Apple Confirms iPhone 5's Purple Aura Camera Issue

[Tharic-Nar]

Not long after Apple launched its latest iPhone, complaints started creeping up around the Web of a purple haze that would appear in certain photos, more often than not ruining it. In a message to one customer, AppleCare stated that it was considered to be normal behavior, and that the recommend course of action would be to point the camera <em>away</em> from light sources. Following-up, Apple has publicly released information stating the same.

You can read the rest of our post and discuss here.

 

[DarkStarr]

Bahahaha Apple denying things. Whats new? They claim its common to all small cameras but my Hercules has NEVER had a picture that looks like that.

 

[MacMan]

Just as many phones had the so-called "antenna gate" problem long before the iPhone, so does this purple haze problem exists for other Android phones as noted by Consumer Reports, and as their photos show:

http://news.consumerreports.org/ele...roblem-isnt-limited-just-to-the-iphone-5.html

 

[RainMotorsports]

That consumer reports post images seems more towards lens flares than purple haze anyways. I cant say I worry about what color a lens flare turns when one occurs. Nice to see they did include lens flaring from light sources in their testing though. Haven't even seen that in dSLR testing.

From what I can tell this has little to do with the purple fringing at high contrast borders that is common on some point and shoots especially those with superzoom lenses?

 

[Rob Williams]

"The Apple iPhone 5, which our Ratings reveal is a standout camera, is no more prone to purple hazing on photos shot into a bright light source than its predecessor or than several Android phones with fine cameras, according to special Consumer Reports tests."

*proceeds to show no examples of the effect on non-iPhones*

Consumer Reports is starting to become a bit of a joke. As Rain said, this isn't about lens flare... every single lens on the market can create lens flare depending on how the photo is taken (sometimes it's on purpose). The problem with the iPhone 5 is that it can add a purple aura. If it was just lens flare, it wouldn't be a problem. A deep purple aura on your photo actually stands out in the wrong way.

 

[madmat]

This photo was taken with a spanking new iPhone 5. The pic is being lit by the onboard flash. Notice the color of the wall, a nice deep lavender. Sadly, that wall is supposed to be white.

This one isn't as bad, the wall almost looks dove gray. Still, neither is tinted from lens flare as consumer reports claims.

Oddly enough, the guy that took those pics says that in the image the guitar, which is the main focus, actually has the proper hue to it where other cameras can't render that shade of green worth a damn.

Still, I'm seeing a slight problem with it turning white to lavender.

FWIW, here's a shot of a white wall taken from about 2' with my 5 or 6 year old Canon point and shoot:

 

[Rob Williams]

How well was the room lit when the picture was taken of the guitar? Because that hue doesn't seem to be the result of the same issue the iPhone 5 is experiencing, but just due to either how close the camera was to the object or the lighting. If the photog stood back a good distance and zoomed in, I'm wondering if the same purple tone would be seen.

Discoloration like that can happen even on DSLRs if lightning isn't good enough. It's easier to compensate for that when you have one hell of a low f-stop lens.

 

[madmat]

I have no clue as to how well that the room was lit, in my pic the room was only lit by ambient light coming in through the window with the shades closed. The camera I used is an 8.0MP Canon A590is. While the wall doesn't look terribly white it does look more correct than the iPhone 5 images.