I noticed the same thing on my 16 Pro, even after turning off macro mode. My 12 Pro didn’t seem as bad.
Quirin said:
I noticed the same thing on my 16 Pro, even after turning off macro mode. My 12 Pro didn’t seem as bad.
Have you checked if lens correction is on? If you took this with the ultra-wide lens, that might be the reason.
Thanks for the help. I know cameras can’t focus on everything, but this seems way more blurry than it should be. Never had this problem with my iPhone XS.
Storm said:
Thanks for the help. I know cameras can’t focus on everything, but this seems way more blurry than it should be. Never had this problem with my iPhone XS.
That’s because the iPhone XS had much smaller camera sensors.
This is just how cameras work. Even my DSLR with a high-end lens does something similar.
Levi said:
This is just how cameras work. Even my DSLR with a high-end lens does something similar.
If it’s noticeable without zooming in, there’s probably a problem with your lens. Chromatic aberration is usually minimal on expensive lenses.
@Grier
I usually shoot zoomed in a bit, rarely at 24mm. Always at f/8, and mostly close-up (I do product photography). Could that be causing it? Haven’t done a proper test with different settings, but maybe I should. I’m using a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM from around 2006, still a pricey lens. Paired with a full-frame 5D Mark III.
@Levi
Zoom lenses always have more distortion because of how they’re built. For serious work, I use Sigma Art lenses—super sharp on my 1DX. My 70-200 IS is still sharp even at full zoom.
Grier said:
@Levi
Zoom lenses always have more distortion because of how they’re built. For serious work, I use Sigma Art lenses—super sharp on my 1DX. My 70-200 IS is still sharp even at full zoom.
Are you using the 70-200 f/2.8 or f/4? I read that the 2.8 is softer than the Mark II version, so I wasn’t sure if it was worth the extra money.
@Levi
I have the f/2.8. No real complaints, but if I were buying now, I’d just go for the IS III. I only have this one because it came with my 1DX.
@Grier
This isn’t chromatic aberration. It’s more about how the focus plane isn’t flat—it’s usually curved. That’s why curved displays help with keeping the same distance between your eyes and the screen.
This is normal. Bigger sensors and wider apertures have a narrower focus area—that’s what gives you that soft background effect. The ultra-wide lens has the deepest focus range.
Try leaving some space around your subject instead of filling the whole frame. If your phone has a document mode, use it.
@Jordan
That makes sense. But what’s weird is that it gets blurry outward from the center, except for the top right corner, which gets sharper again.
Instead of taking a photo of a document, scan it using the built-in scanner in the Notes or Files app.
It might be switching to macro mode. When you get close, a flower icon appears—tap it to turn it off. Another trick is to step back and use 2x zoom. The 12MP resolution is good enough for documents and avoids edge distortion.
@Tatum
I’ll give that a shot, thanks.
Yep, that’s just lens distortion. Nothing unusual.
Been dealing with this on my 15 Pro Max too. The phone automatically switches lenses when you get too close, making everything blurry.
Someone suggested turning off automatic macro mode. It helps, but in certain situations, it still happens. Really annoying and no real fix yet.
@Nuri
This issue isn’t related to macro mode.
You can turn macro mode off using the button in the bottom left when it activates.