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

[E2EK1EL]

I can see some smudges/banding on these.

I have an iPhone 16 Pro and do some astrophotography. I have the banding issue, although initially (when I got the phone) it was fine. Maybe I’ll post an example later.

He doesn’t have the blue banding issue, what you are seeing is the gas effects of the galactic core during the Milky Way season and traces of the Nothern Lights at low levels sitting in the opposite direct at a weak level. If he had the blue banding issue, his Oct shots would have the blue banding appearing in the exact same spot or spots in his images regardless which direction or what month he shot them at. He is shooting in a bortel class 1 area and facing.a bortel class 1 in all his shots. Wherever his Milky Way spot is located, it’s the best of the best and also he’s using a sky tracker.



When I’ve discovered I had the blue banding issue on 3 different IP16P, I was shooting in various bortel class 2 areas and facing a bortel class 2-4 areas, the blue banding patterns I had was the long blue banding for the first and 2nd and the 3rd iPhone 16 Pros was also the zebra pattern, but only in the bottom left corner. No matter what I did, facing the darkest spot I could find or facing light to medium light population area, my blue banding pattern would never change from shot 1 to shot 300.

 

[PeteS1963]

He doesn’t have the blue banding issue, what you are seeing is the gas effects of the galactic core during the Milky Way season and traces of the Nothern Lights at low levels sitting in the opposite direct at a weak level. If he had the blue banding issue, his Oct shots would have the blue banding appearing in the exact same spot or spots in his images regardless which direction or what month he shot them at. He is shooting in a bortel class 1 area and facing.a bortel class 1 in all his shots. Wherever his Milky Way spot is located, it’s the best of the best and also he’s using a sky tracker.



When I’ve discovered I had the blue banding issue on 3 different IP16P, I was shooting in various bortel class 2 areas and facing a bortel class 2-4 areas, the blue banding patterns I had was the zebra for the first and 2nd and the 3rd iPhone 16 Pros was also the zebra pattern, but only in the bottom left corner. No matter what I did, facing the darkest spot I could find or facing light to medium light population area, my blue banding pattern would never change from shot 1 to shot 300.

I can see it in shots way outside of the core and on one of his pictures that isn’t of the galactic core. Maybe it is traces of the Northern Lights but not convinced.

This is one of mine from a Bortle 1 site. No tracker.

 

[E2EK1EL]

I can see it in shots way outside of the core and on one of his pictures that isn’t of the galactic core. Maybe it is traces of the Northern Lights but not convinced.

This is one of mine from a Bortle 1 site. No tracker.

It happens all the time when I shoot the Northern Lights, when the levels are weak and I'm just waiting for the next set of CMEs to arrive, I shoot the milky way out of boredom and on those nights blue + green fogs patches are floating around.

 

[PeteS1963]

It happens all the time when I shoot the Northern Lights, when the levels are weak and I'm just waiting for the next set of CMEs to arrive, I shoot the milky way out of boredom and on those nights blue + green fogs patches are floating around.

I am familiar with the Northern Lights too.

 

[jajo.j]

My 17 Pro Max is now going back to Apple... It has the dreaded "Newton's Rings" issue. Shot 10-15 identical shots with 16 Pro Max and 17 Pro Max today and all 17PM photos had the rings and none of the 16 Pro Max was affected. I guess it is a lottery if you get one with the issue or not...


Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (Stock camera, 1x, 24mm, 3s, f/1.7, ISO 1600, 12.19MP)

 

[nunolikeapple]

My 17 Pro Max is now going back to Apple... It has the dreaded "Newton's Rings" issue. Shot 10-15 identical shots with 16 Pro Max and 17 Pro Max today and all 17PM photos had the rings and none of the 16 Pro Max was affected. I guess it is a lottery if you get one with the issue or not...


Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (Stock camera, 1x, 24mm, 3s, f/1.7, ISO 1600, 12.19MP)

Is this possible to replicate at home?
Turning the phone down in a dark place , and taking the 30sec photo?
(The same method as the blue smudges test)?

 

[GloryNox]

My 17 Pro Max is now going back to Apple... It has the dreaded "Newton's Rings" issue. Shot 10-15 identical shots with 16 Pro Max and 17 Pro Max today and all 17PM photos had the rings and none of the 16 Pro Max was affected. I guess it is a lottery if you get one with the issue or not...


Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (Stock camera, 1x, 24mm, 3s, f/1.7, ISO 1600, 12.19MP)

Did your unit have blue/red smudges issue?

