Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Publicly Responds to Complaints of Purple Lens Flare on iPhone 5 Photos

People are not complaining about lens flair. My lumia 900 experiences lens flair, which is normal for cameras. (You try staring at the sun while mainlining a clear field of view). The problem is the strong purple hue to the flair which looks unnatural, which the lumia, 4s etc do not have that people are complaining about.
 
So let me see if I can understand this.. one of the brightest wonders in our sky, and universe, is causing artifacts such as halos, lens flare, disturbance, etc. in photos taken by the iPhone 5's camera. The iPhone 5 is not a $500-$1000 DSLR camera. Am I the only one who sees the blatant lack of common sense here? The higher quality sapphire cover for the camera is purple. The artifacts people described are purple. See the link between the 2? Point being: Don't try to capture the sun in your photos.
 
Last edited:
lilo777 said:
It's a big difference, is not it? One expects sun light to be white not purple. Purple tint simply ruins the pictures. Also, it's not just the color. iPhone 5 "flairs" too easy and the flair tends to cover huge areas of the picture.

Apple is right about one thing. It's not a defect (as in "manufacturing defect"). It's a design flaw. They wanted "thin" phone. They got it. Purple tint is just a side effect of that.
Click to expand...

Flair is something you pin to the vest you wear to your waiter job. Flare is the correct term. I don't know why you chose to correct me, and it's not a design flaw, it's a stray light issue. It could easily be solved by shading the lens with your hand.
 
even so, a DSLR (or any camera for that matter) is going to have lens flair if you shoot directly at the ****** sun!

people are unbelievable.

Crzyrio said:
My iPhone Camera doesnt operate like a 500$ Digital SLR, it is all Apples Fault!
Click to expand...
 
phpmaven said:
Uproar? A few people complaining on a forum is not an uproar. It's always amusing to me how easy it is to forget what a microcosm of society this forum is. It doesn't reflect the opinions of the general populace. I guarantee that 99% of iPhone owners will not care about this.

I'm in kind of a unique position because I belong to an organization where I am friends with dozens of iPhone owners, plus I'm a long time computer tech and many will call me to ask me for help, and I'm sure if I lined up 100 of them and asked them how they feel about the lens flare issue, 99 of them would say "what's lens flare?"
Click to expand...

You do not state how many of these people you think would have actually used the camera at all, much less in challenging lighting conditions. You also neglect to say whether you believe these people have any background in photography upon which to make a comparison of the camera's performance. I suspect that many of them would, without further thought, uncritically, accept Apple's position that "they all do that".

In my experience in photography, lens flair, which does exist to some degree in virtually all lenses, is rather a different matter than the apparently very heavy purple flair/fringing that has been present in the few images exhibiting the effect on the iPhone 5. I am unable to separate the potential effect of lens based flair/chroma and sensor issues, which are a distinct possibility. I doubt many, if any, of us on this forum have that capability.

I can only say that the effect is both pronounced and unappealing. However, it would be unfair to make a direct comparison to a DSLR with a lens that costs as much or more than the entire iPhone and its sensor which is greatly larger.

It would be interesting to see a website, such as DPReview or DXO, which have extensive testing capability to do an analysis of the iPhone 5 and other smart phone cameras to examine the matter objectively.

Cheers
 
There will be an app for that

Wait a little while and Purple Flare Removal will be included in a $1 photo editing app.
 
k995 said:
IF all camera's have this then how coma as the exampes show other phones dont suffer from the same in simular pictures?

----------


Barely any difference, certainly not on the side of the light.




Again then why in the picture above one phone has the issue and the other doesnt.
Click to expand...

Lens flare changes dramatically with even the smallest change in the angle of the light hitting the lens. At these angles the lens acts more like a prism and separates the colors. Since purple is on one edge of the spectrum it is quit common to have that color in a lens flare. As has been demonstrated by all the purple-ish lens flares from cameras other than the one in an i5 that have been posted.
 
Last edited:
JHankwitz said:
Anyone that points a camera at the sun is a fool!

Before digital cameras, pointing a camera at the sun would burn holes in your cameras focal-plane shutter. All real photographers knew this.
Click to expand...

This is a false claim.
 
tbrinkma said:
As shown, time and again, in this very thread, even DSLRs, with their much larger, much more expensive lenses can suffer from this same purple flair phenomena. It's less common with them because wide angle lenses (such as those used in camera phones) are more prone to it, larger lenses are less prone to it, and larger lens assemblies have more room for mitigation features such as internal baffles.
Click to expand...
Yes, no doubt all camera's CAN suffer from this, the question is why does the iphone 5 suffer as other comparable phones at the same spot in same conditions dont.



Wait. 'Barely any difference'? You can't see an obvious difference in the framing when shown the *full* images in question? No obvious difference such as a change in angle significant enough that one picture shows the entire (whatever that thing is), but the other cuts part of it off? Or how one picture is zoomed in further? (Of course, it could be a 'creative' cropping job, but then it's impossible to judge this effect when starting from doctored photos.)
Click to expand...
I repeat barely any difference anyone looking at the pictures can see this. Are you claiming that if you would move the others phones an inch to the side they would have the same?




