Does your iphone 5 camera do this too?

[Thatspec]

I've got my replacement and original iphone 5's here at the moment so I can compare, the new one is marginally better but still no consistency to the problem that I can nail down.

At mid-range to infinity, the left side of the frame is "almost" always blurry. This would be using the cam with the home button to the right in landscape mode. No need to pixel peep to see it. Doesn't matter if it's in the case or not. I can manually set the focal point on the left side, "sometimes" this helps but not always. Seems to be fine in panorama mode though this puts that part of the screen covering the sky. I will work on uploading some shots.

Don't see any other complaints about this here but it seems strange that I would get two in a row that do the same thing🙄
The right side of the pics never exhibit this.

 

[Thatspec]

Just tried an experiment, turned it upside down and snapped some shots (home button to the left). This causes the right side of the pics to be blurry so it must be an inherent lens issue...

 

[Thatspec]

One example.

 

[pdexposures]

Mine certainly doesn't do this, it would drive me nuts if it did especially considering how sharp the right side of your sample image is.

 

[Thatspec]

Just had a look through the Apple support forums and their is a surprisingly low incidence of this problem. Quite a bit about the camera not focusing to infinity at all but only a couple of instances of selective focus like this (likely too that most don't look this closely at their pics). I had hoped this little cam would be better. It's still pretty amazing up close and 10% of the time at infinity. If only I could figure out what I'm doing that 10% of the time...

I suppose it could be a software problem, was reading one instance of someone upgrading to (what is the latest, 6.1.3?) and the camera would no longer focus at all...

 

[Rogier]

Are you sure the lens is clean?
Perhaps there is a smudge on the camera lens or on the inside of the phone..

 

[Thatspec]

Definitely clean, initially I thought maybe a smudge internally but even the brand new replacement phone is doing it to a lesser extent. Just got back from a short walk and took ten frames, seven are quite good, three have noticeable blurring on the left 1/5 of the frame approx. whereas the right edges are all quite sharp. Maybe a bad match between my technique and the way the shutter works on the iphone 5? One of the blurred pics the cam was even braced on a fence post.

Probably going to just live with it...

 

[Thatspec]

This was the worst from the brand new replacement I5, not nearly as bad though still left side is worse than the right.

Left side crop;

Right side, frankly not all that great either but still better than the left.

Closer in still looks great though;

 

[ZeissFan]

This sounds like the lens isn't parallel to the sensor. There might be a small burr or piece of debris under the lens assembly. Or perhaps the sensor isn't flat against the circuit board.

Either way, I'd probably exchange the phone.

Rant coming: The iPhone is a mass-market electronic device put together on an assembly line at the infamous Foxconn plant in China, where employees would rather jump to their death than report to work.

We sometimes joke that we'd rather die than go to work. At Foxconn, some workers have actually done this.

It's good to hear that Apple is going to return some production to the U.S.

By the way, I say this as I type on a keyboard (made in China) while I navigate the site with a mouse (made in China) on a computer (made in China).

 

[umcelinho]

mine works alright, both ways.

 

[eric rose]

Get a Samsung.

 

[user237428934]

By the way, I say this as I type on a keyboard (made in China) while I navigate the site with a mouse (made in China) on a computer (made in China).

Don't forget the chinese torjan on your computer 😉

 

[Thatspec]

Don't forget the chinese torjan on your computer 😉

😱


Thanks for all the responses guys. Please post up some of your sharp edge to edge shots at infinity. It does appear the little lens array in there moves physically in and out. I thought maybe exercising it a bit by going back and forth between focusing at a couple of inches, then back to infinity might free things up. Nailed four in a row after that. This morning it was back to two out of four🙁 Of those it was really just the left tenth of the frame, about what I would expect from a phone. Still the right edge was much sharper...