This cute photo of Danï was taken this evening with my iPhone 11. I’d just come back from a wild night at Chuy’s and we were all sitting around in the TV room, with the TV off, and reading. As I looked up I glanced towards Danï, who was dozing and looking so cute while doing that. I didn’t have a “regular” camera with me, and I didn’t want to disturb her and the moment, so I used my iPhone to capture a few images. I post-processed it in Snapseed, then uploaded it to my Flickr account (clicking on the image will take you there).

Looks nice, doesn’t it? Except for the computational photography flaws where the camera software is attempting to produce the equivalent of bokeh; I see unexpected and incorrect blurring at the tips of Danï’s ears. Note the fuzziness on her left ear tip (your right) and the lack of any detail on her right ear tip (your left). What’s wrong, you ask? Let me show you with another photo.

This photo was taken last Christmas when I was first trying out my new, used, M.Zuiko 1.8/75mm prime lens. Note the tufts on the tips of both ears. Then look back up at the first photo. The iPhone’s camera software can’t handle that kind of detail when you’re using the iPhone camera in portrait mode. I’ve seen this issue going all the way back to at least my iPhone 7 Plus. It’s not a camera hardware problem, it’s Apple’s camera software problem. And before you say it, no, trading up to an iPhone 13 won’t solve this issue. I’m using iOS 15.3.1, the latest and greatest on all currently supported iPhones.

That doesn’t make the iPhone camera tragically flawed; far from it. I like using the camera, and in good light (which we have quite a bit of here in Florida) and when I’m not using portrait mode, I get excellent results, as you will note in the last post. But you’ll forgive me if in the future I don’t reach for my Olympus or Panasonic cameras with a suitable lens for portrait work. Or as the Brits say, horses for courses.