Because, as the poster you were responding to pointed out, the pictures were framed significantly differently. A few degrees of angle change (as seen in the photos from that article) are sufficient to completely remove the effect on the iPhone 5.
Click to expand...

A little difference gets "framed significantly differently." its just an excuse I would think.

http://www.itproportal.com/2012/10/...phone-5-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-vs-htc-one-s/

There barely is any difference between series 1-2 and 3
 
Rocko1 said:
It's clear the 5 has a high propensity for lens flare. The design of the lens-sapphire crystal(purple crystal) and their spacing causes it to be purple vs a more natural yellow or whitish light, which is more acceptable. As some lens flare is normal, the amount of and color of flare on the 5 makes it troublesome.

----------



When you make a lens out of this Image

Do we need to talk about why the lens flare is purple?
Click to expand...

They don't make lenses out of that. They make lenses out of artificially grown colorless sapphire.
 
h4ck said:
even so, a DSLR (or any camera for that matter) is going to have lens flair if you shoot directly at the ****** sun!
Click to expand...

Nobody is saying that the lens flare shouldn't exist. Heck, as pointed out, photographers often make use of it for dramatic effect.

They're saying that the flare shouldn't tend to always be purple (assuming that it is; I don't have an iP5).
 
Purple

My iPhone 5 has the same problem. Yes it is a PROBLEM. Not on my iPhone 4 or any iPhones had in the past. Not in any camera I ever had. This is not lens flare or finging. I like lense flare. Anybody calling BS on here doesn't have an iPhone 5.

This issue happens regardless of shooting into light. For Apple to say it is normal is not cool. If this is normal your new product sucks. This along with the rattle in the power button, and the fact that I have to buy an adapter or all new accessories double sucks.

I had used my iPhone as my main camera in the past because it does take decent pictures and is convinient. I have knowledge of photography and know how to use a camera so don't try to tell me I am doing something wrong.

Shame on you Apple. Recall! :mad:
 
I swear its non issues like this that get blown out of proportion that make me want to crawl into a ****ing cave.

Anyone who has used a camera with a crystal lens knows this is going to happen and how to compensate for it.

This is what happens when you give the general public high quality stuff they don't understand. Its like giving a caveman fire.

Give it a rest already. The amount of Apple hate on an Apple fan/news/rumors site is absolutely staggering.
 
spacetycho said:
My iPhone 5 has the same problem. Yes it is a PROBLEM. Not on my iPhone 4 or any iPhones had in the past. Not in any camera I ever had. This is not lens flare or finging. I like lense flare. Anybody calling BS on here doesn't have an iPhone 5.

This issue happens regardless of shooting into light. For Apple to say it is normal is not cool. If this is normal your new product sucks. This along with the rattle in the power button, and the fact that I have to buy an adapter or all new accessories double sucks.

I had used my iPhone as my main camera in the past because it does take decent pictures and is convinient. I have knowledge of photography and know how to use a camera so don't try to tell me I am doing something wrong.

Shame on you Apple. Recall! :mad:
Click to expand...

Where are the pics?
 
k995 said:
And the iphone 5 is afected by this, others are not. yet most here seem to post "every camera has lense flare you idiots"
Click to expand...

False, other cameras are affected by this purple lens flair problem, although not as common. Its not just an iPhone 5 problem.
 
I'm no gem expert but since when is sapphire purple? I thought they were all shades of blue.
 
k995 said:
Antennagate was changed by the apple PR to deathgrip, a seperate issue

This as an excuse that every camera has flare, the problem is the purple hue :

http://www.itproportal.com/2012/10/...phone-5-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-vs-htc-one-s/

And no other camaera's dont have the issue and no lens flare doesnt have to be obviously present to have the issue .
Click to expand...

Antennagate was a very specific limit to the capability of the phone. Not a flaw, in my opinion, but a limit. Some people had an issue with the antenna having a slightly lower range when touched at a very specific place, but most people held it with two hands gripping it and yelling "see, it's broken" because they had one less bar on the display.

Lens flares exist. The samsung flares too. It's just a different wave length. It's a property of the cam on the iPhone5, and it may or may not be a positive or negative one. Depends on preference.

The enormous reverence of Apple is causes cognitive dissonance. That's what's really happening.

it's aluminium (don't like? pick different phone)
It's camera has flares if you use it badly (don't like? pick different phone)
The flares are purple (don't like? pick different phone)
It breaks when dropped (don't like? pick different phone)
It's expensive.. you get what i'm getting at right?
 
Even the best lens on my dSLR has color aberration and lens flair when shot directly at a bright light. Those who think this is apple's fault clearly have little understanding of photography. If you want to edit out the purple haze, take it into lightroom, aperture, or photoshop. Or better yet, don't shoot directly at a bright light.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back