Distortion in Some Photos on 5S

I am wondering if anyone else has noticed any distortion in their 5S photos. I've had the phone for over a month and noticed that certain portions of some photos look distorted. I had the 4S for two years and never noticed this enough to think there was an issue. However, with the 5S, it's different. I know that it has an even better camera than the 4S, but I seem to be more frustrated with it because of this issue. I notice that when taking photos of people, their heads look distorted in about 20% of the photos. I've noticed this to especially be the case if the subjects are away from the main focus. It's pretty easy to notice when someone's head looks distorted or stretched, and I feel like I am seeing this too much. I can understand if it only affected subjects that were very close the edge of the frame, but this is not the case. Has anyone else noticed this? I have a Genius Bar appointment on Saturday, but I am not sure how easy it will be to explain/possibly convince them of what's happening. I will keep some of the photos to show them.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Post a photo so folks can see what you mean by distorted.


#Naked Tuesday

Originally Posted by iEd

Post a photo so folks can see what you mean by distorted.


#Naked Tuesday

Hi iEd,

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, the only examples I have are of our toddler children, and I am not really comfortable posting those pictures in public. I would also use the word warped in addition to distorted. For lack of a better explanation, the heads are slightly distorted/warped to look more like alien heads than normal. This doesn't occur all of the time and is more noticeable as you go towards the edges of the frame. I'm not sure if my text is helpful enough to you or others to chime in without posting actual photos. However, I appreciate any feedback I receive.

Thank you!

Ok I understand. Well the best thing to do is to take the phone in to a Apple Store.


#Naked Tuesday

Thanks iEd. That's my plan of action now. I take so many photos with the iPhone, so I don't want to have to worry about this for the next two years...!!!

I'm just having problems with my flash not working when it's suppose to or the picture not being taken when I push the button.

Pelorick: Have you tried to see if they are this way on a computer display also? I ask this because this is good information to have when you go the Genius appointment.

I know what you mean. It depends on the angle and how close you hold the camera. It's weird


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Well I notice blurs picture n a bit too long to take a pic at time. I do understand that it's from shaking or the camera is tryin to calibrate while it's dark n there r movements. Best thing is to hold still as possible n wait until it finish taking a picture or better yet is make a video n go back n take a pic later


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Originally Posted by Lt_Solorna

Pelorick: Have you tried to see if they are this way on a computer display also? I ask this because this is good information to have when you go the Genius appointment.

Yes, I have looked on my ipad mini just to be sure. Trying to get all the ducks in a row before the appointment. :)
Thanks!

Originally Posted by Stefano_B

I know what you mean. It depends on the angle and how close you hold the camera. It's weird


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Exactly... I didn't have this issue with the 4S. At least it wasn't prominent...

There are a couple pictures I held back from sharing on Facebook of my kid because it made her look funny lol..


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I have noticed in pictures of cars taken with my 5, the shape of wheels outside the middle of the picture are out of proportion. Probably has to do with the very small length of the optics. I don't have any on my phone so I'll have to hunt them down.

At least I'm not the only one... Now I am wondering if this is normal behavior on all of the 5Ss or if there is a small batch that could be considered defective because of this. Hopefully, they'll replace it on Saturday and the new one won't have the same issue.

I got the same thing when I had the 5. I believe there are apps that fix the pic afterwords, but can't remember what they're called.


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UPDATE:
I brought my 5S in for the Genius Bar appointment on Saturday as planned. I showed them a couple photos, but to someone who isn't into photography or who doesn't know how the subject in the photo normally looks, it may be difficult for them to discern the very small nuances. The rep. happened to have a 5S, so he took a pic on my phone and the exact same on his. He seemed to notice a slight difference in the two, but I don't think that it was a compelling difference, plus it wasn't the same subject matter. However, in typical Apple form, they offered to replace the phone for me as a onetime courtesy. I was happy about this, but was still thinking that it may not be the phone. I went home and took a few photos, and unfortunately, noticed the same thing. I spent a few minutes trying to troubleshoot this and noticed the following. I use the rule of thirds (grid) when shooting, so I wanted to try something. If the subject's head is anywhere near the center of the frame, it looks fine. However, if you move the phone down to place the subject's head in the top center box of the grid, it almost looks like it changes from fine to slightly warped/distorted/stretched in the live view, which is the result in the photo. I was moving the phone so I could "toggle" back and forth between the head being in the center and top center squares and could almost see this issue happening live. I am beginning to think that this may be the result of the lens design and less about anything being wrong with the phone/camera. I know the aperture is wider on this phone compared to the 4S, so it may be the case where we might just have to slightly change how we take pics. I'm not excited about it, but I would think that if this is an issue, it would be wider spread and know, given the millions of 5S users.

Is it just faces that look distorted or any object

There is huge distortion, only the centre is correct. The bottom is stretched and the top is shrunk

Originally Posted by blurredspam

There is huge distortion, only the centre is correct. The bottom is stretched and the top is shrunk

I'm not seeing any distortion in my 5S pics. Somebody post a example of what they are getting.

Originally Posted by iEd

Is it just faces that look distorted or any object

I have noticed it a bit with buildings, but mostly with people. I normally try to get close to the subject to fill up the whole frame (not have a lot of space/background around the subject), so that's mainly where I notice it. Unfortunately, I may have to keeps heads/faces closer to center and crop. It sucks, but it could be worse...

Something like this might help.. Maybe. Haven't tried it yet.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pers...mt=8&at=10l3Vy


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Originally Posted by iEd

I'm not seeing any distortion in my 5S pics. Somebody post a example of what they are getting.

Here are two photos, one with the car in the middle of frame and another with car in the bottom of frame. If intake a pic with the car in the top of frame the roofline gets very "skinny"

Attachment 42042
Attachment 42043

Originally Posted by blurredspam

Here are two photos, one with the car in the middle of frame and another with car in the bottom of frame. If intake a pic with the car in the top of frame the roofline gets very "skinny"

Attachment 42042
Attachment 42043

Pic #2 looks as if the back wheel is bent.


#Naked Tuesday

Originally Posted by iEd

Pic #2 looks as if the back wheel is bent.


#Naked Tuesday

Exactly.
There is fairly visible pincushion distortion

Originally Posted by blurredspam

Here are two photos, one with the car in the middle of frame and another with car in the bottom of frame. If intake a pic with the car in the top of frame the roofline gets very "skinny"

Attachment 42042
Attachment 42043

I noticed the wheels right away. In the image with the car at the bottom, the wheels almost look butterflied, whereas they do not in the other.