 

[jajo.j]

Is this possible to replicate at home?
Turning the phone down in a dark place , and taking the 30sec photo?
(The same method as the blue smudges test)?

Newton's Rings only appear when light at certain wavelenghts bounce in the optics. Aurora is a phenomenon known to cause it.

For most people this is not a big issue but for me living in Sweden and taking lots of astro shots it is a huge pain. These rings are not easy to remove in post processing.

Since my 16 Pro Max is completely immune to this phenomenon it must indicate some kind of hardware abnormality with my 17PM unit. Perhaps slightly misaligned lens elements.

Did your unit have blue/red smudges issue?

No, my 30s night shots looked great.

But!

I have had lots of issues getting the focus of the stars right with 17 Pro Max. Comparing my photos from yesterday with identical shots taken with 16 Pro Max shows that there is an issue here. Out of 10 shots, only 3 had perfect focus. With 16PM 9/10 had perfect focus.

While shooting I could clearly see 17PM "focus hunting". Also it enabled macro mode/0.5x several times during astro photography which is a very odd behaviour that I have never seen on other iPhones.

 

[nunolikeapple]

I think I saw a YouTuber mention that astro photos taken with his 17PM this year are also less sharp, have fewer stars, as if it's a different approach.

 

[GloryNox]

Newton's Rings only appear when light at certain wavelenghts bounce in the optics. Aurora is a phenomenon known to cause it.

For most people this is not a big issue but for me living in Sweden and taking lots of astro shots it is a huge pain. These rings are not easy to remove in post processing.

Since my 16 Pro Max is completely immune to this phenomenon it must indicate some kind of hardware abnormality with my 17PM unit. Perhaps slightly misaligned lens elements.



No, my 30s night shots looked great.

But!

I have had lots of issues getting the focus of the stars right with 17 Pro Max. Comparing my photos from yesterday with identical shots taken with 16 Pro Max shows that there is an issue here. Out of 10 shots, only 3 had perfect focus. With 16PM 9/10 had perfect focus.

While shooting I could clearly see 17PM "focus hunting". Also it enabled macro mode/0.5x several times during astro photography which is a very odd behaviour that I have never seen on other iPhones.

I saw similar comments under Shayne Mostyn’s videos on YouTube. Some people are having issues trying to focus on stars. Seems like a new camera issue this year.
There are also lots of comments of 17 Pro/Pro Max having the same blue banding issue as their previous 16 Pro/Pro Max. However Shayne keeps on replying that there is no such an issue with the 17 series this year.
I have both blue/red smudges with the tabletop test even on the Ultra Wide camera 30s exposure pictures. I noticed they may be visible even with ISO 3200 if the phone is warm. If it’s cold then they show up only with ISO 6400.
I also tried to take pictures in the dark room with no light and I can still see blue smudges on some pictures along with the furniture and other items in the room. But the room is really dark.
I have a colleague at work with the 17PM which has exactly the same blue streaks issue. Of course he didn’t know of the existence of the issue until I asked him to perform the tabletop test. I really wonder how you managed to get a unit without that problem.
I am still within the return window and am thinking on returning my unit. But I just don’t want to play this phone swapping lottery. Most likely I will get the phone with exactly same issue. Petty bad experience for such an expensive device.

 

[jajo.j]

I really wonder how you managed to get a unit without that problem.

I haven't tested it by doing the tabletop test though. I stopped doing that, since this test does not reflect issues in real life photos. I had a perfect unit that gave completely black 30s night shots and then Apple released a new software and I got blue/red streaks but nothing was wrong with real life 30s night shots. So I think this testing method is flawed.

Some people are having issues trying to focus on stars. Seems like a new camera issue this year.

Could very well be a thing. I have to pickup a new unit and test it. If it has the same slow focus then it is surely an issue this year. Sigh..

 

[E2EK1EL]

My 17 Pro Max is now going back to Apple... It has the dreaded "Newton's Rings" issue. Shot 10-15 identical shots with 16 Pro Max and 17 Pro Max today and all 17PM photos had the rings and none of the 16 Pro Max was affected. I guess it is a lottery if you get one with the issue or not...


Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (Stock camera, 1x, 24mm, 3s, f/1.7, ISO 1600, 12.19MP)

I am so happy and pissed off about your post.

