iPhone 14 Pro units have already started to reach the hands of customers, and a handful of them have reported on social media platforms like Twitter and TikTok that their camera seems pretty broken on some apps. On a number of devices, using your camera on third-party apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat will show a wobbling, unfocused camera feed accompanied by an ugly, grinding sound coming from the camera module. It also seems to happen with the front camera as well.
— Luke Miani (@LukeMiani) September 16, 2022
The issue seems to be related to misconfigured/broken optical image stabilization (OIS). While we can’t say for sure that it’s happening to all iPhone 14 Pro users, there’s a growing, worrying number of reports on social media. A lot of these users are also reporting that their camera works perfectly when they’re using the iPhone’s camera app, and it’s only broken on third-party apps. Given this, it definitely sounds more like a software issue than a hardware problem that would require a recall.
For now, we would definitely avoid using your phone’s camera on third-party apps if you’re affected. While it’s not a hardware issue now, this issue is stemming from the camera sensor physically wobbling around, as indicated by the grinding sound. And it could definitely damage your camera permanently if you abuse it. For now, we’ll need to wait until Apple acknowledges the issue, or releases an iOS 16 update fixing it.
Source: Luke Miani (Twitter / TikTok), @notmilannn (TikTok)
