iPhone 16 Pro Camera May Be Less Prone to Lens Flare and Ghosting

[MacRumors]

Apple is testing a new anti-reflective optical coating technology for future iPhone cameras that could improve the quality of photos by reducing artifacts like lens flare and ghosting, claims a rumor out of Korea.

According to the news aggregator account "yeux1122" on the Naver blog, citing a company source within Apple's supply chain, Apple is looking at introducing new atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment into the iPhone camera lens manufacturing process.

ALD involves depositing materials one atomic layer at a time onto a substrate, allowing for extremely precise control over thickness and composition. Its use allows manufacturers to apply very thin layers of materials onto semiconductor devices, including camera components.

In terms of camera lenses, ALD can be used to apply anti-reflective coatings, which can help to reduce photographic artifacts like streaks of light and halos that can occur in the final image when a bright light source such as the sun shines directly into the lens.

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ALD can also reduce ghosting, a type of image distortion where faint, secondary images appear in the photo, typically opposite a bright light source. This happens when light reflects back and forth between the surfaces of the lens elements and the camera sensor.

In addition, ALD-applied materials can protect against environmental damage to the camera lens system without affecting the sensor's ability to capture light effectively.

The Naver blog claims that the manufacturing process will be applied to a "Pro model" in Apple's "next-generation" iPhone lineup, which sounds like a reference to one or both premium models in the iPhone 16 series, although given the timing of the rumor, the possibility that this method is being tested for next year's iPhone 17 Pro models should not be discounted.

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Both upcoming iPhone 16 Pro models are expected to include a tetraprism lens with up to 5x optical zoom – a feature that is currently exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max in Apple's smartphone lineup. Apple usually launches its new-generation iPhones around mid-September.

Article Link: iPhone 16 Pro Camera May Be Less Prone to Lens Flare and Ghosting

 

[Ifti]

Finally, an actual useful addition!
Have had several night time photos ruined by flares from lights - even candles on a cake in a dimly lit room!
Not something I would upgrade from my 15PM for, but a useful addition nonetheless.

 

[AppZ.Zero]

Would be great. The Lense Flares of the main camera are annoying af.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

This would be great if true, it's something that has caused some issues in low-light stuff for me.

 

[yellow8]

I'd love a photo quality bump!

 

[Guacamole]

less HDR processing would be much better

 

[spamabyss]

i just hope it comes to the regular iphone 16 as well. It’s much more prevalent in iphones than in most other phones and it would be a little too petty if they kept something like this reserved for the pros.

 

[MayaUser]

Thats nice and probably true

 

[zach-coleman]

Better be true. They have been getting smoked by Android phones in this regard for years.

 

[DHagan4755]

This would be great! Let's hope it's true.

 

[MGrayson3]

Whenever I read a headline with the word "may" in the title, I mentally append "Or maybe not. Hell if we know..."

 

[pianostar9]

Whenever I read a headline with the word "may" in the title, I mentally append "Or maybe not. Hell if we know..."

You're on MacRumors. Are you shocked we discuss rumors?

 

[orbital~debris]

I'll believe it when I don't see it.

At this point I'm leaning on machine learning & computational photography being a better bet at identifying and removing this type of artefact from images.

 

[contacos]

Didn’t Apple claim something similar for the 15 Pro already? „Nanoscale coating“

 

[AlmightyKang]

Yeah that's not going to happen. The majority of these weird problems are because the design is heavily compromised to fit it in a smart phone form factor. With compromises come lens artifacts!

 

[MGrayson3]

You're on MacRumors. Are you shocked we discuss rumors?

Not at all. The rumor is that it "will" improve the camera. "May" is not even a rumor - it's a tautology. It's not wrong, and everybody knows what they mean. It's a pet peeve - like utilizing "utilize" instead of using "use". Utilize has a very different meaning, and it has been lost. You use a washing machine to wash clothes. You utilize a washing machine as a payload for your trebuchet.

 

[JimmyG]

I had been seriously considering including a 15 Pro Max in my eclipse camera lineup but video tests, such as this one from Matthew Moniz (I have zero affiliation), quickly made it easy to reject...

iPhone 15 Pro Max & iPhone 15 Pro Lens Flare is MUCH Better! #apple #iphone - YouTube

...while the flaring has been improved Apple still has a long ways to go to eliminate internal lens reflections. Oofah, Tim.

 

[nitrobear]

Didn’t Apple claim something similar for the 15 Pro already? „Nanoscale coating“

They did and the lens flare is still there.

 

[coffeemilktea]

reducing artifacts like lens flare

Now how will I bring out my inner J.J. Abrams and put ridiculous amounts of lens flare into EVERYTHING? 🤪

 

[Ho Tai]

"tetraprism lens with up to 5x optical zoom" - If I understand iPhone cameras, the optical zoom is exactly 5x. Less than 5x is done in software by blending the image from the main camera with the telephoto image. Over 5x is digital zoom. It's not a telescopic zoom like on a DSLR. Am I right?

 

[I7guy]

This is a great innovation - an example of an innovation not readily apparent.

 

[klasma]

The lens flares should actually be relatively straightforward to remove with AI. They could have done that years ago.

 

[I7guy]

Better to have lens flair removed optically.

 

[JippaLippa]

This is something that needs to be fixed.
It's useless to have great camera if you get flares all the time.

 

[Sammy in SoCal]

The article says that it will reduce lens flare. Let me know when they get to “eliminates”