iPhone 5 defective camera thread (purple flare)

[Kaido]

Aim your camera at a light source and slightly move it away until you get the purple. Hold it there and than move your hand in above the camera and watch the haze go away. No doubt it is lens flare. Makes you wonder if some cases couldn't help shield the lens from the angle light.

Hmm yeah, if I put my finger in front of it and block the glare, the purple haze goes away and I get a nice, clean shot. Nice catch.

I'm really missing my Olloclip right now, haha.

 

[Kaido]

My feeling on this entire issue is this: If you are counting on a small sensor device like an iPhone for your primary photo engine then you are simply going to have to live with some purple fringing issues. This is not all that uncommon. Lots of good photo review sites spend part of their reviews on the amount of (purple) fringing in photos. Many times the difference between a $300 lens and a $1000 lens is in part due to the reduction in visible fringing. There are expensive post processing engines that deal specifically with purple fringing. The iPhone has a tiny little sensor packaged in a tiny little frame, same as any other cell phone camera. The fact that the iPhone camera (or any other cell phone for that matter) can provide acceptable photos at all is an engineering marvel. That being said, if the quality of your photos is so important that some color aberration is going to be a deal breaker then you shouldn't be using a micro sensor camera in the first place. There is a reason a good DSLR + lens costs more than an iPhone.

As discussed earlier, that's not the point. I've personally taken over 20,000 photos with my iPhone 4S. I use it for work photography (group events, defective parts, machine tool training, all kinds of stuff), with my family & friends (birthdays, holidays, get-togethers), and for hobby photography. Flickr is currently showing the iPhone as the most popular camera on all of Flicker. Dismissing an issue as visible as this purple flaring problem as a non-issue due to it being "just a smartphone camera" really isn't a good option. It's an 8-megapixel camera with a 1080p camcorder used by millions of people every day. Anyway, I haven't run into an issue with this particular problem before. That's why I started this thread. It is an issue on this particular release of the iPhone.

Also as mentioned, this is not traditional chromatic aberration, which is a purple fringe on objects. This is a flare/haze issue, due to off-camera light sources in particular. I've been fine with the limitations of the iPhone 4S in the past...yes it has lens flare, yes there's no optical zoom, yes to a lot of things, but it was usable and I was happy with it. The new version 5 has a purple haze issue. It's not about upgrading to a dSLR or using pro lenses or getting a different camera, it's about using my smartphone as a camera. I have a dSLR. I have plenty of great lenses. They don't fit in my pocket and they don't let me edit pictures instantly or email them or post them on Twitter or on Facebook right away. So what I'm saying is, don't count it out as a camera just because it's not a professional camera. The point is, there is an issue here that wasn't a problem before on prior models. That's it.

 

[eelw]

Out of curiosity, what were you doing? I'd like to try it with my TF300 since I couldn't get it to haze in my rudimentary tests.

Just aimed below ceiling light and adjusted height and angle of tablet.

But wonder if Apple can come up with something to help reduce the flaring effect? How easy is it to add the coating on the lens? Other option as mentioned is to offer some type of glare guard to cover the camera.

 

[Kaido]

Third comment down (by Michael Harris) on the Cult of Mac article: (thanks to Indragie for sending this tip over)

It's not the lens, Apple eliminated the IR cut filter and in some cases that causes some shades of black to be purple. They did it for cost or thinness. Leica did it with their first digital rangefinder camera and it had the same effect. It can't be fixed with software, Leica had to actually send IR filters to people who purchased the camera. Unfortunately you can't put a screw-on filter to a cell phone.

:hmm:

 

[Kaido]

Looking through some of my old video stuff shot on the iPhone 4S. I have one in particular I put up on Youtube last year where I used a LOT of lens flare on for artistic effect. It is raw camera footage from my 4S, edited together in iMovie - no color correction done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQZSC-d0oSc

Details: Black 32gb Verizon iPhone 4S, shot in 24p in the Filmic Pro app and wrapped in a 30p container with dummy frames (broadcast-style). I used an Olloclip on a lot of shots as well (a clip-on wide-angle & fisheye lens for the iPhone).

Not seeing any purple.

 

[jpeyton]

I have a GS3. I tested it on two indoor light sources, and found a very small tinge of purple near the top. I tried to replicate it outside with the sun but couldn't.

 

[DJ Callyman]

Lots of good photo review sites spend part of their reviews on the amount of (purple) fringing in photos.

And based on the amount we are seeing here, were they to review the iPhone 5, I expect they would say it was so bad as to be practically unusable.

 

[DJ Callyman]

I agree that being aware will help a lot. Someone posted a panorama earlier with two spots of large purple finge in it. Something like that would be a little hard to control. I just hope they can throttle back the carry over that you can get.

Yeah that was mine and I agree. When taking a panorama there's no real way to simply adjust your position in order to avoid the effect.

 

[ControlD]

The point is, there is an issue here that wasn't a problem before on prior models. That's it.

