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iPhone 5 Camera Issue

R

raf66

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 29, 2008
179
16
Columbus, Ohio
Hi all. Maybe I just suck at taking pictures but all of my photos are a bit blurry. Not the entire pic mind you, just portions of it. Like faces, for instance. Obviously when I'm taking a picture of someone I would rather the background stuff be blurry (if some portion of the pic HAS to be blurry) than the person I'm taking a picture of. I've tried touching the screen to enable the focus box but it doesn't seem to help. All settings are whatever iOS has set as default. All photos I've taken are with me and the subjects stationary.

Is this simply a symptom of my bad photography skills or might there be something wrong with the phone/camera? Has anyone else experienced this? I haven't taken a bunch of photos yet (maybe 25 or so), but I hate to think that all photos I take with the phone for the next couple of years (next upgrade) will be almost unusable. It would probably help if I could post some pics but everything I've taken so far has included people's faces and I don't want to violate anyone's privacy. Maybe I'll take some pics of nature or other nondescript items this evening and them to my post.

BTW, I am very happy with everything else the phone has to offer. It's my first iPhone (coming from Android), and even though I'm not very pleased with the camera, everything else is much better than I experienced with my Android phone.
 
Nearly 700 views and no one has responded. I guess I'm the only one with the blurry photo issue. I'm probably not helping my cause by not posting a couple of examples. I'll do so this weekend. It's just surprising when I upload my photos to iPhoto on my Mac desktop and notice how blurry parts of the photos actually are. For the most part the blurriness is hard to see on the iPhone and it's only when I upload them to a desktop that it jumps out at me.
 
raf66 said:
Hi all. Maybe I just suck at taking pictures but all of my photos are a bit blurry. Not the entire pic mind you, just portions of it. Like faces, for instance. Obviously when I'm taking a picture of someone I would rather the background stuff be blurry (if some portion of the pic HAS to be blurry) than the person I'm taking a picture of. I've tried touching the screen to enable the focus box but it doesn't seem to help. All settings are whatever iOS has set as default. All photos I've taken are with me and the subjects stationary.

Is this simply a symptom of my bad photography skills or might there be something wrong with the phone/camera? Has anyone else experienced this? I haven't taken a bunch of photos yet (maybe 25 or so), but I hate to think that all photos I take with the phone for the next couple of years (next upgrade) will be almost unusable. It would probably help if I could post some pics but everything I've taken so far has included people's faces and I don't want to violate anyone's privacy. Maybe I'll take some pics of nature or other nondescript items this evening and them to my post.

BTW, I am very happy with everything else the phone has to offer. It's my first iPhone (coming from Android), and even though I'm not very pleased with the camera, everything else is much better than I experienced with my Android phone.
Click to expand...

If you're in a poorly lit area, your pics will come up blurry since the camera shutter has to be open longer.

Do this test to determine if your camera is faulty: go outside when the sun is out and shining, have your subject within 10 ft of you, tap to focus on her face (assuming the iPhone doesn't pick it up), and take picture.

Make sure the subject is stationary and you are as well. If only the subject's face is blurry, they moved. If the whole picture is blurry (even though you were still), your camera may be faulty.

EDIT: Just an FYI, I've had people's faces come out blurry too; this happens a lot with indoor pictures in darker venues. However, all my other pictures come out amazing: great detail and very sharp.
 
I *sort of* have this issue. My camera isn't great and sometimes have to take a photo 2/3 times to make sure it's actually in focus. Sometime more when the photo is in low light or with the flash on. Maybe I'm just expecting the camera to be better than it is..
 
I have the same problem, but FSMBP has addressed it correctly. I was taking pictures of a corporate appreciation event with my IP5. We're were playing bozo buckets, lol. Anyways, it was a semi-lit hallway and there was a constant movement. After analyzing all 200 pics. and reading the previous posts, I too have had the same issue. In otherwise stationary pics, detail is sharp and color is vivid. ;)
 
there is another/other threads about this.

Honestly i feel the same too. My 5 vs 4s. 5 camera tends to be blurry more often than the 4s
 
It would help to see an example photo to determine whether its camera shake, general low light problems or focusing issues...
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I will post some pics this weekend. While I can think of a couple of occasions where lighting was less than optimal, most of my pics were in areas where lighting was more than sufficient.

Thanks again and I'll follow up with some examples this weekend.
 
OK, I'm having a similar problem and am about to contact Verizon. I'm not a professional photographer, and I'm sure a handful of "professionals" here are going to bash this thread, so I'll be filtering the wheat from the chaff.

Here's the problem. I can hold my camera out to take a photo, ANY photo, and the right half of the screen is blurry while the left is in focus. I've cleaned the lens, removed the case, etc. Doesn't help. If I hold the camera RIGHT up to something, that is the only time I can get a clear picture. I tried rebooting the phone, but this didn't help, and it smells like a hardware issue to me anyway so I didn't think it would.
When I hold my phone RIGHT up to something close, I can get the whole frame in focus, and as I pull it a few inches away, it goes blurry on the right side. From a distance of 20' or more, like standing outside trying to take a picture of a tree or car, I get an entirely blurry image.
Here's an example taken from about 1 foot, standing outside in good light. HDR on or off doesn't matter either, no difference.

C11C625C-F818-4D27-9E5A-6FC90935DB9D-136-00000002CE13AFF8.jpg


BTW, let me go ahead and answer the obvious. NO trauma to phone. Brand new, got it Tuesday. Not dropped. Speck case on it since Wednesday. I wasn't having this problem until this morning, I have taken several great pics with it up to today.
 
So things to check.

Is the rear film cover that comes with the iPhone still on?

Examine the lens cover, is there foreign debris or oil marks? On the outside or inside. Is the camera lens clear too?

May already have checked these, but double checking.
 
ode2joy said:
OK, I'm having a similar problem and am about to contact Verizon. I'm not a professional photographer, and I'm sure a handful of "professionals" here are going to bash this thread, so I'll be filtering the wheat from the chaff.

Here's the problem. I can hold my camera out to take a photo, ANY photo, and the right half of the screen is blurry while the left is in focus. I've cleaned the lens, removed the case, etc. Doesn't help. If I hold the camera RIGHT up to something, that is the only time I can get a clear picture. I tried rebooting the phone, but this didn't help, and it smells like a hardware issue to me anyway so I didn't think it would.
When I hold my phone RIGHT up to something close, I can get the whole frame in focus, and as I pull it a few inches away, it goes blurry on the right side. From a distance of 20' or more, like standing outside trying to take a picture of a tree or car, I get an entirely blurry image.
Here's an example taken from about 1 foot, standing outside in good light. HDR on or off doesn't matter either, no difference.

Image

BTW, let me go ahead and answer the obvious. NO trauma to phone. Brand new, got it Tuesday. Not dropped. Speck case on it since Wednesday. I wasn't having this problem until this morning, I have taken several great pics with it up to today.
Click to expand...

The focus in this shot is behind the speck case. Notice ow the wood is sharp especially where the rail is rollong down to the edge. The case is black and likely hard to focus on. Give the camera a better subject.
 
My camera works fine. No blurriness in good light or dim, as long as I keep the camera steady. Same quality as my 4S.

You might have a defective camera.
 
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