iPhone 17 Pro Max iPhone 17 Pro Max Camera Blurry

[MrTunnel]

Hi everyone.

I have upgraded from an iPhone 12 Pro Max to an iPhone 17 Pro Max and I have noticed that a lot of the photo's I take with this new phone are either very blurry or have an extremely soft focus. My iPhone 12 Pro Max doesn't have this issues. I have a iPhone 16 Plus too and this doesn't have an issue either.

Recording video is pin sharp, so I'm beginning to think this may be an iOS 26.2 issue rather than hardware. I've seen others report this issue in other forums and on X but there's no definitive answers. Some have had their iPhone replaced only for replacement to do the same. Then I've read others have had their iPhone replaced and the replacement one is fine.

I've reset my phone, restored from backup, even reset it and set it up as new but to no avail. I've also changed all manner of camera settings but I still get an issue. I can take numerous shots of the same thing and I'd say 70% are blurry/soft.

Has anyone on here experienced this issue when taking photo's. My iPhone is the 512Gb model.

I'm surprised MacRumors haven't picked up on this yet.

Thanks in advance.

 

[StumpyBloke]

No problem on my 17 PM.

 

[Tsepz]

Hi everyone.

I have upgraded from an iPhone 12 Pro Max to an iPhone 17 Pro Max and I have noticed that a lot of the photo's I take with this new phone are either very blurry or have an extremely soft focus. My iPhone 12 Pro Max doesn't have this issues. I have a iPhone 16 Plus too and this doesn't have an issue either.

Recording video is pin sharp, so I'm beginning to think this may be an iOS 26.2 issue rather than hardware. I've seen others report this issue in other forums and on X but there's no definitive answers. Some have had their iPhone replaced only for replacement to do the same. Then I've read others have had their iPhone replaced and the replacement one is fine.

I've reset my phone, restored from backup, even reset it and set it up as new but to no avail. I've also changed all manner of camera settings but I still get an issue. I can take numerous shots of the same thing and I'd say 70% are blurry/soft.

Has anyone on here experienced this issue when taking photo's. My iPhone is the 512Gb model.

I'm surprised MacRumors haven't picked up on this yet.

Thanks in advance.

That is incredibly odd and definitely sounds like something off with the hardware, have you tried other 17 PM in the store?
My 17 PM has been flawless when it comes to the images I get from the camera, pics are very sharp and focused.

Took pics of my car on Xmas day and they were quite sharp (obviously had to edit to blackout my license plate):

 

[AMTYVLE]

The 17PM (for me at least) takes horrendous photos. They do come out blurry and out of focus 99% of the time. I’ve never had this camera issue in previous iPhones. I’ve adjusted every camera setting there is and nothing improves the photos. People at work also have the 17PM and say the same thing. It’s actually embarrassing to show photos to others that are taken on the 17PM.

My 16PM took gorgeous photos with just a simple point and shoot.

My opinion. Don’t attack me people.

 

[SmOgER]

The 17PM (for me at least) takes horrendous photos. They do come out blurry and out of focus 99% of the time. I’ve never had this camera issue in previous iPhones. I’ve adjusted every camera setting there is and nothing improves the photos. People at work also have the 17PM and say the same thing. It’s actually embarrassing to show photos to others that are taken on the 17PM.

My 16PM took gorgeous photos with just a simple point and shoot.

My opinion. Don’t attack me people.

I think either their lenses/sensors are not quite the same one device to another, or we have different people taking photos in different conditions due to living in different regions, different environments or simply different habits or ways of taking a photo.

Me personally, to be completely honest I am not wow'ed by my 16P cameras. Just the other day I had to take photos of another phone to put out a listing, and it felt like a tedious task. Most of the photos turned out washed out of focus unless the lighting was absolutely perfect or I manually enabled the flash while taking it (but then it would overemphasize any minor fingerprints or dust that isn't visible under natural light smh). Honestly it seems to me that something was lost ever since they moved to using 2-3 lenses. It's no longer point and shoot really unless you happen to have conditions suitable for it. It's not that it can't take good photos at all cause that it can do for a fact, so it's hard to point my finger on anything else.

All this talk about it being able to take the photos instantly, and yet you still have to take like 3 of them of the same thing to choose one that is the most in-focus. Or frame pick a live photo. Why not make it slower then and do all of that with software automatically? They even added the camera button to exaggerate this problem even more as you inevitably move the phone while pressing it.