iPhone 17 pro max bad lense flare

What you photographed is very normal with all cameras, not just iPhone cameras. Taking a photo of the sun, even the setting sun is reflecting off the camera lens, which naturally causes lens flare. In many movies, you'll see the same effect from cameras costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, before you took the photo, the lens flare was plainly visible on the screen of your phone. Had you taken a little more time to compose the photo by angling the camera relative to the scene, you could have reduced or even removed the flares. But that takes time and practice.

Otherwise, you chose a difficult scene to take a photo of because it's the sun.

Ps: With Apple Intelligence you have the cleanup tool, which you can use right now to eliminate the flares in your photos. Learn how to use the tool here --> Requirements to use Clean Up in Photos - Apple Support

Look at these two photos. Both taken I believe with my iPhone 15 Pro Max, but they are really good for illustrating this and I would definitely get the same results with my 17 Pro Max.

In this photo, you'll see lens flare above the lights on my deck. Note I was fully aware they were there as I could see them plainly before I took the photo:

Without moving my position where I was standing, I angled the camera differently relative to the scene and was successful in completely removing the flares:

epicdump109 wrote:

Fair enough you’ve produced some solid evidence. Maybe I’ll live with it for now and just keep my eye on it in the future, iv got apple care + so I can always get it sorted later plus I put some camera lense protectors on yesterday and I kinda don’t feel like taking them off to buy new ones lol. Thanks for your help

Sigh.......I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but putting lens protectors on your cameras is not a great idea. It sounds like a good idea to protect them. But they're already Sapphire Glass. The real issue is they can lead to blurry photos, reduced sharpness, and unwanted glare or lens flares, especially in bright light conditions. 

I simply wouldn't never put them on my iPhone. If the photos you took of the sunset were with the protectors, they may have actually made the flare of the sun worse.

It's completely normal. Has been since the very first lens was made. Lenses are curved, so unwanted refraction is always going to be something to contend with.

An iPhone is not a professional camera. Sorry, but it just isn't. Nor is the camera in any other cell phone. Not that the pro iPhones don't take nice photos and videos, considering there's only about $200 worth of parts that make up the camera. My iPhone 14 Pro takes nice shots, but I would never call it a pro camera. There are a lot of limitations to a camera that has a 24mm lens as its least distorted optics.

My Nikon D800 was $3,400 new. And that was just for the body. A 1.4 50mm lens was another $350. $1,250 for a 24-300 zoom. And no surprise at all to me, I would get lens flare depending on the angle of my shot relative to the light source. And even the D800 was at best a prosumer camera compared to a PhaseOne, where the lenses alone cost more than the D800 body.

Is there more lens flare with the iPhone 17 Pro? Probably, but it's also entirely understandable when you consider the optics. There is a true optical zoom up to 200mm. That means more lens elements and more groups in order to achieve that. More lenses means more refraction. More refraction means more possibility of flare.

Hi, there are two distinct types of lens flare. One is exhibited by the floating orbs. Technically, those are referred to as Ghost Images. The second type of flare is what you’re observing above the TV. It’s characterized by a loss of contrast and a general overall softening of the details in the specific area. Lenses have flare. There is no getting around it. Improved lens designs, use of rare earth glass and use of aspherical lens elements will help reduce flare. Ghost images benefit greatly from above but also from use of multi coatings on both surfaces of the glass elements. Most iPhone lenses have 5 or 6 individual elements and usually 2 groups. Multi coatings add to the cost, but can help a lot with reduced contrast. Ghost images are caused by light being refracted and reflected. Every time light passes from one medium to another some light is reflected and refracted. These refracted and reflected light waves become non-imaging forming and cause interference with image forming waves lengths of light. The interference is characterized by a loss of contrast and overall softening of the image. It’s physics and can be proven mathematically.

Yes, have Apple examine your iPhone. If they choose to replace your iPhone, fine. But don’t expect it to perform much different. Flare with be present and easily observable when images are made in similar conditions. Good luck!

Most experienced photographers either use Photoshop, or angle the camera so the flare can be cropped.

It IS normal.

I’m trying to understand your examples. The first two images of TV don’t show a lens flare. The image of the sun reflected on the water does exhibit flare. They are not equivalent images however. Are you using to show examples of flare and no flare. A TV set is not near as bright as the sun and you’re not photographing a the TV’s through miles of the earth’s atmosphere.

epicdump109 wrote:

I get that. No none of the photos produced had lens protectors on them. I’m ok with dealing with them for now. I haven’t had any other issues with them as of yet even these flares I’m seeing are the same. In my line of work I kinda need the protectors. I cracked a lense on my 14 pro max and don’t really wanna risk it again.

As long as you're aware of the potential issues, it's really up to you to protect your phone as you feel it needs to be protected.