iPhone 16 Pro Max Camera problems: Blue smudges, lines, etc. [MERGED]

[JasonHB]

Hi all

Been watching a YT channel by an Aussie photographer called Shayne Mostyn who, if you don’t know, specialises in Astro and night time photography with iPhones.

He’s been complaining on some issues of blue lines appearing on the images when using the 30 second shutter on his 16Pm and then went on to do some experimentation and found it appears to be an inherent issue with the sensor. If you put the phone face down to cover the lens, and take a 30 second exposure picture, you get the blue lines.

Others have been doing this and some have blue lines, some have a perfectly black image as you’d expect.

I did this on my 16PM with the 1x lens and this was the result. Interestingly, when I do the same on the wide angle, the image is perfectly black.

I’d be very interested to see if anyone else is having this issue and also if it affects other models of phones as well, such as 14 or 15

Thanks in advance.

Jason

 

[OxCxDx]

I just tried a couple of times. Camera face down, 30 seconds. First shot I got some blue vertical banding (looking at it portrait) similar to the image from Shayne Mostyn's video, not like your image. I was assuming I was getting some light bleed from the monitor on the desk. I turned off the monitor but still have some light from outside cloudy/dusk lighting and the second shot was perfectly black.

 

[JasonHB]

I just tried a couple of times. Camera face down, 30 seconds. First shot I got some blue vertical banding (looking at it portrait) similar to the image from Shayne Mostyn's video, not like your image. I was assuming I was getting some light bleed from the monitor on the desk. I turned off the monitor but still have some light from outside cloudy/dusk lighting and the second shot was perfectly black.

My shot was taken with the phone in between 2 pillows in a dark room and used my watch to take the picture. I’ve been to an Apple Store this morning, some have blue bands, some are absolutely black. None of them are as bad as mine

 

[Pandyone]

I'm getting blue spots in my night mode photos.
They are almost always in same parts of the photos, and only with 1x camera. Ultra wide seems to be fine.

I hope it's possible to fix in software, since some comments on YT says it's not same with Moment or Halide camera apps.
I will test with other apps and check if it's the sensor/hardware or "just" bug in camera app.

 

[JasonHB]

I'm getting blue spots in my night mode photos.
They are almost always in same parts of the photos, and only with 1x camera. Ultra wide seems to be fine.

I hope it's possible to fix in software, since some comments on YT says it's not same with Moment or Halide camera apps.
I will test with other apps and check if it's the sensor/hardware or "just" bug in camera app.

It seems to be independent of software. Shayne has spoken to Apple today and they’ve told him it’s a manufacturing defect

 

[Pandyone]

It seems to be independent of software. Shayne has spoken to Apple today and they’ve told him it’s a manufacturing defect

I will probably replace my device. Seems to be hardware, but could not see it when using other apps.

 

[mauriziocorso77]

There has been some growing issues with 16 Pros showing blue streaks or smudges in very low light photography.
I am part of a group of Facebook where about 50% of people can replicate the exact same issue.

You can also see this issue with photos captured by some YouTubers(even thought they don’t notice it)

To see for yourself:
1. Lay your phone down flat so that the camera viewfinder is completely black.
2. Take a 30 second night photo using the 1x lens.

This is mine:

Credit to Shayne Mostyn

 

[UpsideDownEclair]

To see for yourself:
1. Lay your phone down flat so that the camera viewfinder is completely black.
2. Take a 30 second night photo using the 1x lens.

If it shows up in photos of actual stuff/people then fair enough, but I find the idea of covering the lens to take night mode photos of literally nothing a bit silly. Sorry.

 

[mauriziocorso77]

If it shows up on photos of actual stuff/people then fair enough, but I find the idea of covering the lens to take night mode photos of literally nothing a bit silly. Sorry.

This is just to see if your phone is affected. All low light photography is affected as seen in shots from the YouTube links I posted.

an example photo from Shayne Mostyn

 

[UpsideDownEclair]

This is just to see if your phone is affected. All low light photography is affected as seen in shots from the YouTube links I posted.

an example photo from Shayne Mostyn

Wait, oops. Can’t speak on the 16 Pro as my trade in was denied, but apparently my 14 Pro Max did that. Just, in extremely low light as well.

