Plenty of digital ink has been spilled about the iPhone 5 camera’s occasional tendency to capture purple flares (even though it’s not an issue exclusive to Apple’s latest handheld), and Apple released an official response to the issue earlier today. The company’s advice?
“Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect.”
The company has already stated that this purple flaring issue is considered “normal” behavior for the iPhone 5, but now there’s a more thorough explanation for the issue. As some have already suspected, it has nothing to do with the iPhone’s new lens or a change in how the camera sensor handles noise. Instead, light entering the camera at an angle can cause a “reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor.”
That said, the quick software fix that some users were hoping for is probably out of the question for the time being. If you’ll recall, Apple has been doling out that particular morsel of advice for at least a few days now. After reaching out to the company for instance, an iPhone 5 user named Matt Van Gastel received an email response recommending that he (what else?) angle the camera away from bright light sources when snapping photos. This new response smacks a bit of Steve Jobs’ recommendation to hold iPhone 4s differently in the wake of 2010’s Antennagate situation, but really — a bit of purple popping up in your photos is nothing compared to sketchy wireless connections.