iPhone 16 Pro Max Sensor Issue on Panoramic Photo? Will Apple Care Replace?

[The Doctor11]

I’m seeing some strange behavior with the panoramic mode on my iPhone 16 Pro Max.

There are very noticeable vertical bands/seams where the exposure doesn't match up between the stitched frames. I moved the phone very slowly and followed the guide arrow perfectly, but the camera seems to "step" the exposure rather than blending it smoothly.

Has anyone else seen this banding on the 16 Pro Max?

Will AppleCare+ cover a replacement for this? Will their diagnostics pick this up as a "defective camera module," or will they just tell me it's a software?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Andeddu]

This pattern is almost certainly exposure or tone-mapping stepping during pano stitching, not a failing camera sensor.

It’s probably panorama HDR/exposure stepping under extreme lighting.

Take an indoor pano to be sure your camera sensor isn’t defective.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Certainly software - you can see that the sun is just out of frame on the left. As @Andeddu says, "extreme lighting."