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iPhone 16 Pro Max Camera problems: Blue smudges, lines, etc. [MERGED]
- Thread starter JasonHB
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By the looks of it, the new iOS does not seem able to save 30 sec exposures, but limits them to 10 sec instead
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You are right. I was confused seeing 30s on my pictures until I realized that regular HEIC have 30s while ProRAW shows 10s. In the most cases I also have pure black pictures done in ProRAW at ISO 5000 or lower. Sometimes blue fog shows up a bit even with ISO 5000. Everything over 5000 shows red, blue or purple smudges.
I perform table top test only, I do not have a tripod. So here are my pictures with ISO 5000, 6400 and 10000
My EXIF data screenshots I've posted are the ISO 10000 version.
This test method gives you a brief glimpse with what's really going on and if you have the problem or not, at a general level.
Honestly speaking, the real test is shooting the Milky Way in a Bortle Class 1-2 dark skies if you get the pure black ProRAW images after you've done the facedown home test. If you're not willing to travel for hours to get to the dark skies areas and shoot astrophotography in the cold or freezing cold, then this Night Mode problem isn't a problem for you Especially if you shoot daylight photos and Bortle Class 8, which is the "city" night photos by hand like the normal average common folks who don't even own a tripod and never leave the city at all.
When I had the blue banding issue on my previous 3 different iPhone 16 Pros, I was still able to shoot the city amazingly well by hand and with a tripod. There's nothing to worry about and the blue banding never appears.
*Also you have to keep this in mind, Apple can issue a Night Mode "FIX" in a future update again and give everyone who did not have the blue banding issue to appear on the IP17P. Who knows what is going to happen with the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro exclusive camera update to fix the LED lights that turns certain LED flashes into squares when ppl shoot concert photos.*
This test method gives you a brief glimpse with what's really going on and if you have the problem or not, at a general level.
Honestly speaking, the real test is shooting the Milky Way in a Bortle Class 1-2 dark skies if you get the pure black ProRAW images after you've done the facedown home test. If you're not willing to travel for hours to get to the dark skies areas and shoot astrophotography in the cold or freezing cold, then this Night Mode problem isn't a problem for you Especially if you shoot daylight photos and Bortle Class 8, which is the "city" night photos by hand like the normal average common folks who don't even own a tripod and never leave the city at all.
When I had the blue banding issue on my previous 3 different iPhone 16 Pros, I was still able to shoot the city amazingly well by hand and with a tripod. There's nothing to worry about and the blue banding never appears.
*Also you have to keep this in mind, Apple can issue a Night Mode "FIX" in a future update again and give everyone who did not have the blue banding issue to appear on the IP17P. Who knows what is going to happen with the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro exclusive camera update to fix the LED lights that turns certain LED flashes into squares when ppl shoot concert photos.*
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Shayne Mostyn has uploaded his Milky Way test on the iPhone 17, I don't know why he did not use the iPhone 17 Pro and demonstrate the editing in Lightroom. The regular iPhone does not have the ProRAW format and only shoots in HEIC.
Dale Lotherington shot the Milky Way with the IP17P in ProRAW in Australia, but he wasn't in a dark sky area and didn't even edited any of shots in Lightroom.
Dale Lotherington shot the Milky Way with the IP17P in ProRAW in Australia, but he wasn't in a dark sky area and didn't even edited any of shots in Lightroom.
Someone has shot the Milky Way in Florida, but that state has some insane light pollution levels. From his Instagram post, I can see the blue banding with lots of light pollution. It's still better than Shayne and Dale.Attachments
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I was testing my phone camera and noticed that subjectively pictures look better when JPEG-XL Loseless is selected. Lossy look worse.
While I was taking pictures I didn’t notice that some of them were taken on Ultra Wide camera. Interesting, but it looks like Ultra Wide camera sensor is also affected.
While I was taking pictures I didn’t notice that some of them were taken on Ultra Wide camera. Interesting, but it looks like Ultra Wide camera sensor is also affected.
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For me this issue started since iOS 18.2, they have never solved it since then...
It's so sad, that 17 Pro/Max are having same issues, but kinda expected, since the sensors are 1:1 minus the new telephoto. 18 Pro/Max 100% will change it, since it's their turn.
Believe it or not, its not a senor issue. I've had this problem on a iPhone 14 Pro and it kinda ruined our Astrophotography vacation for the wife. It took the Genius Bar many repairs to resolve it, first we tried a new camera module and it didn't fix it. I had to show them NEW and real Milky Way photos with the blue banding issues I took and it took a many trips to prove it. In the end they replaced the Logic Board which is basically a new iPhone and the problem was resolve. Who knows what it is, could be an image pipeline processing or a controller and etc etc etc
There are situations (like myself), in which prior the iOS 18.2 all the 30 secs exposure photos were pitch black, no banding - how does one explain this "HW/motherboard issue"?
