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iPhone 5 camera motion blur

C

cRuNcHiE

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 2, 2007
778
46
Is anyone else finding the iPhone 5 is worse than the 4s for motion blur?

I used to have a 4s and motion blur was rarely as issue but not I'm noticing it a lot more on my 5. It's as if the shutter speed is slower or stabilisation is worse?

Anyone else had issues?
 
Yes, I've noticed that with my iPhone 5 on average I'm producing more blurry pictures than I did with my 4S.

To bring up the old joke: "probably we're holding it wrong". Seriously, I find myself to be more shaky with my hands than I was with my 4S. I guess I still have to get used to the new shape, as I'm somehow holding it differently.
 
With the 4S I found it easier to use the Volume Up button to shoot photos. Now with the 5 I find it easier to use the in-screen button. Lets me hold the phone much better. (Less shaking that is)
 
Yeah I thought landscape seemed better too. Hmmm hope this is fixed in software else it's going back
 
I have the same problem. Absolutely terrible. I have twin 20 month olds and photos with the 5 are so blurry they are unusable. My 4S was leaps and bounds better. Can't switch back either since I paid an ETF to AT&T and moved to Verizon.

If I took this photo with my 4S it would have been perfect, not the same with the 5. :-(

Not sure why the photo switched orientation when uploading.
 

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DeuceDeuce said:
I have the same problem. Absolutely terrible. I have twin 20 month olds and photos with the 5 are so blurry they are unusable. My 4S was leaps and bounds better. Can't switch back either since I paid an ETF to AT&T and moved to Verizon.

If I took this photo with my 4S it would have been perfect, not the same with the 5. :-(

Not sure why the photo switched orientation when uploading.
Click to expand...

Maybe your kid watched the tape from The Ring...
 
DeuceDeuce said:
I have the same problem. Absolutely terrible. I have twin 20 month olds and photos with the 5 are so blurry they are unusable. My 4S was leaps and bounds better. Can't switch back either since I paid an ETF to AT&T and moved to Verizon.

If I took this photo with my 4S it would have been perfect, not the same with the 5. :-(

Not sure why the photo switched orientation when uploading.
Click to expand...

Could either be worse stabilization or longer shutter speed based on conditions dictated by what is seen by the camera. Lower light = longer shutter speed (shutter stays open longer to let more light in) + bigger aperture (bigger opening of diaphragm to let more light in) during shutter opening. It's the longer duration shutter opening that causes the motion blur.

I really can't comment on how the two cameras react to light.
 
DeuceDeuce said:
I have the same problem. Absolutely terrible. I have twin 20 month olds and photos with the 5 are so blurry they are unusable. My 4S was leaps and bounds better. Can't switch back either since I paid an ETF to AT&T and moved to Verizon.

If I took this photo with my 4S it would have been perfect, not the same with the 5. :-(

Not sure why the photo switched orientation when uploading.
Click to expand...

Looks like the exposure metered on low light like the bulk of the rug and you got a Slow shutter speed.

Slow speed shows the motion in the child's hand.

If HDR is on it will make the problem worse.
 
I think, and this may be incorrect, that they stiffened up the buttons on the 5, thereby making the particular action of depressing the volume for taking photos more difficult and making photos blurrier.

Just a thought.
 
Sorry to dig up an old thread, but Googled this issue and found this thread. I've been thinking about taking my phone in because of this, but it appears others are having the same issue. My 4S was awesome and I would say 50% of my photos are blurry. It's quite frustrating. I always use the volume button, so I will try the screen button to see if that helps. :rolleyes:
 
rkdiddy said:
Sorry to dig up an old thread, but Googled this issue and found this thread. I've been thinking about taking my phone in because of this, but it appears others are having the same issue. My 4S was awesome and I would say 50% of my photos are blurry. It's quite frustrating. I always use the volume button, so I will try the screen button to see if that helps. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

mine are not blurry as long as i manually tell it to focus.. where as my 4s i feel that i could just point and shoot without making sure i focus.
 
Camera

Well, as an avid camera user there are both good things and bad things about the iPhone5 camera:

1 - there is no way to shut off the image stabilization that I can find. In a perfect world I'd shut it off for still shots and have it on for movies.

2 - the autofocus is noticeably slower under certain lighting conditions than that of the iphone4 I used for multiple years for thousands and thousands of photos. Even in seemingly bright light. Yes, it's dealing with 3x the pixels but the processor is much faster so it should do okay theoretically.

3 - the facial recognition seems to turn on randomly for things that aren't faces. I actually wish I could shut the facial recognition off altogether because sometimes I'm not photographing people.

Yesterday I was in my car at a stoplight and saw two very high flying jets that were very close to one another and I started taking a movie of them - the first 4-5 seconds were perfect but the autofocus then wanted to focus on a piece of dirt on my windshield (which it showed up as facial recognition!) and wouldn't refocus on the planes despite tapping on the planes themselves on the screen to reorient the focus back to this stupid piece of dirt!

4 - it does do better in low lighting than the previous iphones for still shots but there's a certain point where if you are filming, say, a sunset type scene in movie mode with other things like cars and birds moving about the phone decides to randomly modulate the light levels and I've caught this on video - not only does it decide to randomly autofocus and change the light levels but if you tap on the item you want it to focus on it snaps to that object briefly then the autofocus starts wandering again. The more towards evening the light levels are, the more this behavior occurs.

Obviously the camera has a lot of potential - I've taken some pictures my iPhone4 could NOT have taken, some with astounding quality but it's almost like I need to learn a new photographic technique to get the most out of this particular camera.

I wonder if there's a "iphone camera forum" somewhere?
 
I feel better knowing that I'm not the only one who's noticed this.

I posted a similar topic last month regarding blurriness that I was experiencing, especially when taking pics of human subjects that were (allegedly) stationary. I downloaded a couple of photo apps, specifically Camera Awesome and Blux Camera, and have tried them all out with varying results. Unfortunately I found that in some tests the iPhone's native photo app was superior, and in others either Camera Awesome or Blux was superior. It must be something that I'm doing wrong because I don't recall having this issue with my Droid X when taking photos, and clearly the iPhone's camera/software is superior to that of a 2 1/2 year old phone.

I guess I could be moving the phone at the exact moment I'm taking the picture, but if I am whatever minute movement is clearly imperceptible to me. I will have to work on my photo skills apparently.:mad:
 
Yes!

Goodness, yes. I have had this same problem, and it is driving me crazy. I hope we keep this thread going, and I hope that Apple takes notice. I just don't think enough people have complained yet for them to really take this seriously. I went to an Apple store and the one guy said no one has complained yet, so I hope that more people raise this issue.

If nothing else, keep the conversation going, so I have a support group to make me feel better. :)

If anyone finds a fix, or any app that adjusts the shutter speed, please let us all know.
 
That I would update my experience. I took my phone into a Genius and they replaced it, he said it was slow to autofocus.

Not checking at the store, I went home and set everything up. I'm still having the issue.

Has anyone figured out a fix for this or is everyone just living with it? Should I take this phone back again?

PS: I can confirm that my 4S never had this issue.
 

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I don't have this problem. Do you tap the screen to get box to focus on subject before you take picture?
 
wxman2003 said:
I don't have this problem. Do you tap the screen to get box to focus on subject before you take picture?
Click to expand...

If I do it helps the issue - but with my old 4 and 4S, the auto focus did a much better job. Are you manually focusing every time?
 
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