camera would not be exposed to too much ultra violet radiation from the sun. Since apple did a poor job with the coating it tends to rub off easily causing unwanted effects and blurryness from the pictures. Apple have not address this issue yet and has left it the same for the 3g iPhone.

Just cause Apple says it is the same camera, doesnt mean they havent fixed the problem. While you are likely correct, don't make statements that are impossible to back up, since virtually nobody has an iphone 3g as of yet. If you have one, my apologies... Wanna be best friends until july 11th?

[solidgoldmini]

Awesome tip. I can see clearly, now, my coating's gone.

[AceWilfong]

Some misconceptions afloat here, I'm afraid. The coating is there for a reason:
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-166.html

[Celedral]

Some misconceptions afloat here, I'm afraid. The coating is there for a reason:
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-166.html

He's right. But its only useful if the coating is intact. Because it wears out so fast, it defeats the purpose of leaving it on. Only use the cleaning method if you are experiencing these issues. If you have a new iPhone then try to keep the lenses from contact with any object

[OneRing2Rule]

yea sure. Make sure you have some rubbing alcohol too. Well thats what I used

Well, maybe not my life, but still...... I was getting sooooo pi$$ed with my iPhone, now the pictures look great. Nicely done.

I owe you a beer.

Michael

[Rybold]

Well that is just poor from Apple. .. Apple should know better. .. claiming this on the warantee as it's obviously failing within the warantee period

Class-action lawsuit? I'd just prefer an Apple recall ... or even better yet, just let everyone take their phone to the Apple Store and the Apple employees can remove the foggy coating from our phones. :D

[Rybold]

Some misconceptions afloat here, I'm afraid. The coating is there for a reason:
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-166.html

All that does is explain the INTENT of the coating. We learned that in high school AP physics. What people are typing about on this thread is empirical; what they are actually observing. These people don't care that the film is supposed to protect their camera from UV rays; these people care about the blurry pictures as a result of the "UV film" actually degrading from UV rays and/or oil from people's skin. When I remove the film from my lens, I'll be sure not to take any direct pictures of the sun. Lol. :D