LE: Also while using third party apps to take long exposure photos (e.g ProCamera), there are zero issues with banding.
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IP14P Era
After going through that repair for the iPhone 14 Pro, I went through hell and never wanted to go through that again.
As I mentioned before, the first step of the repair was to change the camera module and that didn't work. The next repair was the logic board and it cleared blue banding and smudge issues I had.
IP16P Era
Since I went through that hell of a repair, my first 3 iPhone 16 Pro all had the blue banding issue and each one I was within the 14 day return window. The 4th iPhone 16 Pro was the one without any Night Mode problems. People who missed their 14 day window had to do the repairs, after the 8th day all this chaos hitting the web there was a memo to the Genius Bar staff to reject all repairs regarding this blue banding issue and notify the customers to wait for a software update. The RC build of iOS 18.2 rolled out 7 days before the public release, I've loaded it up and I got the blue and giant red circle bandings like everyone else. I was able to downgrade to iOS 18.1.1, my IP16P is still on that build as of right now and all updates I've turned off.
Apple's Night Mode fix in iOS 18.2 was to put everyone on the same blue banding issue playing field and to report to all customers the camera will have some noise and it's within specs, also the tabletop night mode test is invalid. The people who had this issue in the beginning will always have it, the other people who did not have it will now have it like the rest Every thread on Apple Support, Reddit, Youtube and etc are complaints of people got this issue after updating to iOS 18.2 The percentage of users that would shoot astrophotography properly is a tiny percentage compared to how many iPhone logic board Apple needs to replace.
3rd Party Camera Apps are restricted to whatever Apple allows them to have for their API rules. For example in 2022 for the iPhone 14 Pro, all 3rd party Camera app can only shoot long exposure photos at 10 secs MAX, but they are allowed to stack 3X image to hit the 30 second exposure time, also iSO levels were capped at ISO 500 MAX. Shooting the Milky Way with any 3rd party app does not even come close to the native Camera app, even with the ones that you can stack 100s of them together. The higher the iOS level in night mode will show so much blue banding, the lower level are faint, but when you're shooting low light and Astrophotography, those levels barely have any details.
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Hardware issue with the logic board can explain why I can also see purple smudge even on the pictures taken with the Ultra Wide camera at ISO 6400.
I don’t believe Apple’s intent was to make all the night photos with long exposure look the same when they released iOS 18.2. We can still see there are units that aren’t affected even after updating to iOS 18.2. For me personally that update to iOS 18.2 added this blue smudge as well as red. Never seen red smudge before updating to iOS 18.2.
Obviously I am still within 14 day window and can return my 17 Pro. And can just keep on returning them until I get unaffected unit. Maybe after that Apple can look into that issue.
I visited one store yesterday where they had 17 Pro and 17 Pro max out for display (not Apple Store). We tested it together with the manager, both units had blue/red smudge on long exposure photos (table top test). Also some potential buyers saw it.
I don’t know if it is a hardware or software issue after all.
From my experience with the hardware aspect, the banding + smudges were 99% blue and 1% red with the exact same patterns displaying all the time in the same locations before iOS 18.2.
After 18.2 it was a mix of blue + red with random banding, patterns and the common big red circle, the smudge was not appearing anymore. Also not once I've seen anyone on the web was able to shoot a super clear astrophoto after that update.
Even though I shoot a lot of Astrophotos and the Northern Lights, I would most likely return up to 2 units and give up. This time around with the IP17P I would accept whatever I got on the 3rd unit or return it for good. It's not an enjoyable experience to go through.
It's so much work to find a non-defective Night Mode iPhone. I also have to travel for hours and hours just to shoot this stuff with very slim chances of success for certain events and drive home in rush hour traffic super tired. All this is done for a small period of the calendar year b/c planet alignments, natural disasters cloud covering and unexpected fog. Then there's also at any quarterly big update phase, the "Night Mode Fix" update can once again arrive from Apple.
After 18.2 it was a mix of blue + red with random banding, patterns and the common big red circle, the smudge was not appearing anymore. Also not once I've seen anyone on the web was able to shoot a super clear astrophoto after that update.
Even though I shoot a lot of Astrophotos and the Northern Lights, I would most likely return up to 2 units and give up. This time around with the IP17P I would accept whatever I got on the 3rd unit or return it for good. It's not an enjoyable experience to go through.
It's so much work to find a non-defective Night Mode iPhone. I also have to travel for hours and hours just to shoot this stuff with very slim chances of success for certain events and drive home in rush hour traffic super tired. All this is done for a small period of the calendar year b/c planet alignments, natural disasters cloud covering and unexpected fog. Then there's also at any quarterly big update phase, the "Night Mode Fix" update can once again arrive from Apple.
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Someone took Astro photos with their 17 Pro Max. I am not a big expert, but I can see blue fog in some photos. Not sure if they were edited, but sadly this blue banding issue is visible there.
Here’s the link
Post on Reddit
Here’s the link
Post on Reddit