Happy: I'm so happy for you with shooting last night's Northern Lights event and you were able to detect the return of the newton rings in time of your return window for your IP17PM. I had this problem with the IP15P, the Genius Bar gave me the worst attitude ever when I went for a repair. The iPhone 15 Pro all had this issue shooting the Northern Lights when the Green aurora appears at KP5+ and any colour at KP7 to KP8. The iPhone 15 Pro Max, some did not have it at all. The iPhone 16 Pro had very minor newton rings and minor being 3 really faint newton rings you can't even notice unless you really zoom in on a computer monitor, this only appears when it's Green at KP8.

Pissed: It's such a headache and beyond real all these problems are happening randomly again from the previous models.

From what I'm reading it's the UV coating applied to the main lens, when the Green Aurora arrives at mid or strong KP levels, there is light bouncing from the lens to the sensor nonstop until the shutter has completed the shot. This happens to DSLR if you leave the UV lens on, but we can't take our lens off on the iPhone.

MASSIVE RESPECTS to jajo j: for reporting this and thank you so much! Crossing my finger for your replacing IP17PM to be a problem free device.

 

[GloryNox]

I haven't tested it by doing the tabletop test though. I stopped doing that, since this test does not reflect issues in real life photos. I had a perfect unit that gave completely black 30s night shots and then Apple released a new software and I got blue/red streaks but nothing was wrong with real life 30s night shots. So I think this testing method is flawed.



Could very well be a thing. I have to pickup a new unit and test it. If it has the same slow focus then it is surely an issue this year. Sigh..

Okay, so we have to admit that this tabletop test is not a good approach on testing a camera. I was told the same thing by Apple when I sent my 16Pro last year to them for diagnosing this issue only to receive it back with the explanation that the behavior is expected and they wouldn’t accept the tabletop test results.
I anyway called my local Apple Support and they got a reply from the engineering team and they explained that what I see is normal and expected regardless of how other phone cameras perform. They told that all the sensors perform similarly whether I see dark photos or blue streaks on the photos. There were a lot of technical terms related to photography and unfortunately I wasn’t able to confront due to a lack of knowledge in that field.

Let’s forget about the tabletop test.
So what would be the best way to test it in real conditions? Let’s say I don’t want to travel for hours to some place with dark skies. Can I perform such a test at home?

 

[E2EK1EL]

Last night I had the itch to go shoot the milky way, during my first few shots I've noticed the green fog was pretty strong with the Milky Way. The Northern Lights levels were kinda weak, after a few shots I decided to shoot north and it was nothing special. When the Green Aurora fog appears with the Milky Way's position that's not sitting at the north, it's either the Northern Lights are leaving or they might be coming. Luckily none of my shoots had the blue banding issues with the Milky Way and just hope today's update of iOS 28.0.1 camera fix did not mess up shooting Astrophotography for all of us.

Two hours later of shooting the Milk Way and getting damn bored, I saw on the bottom corner of one of the preview shoots, the Green Aurora has started appearing and peaking really bright. I looked to the north very quickly, saw a really bright glow that's not suppose to be there and ran to position my shooting. This thing was very strong for a weak level of KP3 and it was moving really slow. First thing I did was to shoot and aim the Green Aurora with all lens, the more you zoom in with the telephoto lens, the more you'll see the Newton Ring issue if you have it. Once again I was lucky enough to not have the Newton Ring issue on this IP17P.

Tonight's Northern Lights event I had skipped out, driving to my Bortel Class 2 spot is very exhausting for me and it's a crazy far distance. Also it was a busy night for me, no way I can reach any of my Northern Lights spots in time for this sudden CME arrival and tomorrow morning I have to get up early for a serious meeting.

I'm just grateful I was able to to shoot and test both types of Night Mode problems with one trip last night.

 

[E2EK1EL]

The tabletop Night Mode 30 sec test can only lead you to the right direction if your iPhone has a blue banding issue. The blue banding has to be located at the same exact location of your photo every time.


If you have the black photos for every shot, then the next step is the real test if you want to confirm everything. You got to head out to a dark sky area to shoot Astrophotography with the correct format and all the equipment like a tripod.

The Genius Bar needs to see your Astrophotos with the blue banding problem appearing in every photo at the same exact spot to go forth with the next step with replacing or repair your iPhone. The diagnostics test software has also been update also and it won't detect any of these problems, even if you have it. If you have a stuck up Genius rep that doesn't care, they won't do anything for you and will say "the iPhone is within specs, we can't do anything for you and everything is working correctly"

The blue banding and newton ring issues are a real headache these Genius Reps, I've been dealing with all this stuff since 2022. The original Genius Bar staff are all gone, those guys are super cool and go beyond the call of duty for you. These new guys will tremble when they interact with users that are beyond more knowledgeable than them and always go to back to check with another stuff since they can't answer the super technical stuff.

