I don’t have this issue either. This might be the worst release (at least in the camera software/hardware department) , super primary and not polished at all.
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iPhone 16 Pro Max Camera problems: Blue smudges, lines, etc. [MERGED]
- Thread starter JasonHB
- Start date
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Here is an example of how the blue lines affect astrophotography photos.
I saw the video, and thats pathetic. It reached the anecdotical scale. Whats is Apple doing….
Good. This is the attention it needs. As of now, it seems Apple is planning to go the “you’re holding it wrong” route.
I have been waiting for a replacement for weeks (bought the phone in the US while on a trip so that makes the exchange process difficult apparently) and have been keeping an eye on this forum. Mine looked like blue noise in the lower left half of the picture, and some at the top. The noise at the bottom was very noticeable in real pictures too.
Today I have taken the first full black picture (even though I updated to 18.1 RC one week ago and tested it then too). I do not know if Apple has fixed it via software somehow and how good the fix is, I will test more tonight and report back.
Thanks Shane and others for giving this problem more visibility. Apple's response is unacceptable if true, even if they have fixed it quietly.
Today I have taken the first full black picture (even though I updated to 18.1 RC one week ago and tested it then too). I do not know if Apple has fixed it via software somehow and how good the fix is, I will test more tonight and report back.
Thanks Shane and others for giving this problem more visibility. Apple's response is unacceptable if true, even if they have fixed it quietly.
The only way to fix it in software is to hide it. It should be pretty simple for Apple to add some post processing steps to detect this kind of blue noise and remove it from the photo.
This is just like a band-aid and will not solve the actual problem though - that the sensor in the phone is performing out of spec at high ISO. The real detail behind the blue noise will not recoverable after removing it in post processing.
My advice is to get your phones exchanged before Apple releases a "software fix" that will hide the issue. After that point it will be much harder to detect if the phone has the issue or not and also harder to prove it in the store while attempting a replacement.
I have seen some people comparing astro photography on 16 Pro (Max) vs 15 Pro (Max) and the 15 has been superior. I am pretty sure that the sensor issue is the real reason behind this. I have a flawless 16 Pro Max and it shoots astro just as good as my old 15 Pro Max (that also had a perfect sensor).
Jajos "scientific" night mode test
Using night mode to shoot 30s in pitch darkness is not 100% scientific because the ISO will vary between shots. That makes it much harder to judge if a sensor is faulty or not. This is a better way to test:
- Download a manual camera app that allows ISO and shutter speed to be set manually (forced).
Recommended apps:
Pro Camera: https://apps.apple.com/se/app/procamera-raw-manual-camera/id694647259?l=en-GB
ProCam: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1562150140 - Set file format in the app to Regular RAW (not ProRAW). This prevents any automatic denoising algorithms to trigger.
- Set ISO to the max value which is 12800
- Set shutter speed to 1 second (1s, 1/1 or 1")
- Take a photo in complete darkness (for example: under your bed covering with all lights turned off, preferably in night time)
This is an example taken with a 16 Pro that had the sensor issue:
Yes, mine is definitely affected, as my pictures used to look way worse than the example you provided, I had not taken a pitch black picture until today. I will test it with the method you suggest too, and hopefully one of these evenings too, to see how it performs in the realworld now, as I also used to get the blue noise in most night pictures.
I tried this few weeks ago and i have very little blue on my unit. I tried today like 3-4 different scenarios and sometimes it has a lot of blue (almost entire screen... I think I tested with ISO at MAX), on default is very little. I think it's something with the processing and the new sensor.
This is how my mostly looks. It's very random.
Meanwhile my 14 Pro is 100% dark with few hot pixels here and there (also blue)
Edit: I'm attaching from today (from_today.JPG) with 18.1 installed. First is made like few weeks ago. You can see it follows similar pattern, but the blue quantity is different.
No idea it what category I'm in - defective or not..
This is how my mostly looks. It's very random.
Meanwhile my 14 Pro is 100% dark with few hot pixels here and there (also blue)
Edit: I'm attaching from today (from_today.JPG) with 18.1 installed. First is made like few weeks ago. You can see it follows similar pattern, but the blue quantity is different.
No idea it what category I'm in - defective or not..
Attachments
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This looks normal. Take a few real life astro shots and see if you can spot anything coming from the sensor rather than the actual scene. If not you are good.
Sadly, I don't have spot near me, where is dark enough to able to trigger the 30s.
What about the all blue screen with ISO on MAX? It looks like his @dantay
If you stabilise the phone and put the camera in auto, you might get some seconds of exposure time?
If you don’t see anything in those photos and not take astro photos, I don’t see how it’s a problem for you.
The blue dots seems like it could ”just” be hot pixels.
Spoke with Apple tech support today, and they informed me that they had released a fix in iOS 18.1 for this issue. However, my situation worsened while I was testing the fix with phone flat on couch. I noticed since 18.1 that the camera was going up to 10,000 ISO, whereas before on iOS 18.01, they only reached 5,000 ISO. This higher ISO setting is likely the reason for the worsening issue. While my Astro photos appear to be okay, the ISO setting was only at 2500.
In any case, I’ve sent more photo uploads and diagnostic data to Apple for further analysis.
In any case, I’ve sent more photo uploads and diagnostic data to Apple for further analysis.
18.1 didn't fix it for me that for sure. I want to see Apple acknowledge the issue first then release an update that specifically says it fixes the issue.. 18.1 release notes didn't mention anything about a fix for this so I doubt they did anything to address it
