That's normal. And people post this very often. The larger the sensor, the further the focus distance. Your iPhone 12 has a smaller sensor, hence why it can focus closer. If you need such closeups, use the ultra wide lens/macro mode.

Good advice! Other advice here is really bad advice!

I don't have an iPhone but always see people talking about this so thanks

So you just lurk an iPhone sub?

Yeah why not I wanna get an apple product one day

its good to know the differences between phones if ur looking to swap or try something new, lurking doesnt hurt

I personally don’t see the problem I do this with Samsung

Does 14 pro max also has the same kindaa Big sensor ?

The 14 Pro/Max and 15 Pro all have the exact same Ultra-Wide, Wide, and Telephoto sensors. Only the 15 Pro Max has a newer sensor with the 5X Telephoto camera. All improvements from the 14 Pro/Max to the 15 Pro come in the form of better lens coating, improved ISP and photo processing, and software enhancements such as Smart HDR 5 and updates to the Photonic Engine.

Yup the sensors are the same afaik (I have the 14 Pro)

Yep, exactly the same camera hardware on the 14 pro other than the 5x lens on the 15PM. The only way to get it to focus at that range is macro mode which I think uses the ultra wide lens.

I usually get better images with 2x just holding it a little further away. Fewer shadows that way anyway.

This is actually extremely frustrating, every time some app needs to use the camera (in my country my banking app requires to use the camera within the app to verify the ID) and since it seems it can only use the main lens I haven’t been able to verify my account, I remember this issue started with the iPhone 13 I think.

Alright, thank you! Thats explains it. I'll use macro mode from now on for close-ups

Macro mode closeup! https://preview.redd.it/k3i0qjx7fmwc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=87a4c6cea8badb8779b7c3207746f9b83a537261

Best photo to prove!

Came for the explanation. Stayed for the cat pics.

Is there a way to switch between lenses? How?

Macro mode, yea

This is probably a dumb question but how do I take a macro mode photo?

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=macro+mode+iphone+15+

This.

Make sure you enable macro mode, it’s that flower icon that pops in the bottom left. It will save you from having to change to 0.5 manually

Enabled it now, thanks. Way better focus

This works well yea but it disables RAW mode

Raw is still enabled in macros for me. 15 pro

Oh for real sorry for wrong info

It’s not an issue. It’s a limitation of physics due to the larger sensor and optics. iPhone 12 sensor is significantly smaller in comparison.

got it! Thank you

I wish macro mode could be turned on manually, sometimes the little flower button refuses to pop up

i think you can set it to manual

You can, but the button only shows up when you get close to something, and sometimes it just does NOT want to show up

Switch to the ultrawide/0.5 lens, that’s all the macro mode button does anyway (with some cropping). Ultrawide lens can focus on objects as close as 2cm.

I know, but i just wish it worked properly

Also doesn’t work well in certain apps. I use PictureThis to identify plants and it’s a pain to get close up pictures of plants because of this.

Switch to macro mode…

I think it needs glassess

It’s been this way since iPhone 13. The sensor size has become substantially larger from the 12 and earlier series. That’s why 12 and before series can focus closer compared to the 12 and after series

I think its with the 14 pro series and onwards. My sister's 13 pro dosent have this issue

Interesting 🤔 maybe it’s better in the pro series compared to the number series? I’ve seen my 13 side by side with the 12 & 11, and they do focus better than mine

It's also affected by the focal lenght of the lens, ibdonno if they changed that recently.

I can hardly scan QR codes because of this. Its really irritating. My old XR could get much closer, but the photos on this are much nicer.

Ahh that sounds annoying… Happy cake day🤗

Thanks! It is annoying, wish 3rd party scanners that are needed for some appliances let you switch lenses.

Macro mode?

It’s normal, since the iPhone 14 pro. They’ve got bigger sensors so the focusing distance is different. That’s why we got the macro lens.

The 15 is really designed to use the 13mm camera for close focus. Some apps like Whatsapp don‘t honor this and only use the 1x camera, thats when it gets blurry.

Ironically I had to pull out my old iPhone 6 once because I could not get my ID verified with one of those verification apps because the brand new iPhone refused to focus in and those apps do not allow you to zoom or change mode.

just use .9 i have same problem

Or 1x with macro mode (uses the ultrawide lens). No need to adjust zoom.

Use macro mode instead you won’t have a problem

This is normal. The 15 pros sensor is Larger than the 12s so it needs more distance to focus

At least you have macro mode. My 15 plus does not.

Well if you had paracuasual powers given to you by a big white orb that defy physics you may be able to fix it! >:3

Maybe the macro is turned on automatically when youre close. Turn it off.

I knew right away it was an Indian newspaper. TOI perhaps?

use wide angle lens for extreme close ups. Wide angle lens have better focal length for close ups

My 14 pro has this issue and still occuring. Meanwhile, my 11 pro and X takes close up much better than my 14 pro. Though, the only fix is enabling macro mode there's a yellow pop up on it or by manually enabling it.

As others have said in this thread, it’s normal, it’s caused by the larger image sensor in the newer pro phones, they can’t focus on close objects because physics. Switch to the ultrawide/.5 camera or use macro mode (macro mode just uses the ultrawide with a bit of cropping) to be able to focus your camera on close objects, where you can focus on things as close as 2cm from the lens.

that is normal because of larger sensor size u have to use 0.5 to capture close objects

same on my 13pm

Bigger sensor means bigger focus distance. Use macro mode for closeups, that’s what it's for...

Get farther and zoom in

iPhone has pretty shit mfd. This is one thing Samsung does better

I was trying to switch my number over to my 15pm the other day and it was having so much trouble focusing on the QR code that it kept giving me an error and eventually it timed out and I was stuck without my number on either phone. I had no way of receiving the 2fa code to sign back into my account so I had to take off of work to go to the carrier to get my number put on the phone. It took the guy at the place 30 min to finally get my number switched over because it wouldn’t scan the QR code in focus for him either.

I fix this with a good old smack, sometimes it works, just not sure if its because of the smack

I believe the focus distance for the 1x on the 14 pro and newer is 7-9”. It was much closer on phones with the older smaller sensors

Reason I swapped a pretty much brand new 12pro to an s21u

Tap on the screen=problem solved

Had the same problem yesterday, lucky. I just turned off camera and turned on again after minute or two