 

[GloryNox]

The tabletop Night Mode 30 sec test can only lead you to the right direction if your iPhone has a blue banding issue. The blue banding has to be located at the same exact location of your photo every time.


If you have the black photos for every shot, then the next step is the real test if you want to confirm everything. You got to head out to a dark sky area to shoot Astrophotography with the correct format and all the equipment like a tripod.

The Genius Bar needs to see your Astrophotos with the blue banding problem appearing in every photo at the same exact spot to go forth with the next step with replacing or repair your iPhone. The diagnostics test software has also been update also and it won't detect any of these problems, even if you have it. If you have a stuck up Genius rep that doesn't care, they won't do anything for you and will say "the iPhone is within specs, we can't do anything for you and everything is working correctly"

The blue banding and newton ring issues are a real headache these Genius Reps, I've been dealing with all this stuff since 2022. The original Genius Bar staff are all gone, those guys are super cool and go beyond the call of duty for you. These new guys will tremble when they interact with users that are beyond more knowledgeable than them and always go to back to check with another stuff since they can't answer the super technical stuff.

Thanks for your reply, but I don’t live in the US and there is no Genius bar in Finland. All I can do is just send it back to Apple or in my case return it to a retailer. For any kind of diagnostics we only have a phone support. They can arrange a pick up of the device for diagnostic tests. I provided the photos done in the dark room with my phone put on the chair while I used the remote shutter button from my watch. They all had blue smudges but with different intensity. I sent it to Apple. Regardless of that they returned the device back to me saying that the test was done in too extreme conditions and the result was expected and normal.

All the tests that I did with the phones ended up having blue smudges on photos. I have not seen any real 16 Pro or now 17 Pro that doesn’t have that night mode picture issue with the table top test. I tested 16 series at shops last year, 17 pros this year, now I have the 17 pro with the same issue. I assume every IP16-17 pro will have some amount of blue/red streaks with the tabletop test. This is why we can’t rely on it.

I understand that if you don’t have any issue on the Astrophotos you may be sure that the camera is fine in your unit.

But is there any way to test it other than doing Astrophotos?

 

[nickelro]

The tabletop Night Mode 30 sec test can only lead you to the right direction if your iPhone has a blue banding issue. The blue banding has to be located at the same exact location of your photo every time.


If you have the black photos for every shot, then the next step is the real test if you want to confirm everything. You got to head out to a dark sky area to shoot Astrophotography with the correct format and all the equipment like a tripod.

The Genius Bar needs to see your Astrophotos with the blue banding problem appearing in every photo at the same exact spot to go forth with the next step with replacing or repair your iPhone. The diagnostics test software has also been update also and it won't detect any of these problems, even if you have it. If you have a stuck up Genius rep that doesn't care, they won't do anything for you and will say "the iPhone is within specs, we can't do anything for you and everything is working correctly"

The blue banding and newton ring issues are a real headache these Genius Reps, I've been dealing with all this stuff since 2022. The original Genius Bar staff are all gone, those guys are super cool and go beyond the call of duty for you. These new guys will tremble when they interact with users that are beyond more knowledgeable than them and always go to back to check with another stuff since they can't answer the super technical stuff.

I redid the tabletop test last night after updating to 18.7.1 - the blue smudge on 30 sec photos is not in the same location each time, and also its intensity is slightly different with each photo. I have also noticed that all the tabletop test photos were capped at ISO 6400; iirc prior 18.2 these tabletop test photos were above ISO 10000 (& w/o any blue smudge).
P.S. I also did the tabletop test using the Ultra Wide lens and the issue was not present.

 

[E2EK1EL]

All the tests that I did with the phones ended up having blue smudges on photos. I have not seen any real 16 Pro or now 17 Pro that doesn’t have that night mode picture issue with the table top test. I tested 16 series at shops last year, 17 pros this year, now I have the 17 pro with the same issue. I assume every IP16-17 pro will have some amount of blue/red streaks with the tabletop test. This is why we can’t rely on it.

I understand that if you don’t have any issue on the Astrophotos you may be sure that the camera is fine in your unit.

But is there any way to test it other than doing Astrophotos?

.

 

[GloryNox]

I've posted my iPhone 17 Pro Night Mode 30 Sec test results with the screenshots and a screen recording video last week, they're all black. It directly me to be ok with shooting the Milky Way and the Aurora last night, everything is clear of the blue banding issue and newton rings with all my photos.

From your screenshots and the details you've posted, I'm confident you don't have the blue banding issue on your IP17P.