Yeah, I guess my post was perhaps a bit out of line. The thing is, I have seen some pretty impressive blooms (can't say if they are purple as I am colorblind) with my 4S camera as well and I pretty much wrote that off to limitations of the technology. That I haven't been all that impressed with any cell phone camera (including the 4S) was my poorly illustrated point. I can understand the frustration, I just assumed it is a limitation of the small optics package involved. Maybe there is something else to it though.

 

[Kaido]

Yeah, I guess my post was perhaps a bit out of line. The thing is, I have seen some pretty impressive blooms (can't say if they are purple as I am colorblind) with my 4S camera as well and I pretty much wrote that off to limitations of the technology. That I haven't been all that impressed with any cell phone camera (including the 4S) was my poorly illustrated point. I can understand the frustration, I just assumed it is a limitation of the small optics package involved. Maybe there is something else to it though.

That's the thing - it's just not as bad as the 4S. I'm not sure if you can see the purple color in the image below due to your colorblindness, but you should be able to see the differences in the flare between the 4S and the 5 here:

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/180c7n48voye9jpg/original.jpg

So even if they were to tweak the color, the haze issue in light glare would still exist. My 4S generally gives me nice optical flares, but not so much with that haze.

 

[networking101]

I have a 64 gb at&t model and I do have purple shade and here is the picture I took outside in the sun

Here you can clearly tell all picture are taken with different angle in bright light and this is what happens. Clearly I will return my iPhone 5 for now if this is not fixed .. And also off course APPLE there is nothing wrong with the grass. The grass green not purple.

 

[Kaido]

I have a 64 gb at&t model and I do have purple shade and here is the picture I took out in the sun

Here you can clearly tell all picture are taken with different angle in bright light and this is what happens. Clearly I will return my iPhone 5 for now if this is not fixed .. And also off course APPLE there is nothing wrong with the grass. The grass green not purple.

Wow is that with the stock Camera app? The purple banding in the middle?

Also fwiw, I also tried shooting in Camera+ (photo app) and in Filmic Pro (video app) and also got the purple flare, so it's not just limited to the Camera app's processing.

 

[Kaido]

CNET has an updated article on the various issues:

http://asia.cnet.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-iphone-5-defects-62218867.htm

Out of the issues listed, I am experiencing 3 of them:

1. Scratches and nicks
2. Static lines
3. Purple flare on photos and videos

 

[hasanahmad80]

I have a 64 gb at&t model and I do have purple shade and here is the picture I took outside in the sun

Here you can clearly tell all picture are taken with different angle in bright light and this is what happens. Clearly I will return my iPhone 5 for now if this is not fixed .. And also off course APPLE there is nothing wrong with the grass. The grass green not purple.

It's called a 'Lens Flare'

AKA you can even see it in the iPhone 5 / 4S and other phone screens before you take the shot.

Do you know what the alternative is to the purple haze? its white haze. Would you find the White haze more acceptable or would you reframe the shot so that no haze is visible?

Common Sense. Its Photography 101.

If you take e.g. an HTC ONE X and frame it so it has a lens flare and it is white. There will be a white Haze clearly in the picture. I am wondering if you would find that acceptable or an issue.

I mean this is anandtech I have been reading here for years, there is supposed to be smarter users than this nitpicking

 

[Lightcraftsman]

It's called a 'Lens Flare'

AKA you can even see it in the iPhone 5 / 4S and other phone screens before you take the shot.

Do you know what the alternative is to the purple haze? its white haze. Would you find the White haze more acceptable or would you reframe the shot so that no haze is visible?

Common Sense. Its Photography 101.

You've nailed it here. These examples would be bad photographs without the lens flare. People need to quit complaining about non-problems and learn how to use their tools properly. Someone earlier in this thread mentioned that holding his hand to shade the lens prevented the flare. That is also photography 101. Canon's L lenses ship with hoods for a reason.

 

[Kaido]

It's called a 'Lens Flare'

AKA you can even see it in the iPhone 5 / 4S and other phone screens before you take the shot.

Do you know what the alternative is to the purple haze? its white haze. Would you find the White haze more acceptable or would you reframe the shot so that no haze is visible?

Common Sense. Its Photography 101.

If you take e.g. an HTC ONE X and frame it so it has a lens flare and it is white. There will be a white Haze clearly in the picture. I am wondering if you would find that acceptable or an issue.

I mean this is anandtech I have been reading here for years, there is supposed to be smarter users than this nitpicking

I'm a huge Apple fanboy, but I'm not going to downplay this issue - it's more severe than other cameraphones. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/180c7n48voye9jpg/original.jpg

http://www.trbimg.com/img-506374b0/turbine/la-fi-tn-iphone-5-camera-purple-20120926-001/600

 

[hasanahmad80]

I'm a huge Apple fanboy, but I'm not going to downplay this issue - it's more severe than other cameraphones. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/180c7n48voye9jpg/original.jpg

http://www.trbimg.com/img-506374b0/turbine/la-fi-tn-iphone-5-camera-purple-20120926-001/600

This is hilarious...


Are you telling me that you will accept the white flare as well from the 4S and Nikon D300 SLR?