 

[Nodens]

This is really bad and needs more attention from the media.

Are we talking about a camera hardware issue or a software issue?

 

[Pandyone]

I got similar result as yours with the test, and getting blue spots in the photos in night mode. Most are in the same locations on night photos and I thought it was just main sensor, but the issue is with ultra wide photos too. I might wait for 18.1 to see if it's software related and gets fixed, otherwise I will replace the device.

 

[Pandyone]

I am hopeful this issue can be resolved with software update. I might live with the blue hot pixels on night photos.

It's not perfect, but 30 seconds exposure with ProShot camera does not give same amount of blue "noise" as with stock camera app. ProShot camera photo on the left could go to ISO 12096 and stock camera on right picked ISO 6400.




On ultra wide lens ProShot could go up to ISO 3600 and stock camera picked ISO 1600 where hot pixels are more noticeable.

 

[mauriziocorso77]

Update: Swapped my 16 Pro at an Apple Store (within return window) for another and the new one does not have the same issue.
Don’t know why the media hasn’t picked this up already.

 

[Pandyone]

Update: Swapped my 16 Pro at an Apple Store (within return window) for another and the new one does not have the same issue.
Don’t know why the media hasn’t picked this up already.

It’s mostly noticeable when doing the test and even then it varies from phone to phone.
Night shots over 10 seconds is pretty niche, and even if the phone is affected it might not show in “real” photos, so it’s probably not enough for media to bother.

 

[Nodens]

Update: Swapped my 16 Pro at an Apple Store (within return window) for another and the new one does not have the same issue.
Don’t know why the media hasn’t picked this up already.

Did they accept it as a hardware issue?

 

[mauriziocorso77]

Did they accept it as a hardware issue?

They did a lot of diagnostics and didn’t find a problem, but because it was within the 14 days, they didn’t progress further with trying to find any issues and just swapped it.
The next step the genius said, would’ve been to do a full wipe.

 

[Nodens]

New video from Shayne Mostyn regarding this issue

 

[cratterbury]

I just did the test and whilst it looks mostly black, I do have random blue dots appearing. Won’t worry about it for now as it’s pretty hard to spot and I’ll wait to see what Apple says if they acknowledge it

 

[PeteS1963]

I just did the test and whilst it looks mostly black, I do have random blue dots appearing. Won’t worry about it for now as it’s pretty hard to spot and I’ll wait to see what Apple says if they acknowledge it

View attachment 2437827

The odd hot pixel like you have is normal. I have a few of these if I do the test on my iPhone 14 Pro. And I’ve been using that for astrophotography for the last couple of years.

 

[cratterbury]

The odd hot pixel like you have is normal. I have a few of these if I do the test on my iPhone 14 Pro. And I’ve been using that for astrophotography for the last couple of years.

Yeah I can hardly see them unless I turn the brightness up high. At first I thought I was seeing things as every time my eyes tried to focus on one it would disappear and another popped up so I thought it was moving! 😂

 

[Jackbequickly]

Even a my DSLR will show this an extremely high ISO’s and long shutter speeds. It is normal and will not cause problems In 90.9% of your photos.

 

[Sheldonsmith]

My iPhone 16 Pro camera just crashes and goes to a black unresponsive screen and freezes the OS after a few hours of use. The only remedy is to hard restart the phone (power down power up).

I have tried adjusting default settings and killing apps running in the background simultaneously with the camera (eg apps that use gps, CycleMeter / Strava), change default to 12MP rather than 24MP but all to no avail.

Looks like I’ll have to put in a support ticket/AppleCare it…

Anyone else experience this issue?

~ Sheldon

 

[AbSoluTc]

16 PM - just did a 30 second exposure and all black. No blue anything.

 

[menist]

The iPhone 16 Pro I received yesterday have blue lines/artifacts too, on 1x night mode at 30secs.