iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max night mode problem

[WoodWorks]

There appears to be a significant problem affecting some iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max cameras when shooting astrophotography. It shows up most significantly in 30 sec./high ISO night mode shots (which are actually three 10 sec. exposures blended together to avoid star trails), and manifests itself in blue streaks/blotches on the resulting photos. I found out about it while I was preparing for the next new moon at the end of this month, and decided to revisit the site of my favorite YouTube iPhone astrophotographer, Shayne Mostyn. He has a couple of videos describing the problem, and Apple's response so far.

I managed to duplicate the problem with my new iPhone 16 Pro, and though it's been overcast here (so no stars to photograph), I took a bunch of images in my dark bathroom at home to see if I am one of the unlucky ones. Sadly for me, I am. This shot shows the problem, though I have several others that aren't quite this bad:



I have contacted Apple and given them a report. But sadly for me, I am past the 14-day return period. Shayne Mostyn was able to return his first iPhone 16 Pro, but his replacement exhibits the same problem. You can get more info about it at Shayne Mostyn's YouTube channel:

Anyway, those of you with new iPhone 16 Pro/ProMax cameras who intend to shoot astrophotography may want to test yours to see if you're also one of the unlucky ones. And here's hoping it's just a software problem that can be patched and not a big batch of bad sensors.

 

[Tony Bonanno]

I talked my friend into getting a 16 PRO before learning of this problem. His phone has the same blue blotches as yours. My 16 PRO doesn't have the same problem, but does show a lot of "blue pixels" (thermal noise?). My 14 PRO had none of these problems. And my 14 day limit to return has passed. Very disappointing!

 

[WoodWorks]

Here are three more shots showing the problem. They're all straight-out-of-the-camera images from the 24mm equivalent camera, and in all three you can see the blue haze in the lower right and two hazy, blue bars across the bottom half of frame.

These were taken outside on a moonless night, and the temperature was 28ºF (–2ºC) at the time, so the Apple support person's explanation (overheating) seems unlikely.







I don't think Apple is going to agree that this is a problem. Sigh.

 

[Gregory WAP]

Hi,

Thanks for your article on the 24mm sensor issue. I became aware of it before buying my 16 Pro, also through Shane Mostyn. My phone had the problem so on the 13th day after delivery I took the phone to an Apple Store. The "genius" ran a test on the camera without finding any problem. The photos I took demonstrating the issue clearly demonstrated the problem. I also did exposures varying the amount of light. I took one where the phone computed 6400 iso and 30 sec exposure that looked actually very good but photos taken at 8000 or 10000 iso were affected. Interestingly the white balance or the color temperature of the light was obviously altered to the almost ultraviolet range. It seems to be more of a processing issue that a fault with the sensor to me but it could be at the high iso the software simply cannot suppress the issue.

Anyway I would have been happy to keep the phone till Apple finds a solution but the the Genius said that would be problematic, is they exchanged my phone. Unfortunately the new phone has the same problem.

It would be helpful if we had a site that is devoted to the issue so Apple cannot sweep it under the rug like it usually does with defective products. Unfortunately Shane's approach is is somewhat belligerent and actually lacking in technical info. If you know of one, let me know.

Thank you!

Gregory David - [email protected]

 

[Jon555]

My 16 Pro Max says "Fusion camera 24mm f1.78" 12MP ISO 6400 30 secs and is basically black on the phone screen... looking on my monitor there's a few single purple pixels dotted around (un-zoomed it just looks black). I think I won't complain about that for now, unless anyone has a better result from a "good" phone (bought yesterday BTW)...

Method:
* Went into standard camera app
* Pressed lenses into the black foam on the back of my keyboard rest
* Icon to the right of the top left flash one should go yellow (night mode), else make the scene darker
* Tapped down-arrow centre top
* Tapped night icon one in from left end of new bar that appears above the shutter button
* Dragged control to the right until get to 30s (will only go that far is scene is really dark)
* Tapped shutter button while pressing lenses into foam.

Are people happy with the above method?

(Edit) NOTE my testing was done on iOS 18.1 !!

 

[Jon555]

Firstly Face Detect seems broken...


Seems to have ridden down from the site of Tyburn Gallows...

Plus one for tomorrow - the quality of the Ultra-Wide on anything not close to you seems poor...

 

[WoodWorks]

Firstly Face Detect seems broken...

Plus one for tomorrow - the quality of the Ultra-Wide on anything not close to you seems poor...

Hm. Maybe I'm not as particular, but I've taken quite a few photos now with the ultrawide that please me. Here's one from a couple of days ago.

View attachment 5c26bdce85b54873ae15b56a0341eba9.jpg
Burney Falls

 

[Jon555]

Thanks for the example! I think it's about the same as mine, which is good to know, sort of a waste of a 48MP sensor... decent at lower res... but the macro is very handy!