Common Sense in all 3 shots, you reframe so you don't get ANY haze/flare in either 5, 4S or D300 be it white, purple brown, pink or grey.

The only reason people think it is an issue is because they see the purple rather than white. If they saw the white they would delete the picture anyway for any haze

 

[Kaido]

This is hilarious...


Are you telling me that you will accept the white flare as well from the 4S and Nikon D300 SLR?

Common Sense in all 3 shots, you reframe so you don't get ANY haze/flare in either 5, 4S or D300 be it white, purple brown, pink or grey.

The only reason people think it is an issue is because they see the purple rather than white. If they saw the white they would delete the picture anyway for any haze

Instead of purple? Yes.

Also, the haze is worse on the 5. Optical lens flare is fine, and even looks nice in some shots. Hazy colored blobs do not. Anyway, if you're happy with it, that's fine. I'm not. I would like a fix :thumbsup:

 

[hasanahmad80]

Instead of purple? Yes.

Also, the haze is worse on the 5. Optical lens flare is fine, and even looks nice in some shots. Hazy colored blobs do not. Anyway, if you're happy with it, that's fine. I'm not. I would like a fix :thumbsup:

So you are telling me you show off your camera with lens flare artifacts instead of proper framing of pictures where no haze, white or purple occurs? seriously? if thats what you do then the flaw is you have not been introduced to the basics of framing a shot with light. There is no fix for this in cameras, even DSLRs. there will always be hazing be it white or purple. The first thing is you dont shoot in the sun directly when the sun is the highest(common sense), the second thing is changing the camera angle even 5 degrees will remove any white or purple haze.

 

[vshin]

This seems like a form of chromatic aberration that was seen in the early generation of digital cameras back in the late 90s. Usually it's caused by lenses that have difficulty focusing different wavelengths of light onto the same plane. I wonder if the sapphire glass is partly responsible for this.

 

[hasanahmad80]

This seems like a form of chromatic aberration that was seen in the early generation of digital cameras back in the late 90s. Usually it's caused by lenses that have difficulty focusing different wavelengths of light onto the same plane. I wonder if the sapphire glass is partly responsible for this.

The Sapphire contributes to the purple color but if it was glass the color would be white. No one complained it was an issue in iPhone 4S when it clearly existed

 

[Aikouka]

The Sapphire contributes to the purple color but if it was glass the color would be white. No one complained it was an issue in iPhone 4S when it clearly existed

I think the issue is really just that people don't want random bits of purple in their photos. I doubt that they would care if it was a white flare as that would be what you might expect from a light source.

CNET has an updated article on the various issues:

http://asia.cnet.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-iphone-5-defects-62218867.htm

Out of the issues listed, I am experiencing 3 of them:

1. Scratches and nicks
2. Static lines
3. Purple flare on photos and videos

I don't have any scratches or nicks from the factory, but I have seen static lines at least once. It was definitely a bit odd the first time... I almost started looking for the rabbit ears to adjust 'em!

 

[Lightcraftsman]

I'm a huge Apple fanboy, but I'm not going to downplay this issue - it's more severe than other cameraphones. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/180c7n48voye9jpg/original.jpg

http://www.trbimg.com/img-506374b0/turbine/la-fi-tn-iphone-5-camera-purple-20120926-001/600

Try looking more closely at those images. The iPhone5 image is from a different angle (more direct) and has more of the Sun in it than the iPhone 4 image. The Nikon image is useless as a reference because we have no lens information.

Keep beating this dead horse all you want. I learned in Photojournalism 101 to not let bright lights hit the front lens element because you'll get flare and washed out contrast, and this is what you're complaining about.

Read this: http://www.takebetterphotos.com.au/iphone5-camera-review.html. It is a very good article by a good photographer. I especially like his conclusion.

Smartphones are a different type of brush for painting photos. They have obvious drawbacks compared to dedicated cameras, and a handful of niche advantages too. I like using different brushes for different pictures. The diversity makes it an exciting time to be a photographer.

Frankly Kaido, you have unrealistic expectations. Other people have posted links in this thread that lead to photos showing the same flare and CA problems with the iPhone 4S and Samsung smartphones. Go back and look at them.

 

[hasanahmad80]

iPhone 5 camera shots as proof.

with purple
http://i.imgur.com/rzgqc.jpg

changed angle of where I took the shot by 1 inch (no purple)
http://i.imgur.com/4hO99.jpg



its called common sense. this is not an issue, it happens in all cameras

 

[Aikouka]

its called common sense. this is not an issue, it happens in all cameras

I don't think anyone is arguing that you shouldn't attempt to adjust your camera to remove the flare. The thread was created to find out why the iPhone 5 seems to be more susceptible to purple flares from off-camera light sources than other mobile devices. As I mentioned earlier, I cannot get my iPad 2 or ASUS TF300 to produce the same purple effect under the same situations.

Also, if recent gaming has taught me anything (excessive light bloom anyone?), sometimes people like using flares from off-screen lights for artistic effect.