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Could iPhone camera wear out?

B

bj097

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 27, 2013
347
23
I suddenly think of a question, hope it is not too unusual.

Could iPhone camera wear out? Or could it wear out faster if I take a lot of pictures every day with my iPhone?

If it would, then I would stick to using my older backup phone to take pictures, because I am taking a lot of pictures every day for my work, but no professional quality is needed, it's just for a quick picture record but I AM REALLY taking a lot of quick pictures every day, probably about 800-1000 pictures.

If it just won't wear out the camera faster, I will keep taking pictures with my newer iPhone.
 
Pretty sure taking pictures won't wear it out any faster.
The sensor probably has a limited lifespan which I'm guessing (no personal proof) will decrease by constant exposure to strong light, but I've never come across a sensor that's worn out even on the oldest commercial digital camera going back 30 years, so longevity must be in terms of many decades unless all your photos are of the sun.
What the heck are you shooting 1,000 photos a day of? I'm just curious.
 
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MajorFubar said:
Pretty sure taking pictures won't wear it out any faster.
The sensor probably has a limited lifespan which I'm guessing (no personal proof) will decrease by constant exposure to strong light, but I've never come across a sensor that's worn out even on the oldest commercial digital camera going back 30 years, so longevity must be in terms of many decades unless all your photos are of the sun.
What the heck are you shooting 1,000 photos a day of? I'm just curious.
Click to expand...
So, did you mean taking too many pictures alone won't do any harm to the camera right?

taking pictures of hand-writing invoice of my restaurant for check up and accounting at the end of a day
 
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Well, can anyone confirm to me that which part of the camera will probably wear out or go wrong because of taking too many pictures and approximately how much will that be to replace it by Apple?
 
bj097 said:
Well, can anyone confirm to me that which part of the camera will probably wear out or go wrong because of taking too many pictures and approximately how much will that be to replace it by Apple?
Click to expand...

I’m not sure what might “wear out”, but I can say that as a photographer, I’ve taken probably several thousand landscape / sunrise / sunset photos with my 11 Pro Max (direct sunlight) and the camera is still working fine with no issues.
 
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Yes ,here is a degradation (prob due to sun exposition) on my 11pm .top right you have 2 big dots ,middle left edge too

1661345627173.jpeg
 
Unless your camera/s are basically constantly exposed to bright unfiltered sunlight, they shouldn’t decrease in quality.
Extreme light, like from a high grade laser pointer, can damage the sensor, but not taking pictures or similar.
 
0089294 said:
Yes ,here is a degradation (prob due to sun exposition) on my 11pm .top right you have 2 big dots ,middle left edge too

View attachment 2046599
Click to expand...
No.
Damage to the sensor would look very different and wouldn’t occur seemingly random.
That’s probably either something on the lens, indentations/marks/scratches or something behind the lens, meaning in the camera itself.
 
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Reggaenald said:
Unless your camera/s are basically constantly exposed to bright unfiltered sunlight, they shouldn’t decrease in quality.
Extreme light, like from a high grade laser pointer, can damage the sensor, but not taking pictures or similar.
Click to expand...
I read a line of words online saying that sensor has life cycle count of up to thousand hundreds but at least 15000 I forget what exactly it's about. Will it count 1 for the sensor every time I take 1 picture?
 
bj097 said:
I read a line of words online saying that sensor has life cycle count of up to thousand hundreds but at least 15000 I forget what exactly it's about. Will it count 1 for the sensor every time I take 1 picture?
Click to expand...
Alright, look.
For years there have been people using their iPhones as their main camera, recording hours and hours of video at 30/60 pictures per second per week. Apples ad were they record 5 hours straight on an iPhone till the battery runs out would, if recorded at 30 pictures per second, account to 540.000 pictures.

You do not have to worry about the sensor of your camera to degrade with time. If that was an issue there would be dozens of articles around. As far as I can tell there are none.
And whatever source claimed that the sensors have a life cycle of just a couple hundred thousand or at least 15000 pictures is incorrect. Stop worrying. Please.
 
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Reggaenald said:
Alright, look.
For years there have been people using their iPhones as their main camera, recording hours and hours of video at 30/60 pictures per second per week. Apples ad were they record 5 hours straight on an iPhone till the battery runs out would, if recorded at 30 pictures per second, account to 540.000 pictures.

You do not have to worry about the sensor of your camera to degrade with time. If that was an issue there would be dozens of articles around. As far as I can tell there are none.
And whatever source claimed that the sensors have a life cycle of just a couple hundred thousand or at least 15000 pictures is incorrect. Stop worrying. Please.
Click to expand...
I am not worried now. But if a sensor had only a life cycle of 15000 pictures, it would be a real worry :0
 
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They didn’t elaborate, but being a motorcyclist I’d say they meant don’t store your phone in the luggage/compartments in contact with the mororcycle. I can’t imagine carrying it in your pocket would be much of an issue unless it’s your back packet and you’re sitting on your phone.
 
I use the iphone as a gps routing device directly attached to the bar of my Mountainbikes. Doing Rough descents. No issues.
 
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