Apple Responds To Purple Flare Complaints

It’s been a bitter-sweet launch for the iPhone 5. On the plus side, the initial wave of sales and pre-orders broke every record, with a 60 minute sellout. But since consumers have started to get their hands on the phone, issues have started to pop up. The most notable complaint was Apple’s switch from Google Maps to their own mapping service, which prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to issue an apology. Then came an iteration of complaints that the iPhone 5 scuffed too easily and that many units were being shipped with scuffs. This prompted a Senior Vice President to respond, saying it was “normal.” The third complaint from many users is that the new iPhone occasionally generates a purple flare in photographs. Apple has responded saying:

“Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources. This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor. 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.”

In other words, Apple says that this flare effect can happen with any iPhone or any camera, and that you should simply retake the picture. The problem can be most easily reproduced when taking a photo in an area that has a bright light source. Original theories behind this seemingly new “purple haze” was the introduction of the sapphire lens in the iPhone. In this response, Apple is evidently claiming that the lens is not to blame at all.

Are you satisfied with the iPhone 5’s camera quality and Apple’s response?