The only real confirmation is to head out and shoot some Astrophotos, if you don't shoot Astrophotos all of this Night Mode problems is not a problem for you at all and no need to stress about it.

Sorry, I should have clarified it better. I had IP16Pro with the blue banding issue. And I sent that unit to Apple last year and received it back.
Now I have the 17Pro and I can clearly see blue/red smudge on the screenshots. They are not completely black, but purple. My monitor also reduced the intensity of the purple color so I can barely see it. But it is still visible if you view those posts from an iphone. Almost every time I get some amount or mixture of blue/red colors with the tabletop test. Half of the pictures come out completely black even with ISO 6400. The warmer the phone the more intense colorful tabletop pictures I get. You can see that with the 17Pro that Ultra Wide camera pictures also have some purple haze in the tabletop test. Never had it with the 16Pro.

As mentioned by @nickelro they are moving from place to place on the pictures and are not in the permanent position. Sometimes it is only blue, sometimes it is only red and sometimes it is a combination of blue and red. All of this happens with random intensity at the same time.

Because I had this issue with my 16Pro I tested it with my new 17Pro and saw absolutely the same behavior. Subjectively night mode pictures from 17Pro look a bit better than those from 16Pro.

 

[E2EK1EL]

My 17 Pro Max is now going back to Apple... It has the dreaded "Newton's Rings" issue. Shot 10-15 identical shots with 16 Pro Max and 17 Pro Max today and all 17PM photos had the rings and none of the 16 Pro Max was affected. I guess it is a lottery if you get one with the issue or not...


Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (Stock camera, 1x, 24mm, 3s, f/1.7, ISO 1600, 12.19MP)

Someone shoot the Northern Lights tonight with a KP5 level on a iPhone 17 Pro, he also got the Newton Rings.

 

[jajo.j]

Someone shoot the Northern Lights tonight with a KP5 level on a iPhone 17 Pro, he also got the Newton Rings.

That is discouraging. I hope this is not more widespread on 17 series than it was on 16 series. I just have to keep my 16PM if that is the case - it has never showed Newton's Rings even at KP7.

 

[jajo.j]

Just got hold of a silver 17 Pro Max. And tonight there are some good chances of aurora in Sweden so hopefully I can test it for Newton's Rings tonight if weather is clear. Stay tuned...

 

[GloryNox]

I decided to have some tests at home. This time it’s not a tabletop test. I turned on the light in the bathroom and closed the door. Then took a picture from another dark room.
Photos are taken with the exposure 3s ISO 12500), 10s (ISO 6400). All are RAW. All the blue streaks are instantly removed when you click Edit. But the picture becomes more darker. This doesn’t happen with HEIC, but happens only with the RAW format.
So the blue banding issue appears even with automatic 3s exposure… For me that’s enough to confirm the blue banding issue exists on my unit.

 

[jajo.j]

I decided to have some tests at home. This time it’s not a tabletop test. I turned on the light in the bathroom and closed the door. Then took a picture from another dark room.
Photos are taken with the exposure 3s ISO 12500), 10s (ISO 6400). All are RAW. All the blue streaks are instantly removed when you click Edit. But the picture becomes more darker. This doesn’t happen with HEIC, but happens only with the RAW format.
So the blue banding issue appears even with automatic 3s exposure… For me that’s enough to confirm the blue banding issue exists on my unit.

Yes, this is a defective sensor unfortunately.

 

[jajo.j]

I decided to have some tests at home. This time it’s not a tabletop test. I turned on the light in the bathroom and closed the door. Then took a picture from another dark room.
Photos are taken with the exposure 3s ISO 12500), 10s (ISO 6400). All are RAW. All the blue streaks are instantly removed when you click Edit. But the picture becomes more darker. This doesn’t happen with HEIC, but happens only with the RAW format.
So the blue banding issue appears even with automatic 3s exposure… For me that’s enough to confirm the blue banding issue exists on my unit.

But hmm. I did try to replicate the same scene on my phones (16 Pro Max and 17 Pro Max) and both show some odd artifacts that I haven't seen before.

It seems that the complete dark room in combination with the bright light shining out though the gaps in the door create a very tricky condition for the camera.

I've shot thousands of astro shots with this 16 Pro Max and never seen any such artifacts before.

My new 17 Pro Max is probably a little better.


Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (Stock camera, 1x, 24mm, 2s, f/1.7, ISO 6400, 12.19MP)


Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max (Stock camera, 1x, 24mm, 2s, f/1.7, ISO 6400, 12.19MP)